SCRIPTURE
37I know that you are descendants of Abraham; yet you look for an opportunity to kill me, because there is no place in you for my word.
38I declare what I have seen in the Father’s presence; as for you, you should do what you have heard from the Father.” 39They answered him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing what Abraham did, 40but now you are trying to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did. 41You are indeed doing what your father does.” They said to him, “We are not illegitimate children; we have one father, God himself.” 42Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and now I am here. I did not come on my own, but he sent me. 43Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot accept my word. 44You are from your father the devil, and you choose to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. 45But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me.
46Which of you convicts me of Sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? 47Whoever is from God hears the words of God. The reason you do not hear them is that you are not from God.” 48The Jews answered him, “Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?” 49Jesus answered, “I do not have a demon; but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me. 50Yet I do not seek my own glory; there is one who seeks it and he is the judge.
51Very truly, I tell you, whoever keeps my word will never see death.” 52The Jews said to him, “Now we know that you have a demon. Abraham died, and so did the prophets; yet you say, ‘Whoever keeps my word will never taste death.’ 53Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? The prophets also died. Who do you claim to be?” 54Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, he of whom you say, ‘He is our God,’ 55though you do not know him. But I know him; if I would say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you. But I do know him and I keep his word. 56Your ancestor Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day; he saw it and was glad.” 57Then the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” 58Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, before Abraham was, I am.” 59So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple. (John 8:37-59, NRSV)
WHAT
As we begin day #20 of our journey through the Gospel According to John, we do so with the sad awareness that incidents of anti-Semitism have been on the rise lately. The U.S. Jewish community has been experiencing historic levels of anti-Semitism, including the single deadliest attack against the Jewish community in American history in 2018, according to data from ADL (the Anti-Defamation League). ADL’s annual Audit of Anti-Semitic incidents recorded a total of 9,354 attacks against Jewish people and Jewish institutions across the country in 2024. This makes 2024 the highest annual total since the ADL began tracking such data in 1979. This figure represents a five-fold increase just since 2018.
What does this have to do with our study of John?
The passage before us today has sometimes been used to fuel and justify anti-Semitism, especially verses 43-44 where Jesus accuses his opponents of being children of the devil:
“Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot accept my word. YOU ARE FROM YOUR FATHER THE DEVIL, and you choose to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” (John 8:43-44, NRSV)
Even Martin Luther, the father of the Protestant Reformation, displayed an anti-Semitic attitude later in his life. Early in his ministry, Luther showed concern for the plight of European Jews. But in his later years, embittered by his failure to convert the Jews to Christianity, he became outspokenly anti-Semitic in his statements and writings. In 1543, just 3 years before his death, Luther published a tract called “On the Jews and Their Lies.” In it he says that the Jews are a “base, whoring people, that is, no people of God, and their boast of lineage, circumcision, and law must be accounted as filth.” They are, he said, full of the “devil's feces ... which they wallow in like swine.” Several months after publishing “On the Jews and Their Lies,” Luther wrote another tract, the 125-page “Of the Unknowable Name and the Generations of Christ,” in which he equated Jews with the devil. Many historians point to the link between these later writings of Luther and the anti-Semitism of Hitler and the Nazis that led to the deaths of 6 million Jews during World War II.
Again, noting Luther’s use of the word “devil” for the Jews, we can see there is a link between Luther’s accusations, later picked up by Hitler and his minions, and what Jesus says in this passage.
Now, of course, Jesus meant none of this! He himself, as well as all his Apostles, were themselves Jews. Paul and most of the writers of the New Testament were Jews. It is true that John, like the synoptic gospel writers, was writing after Christians had been ejected by the Jews from their synagogues and that may have colored his outlook. But Jesus was definitely not anti-Semitic. Nor was he justifying anti-Semitism, then or later. As always when struggling to understand the Bible, we must take context into account. We can’t just lift a verse out of the Bible that suits our pre-determined prejudice or belief. We must note what was going on when Jesus said these words.
As N. T. Wright points out, the context here is one of Jesus facing down a mob some of whose most influential members had already determined that Jesus was leading people astray and that they therefore needed to stone him to death right there on the spot:
“The crowd in front of him now were ready to stone him (verse 59). This is no gentle, devotional discussion of deep personal religious truth, set within a framework of civility and mutual respect: this is a man facing a crowd set upon lynching him, and bravely speaking up against their hypocrisy. It should hardly need saying that the ‘Judaeans’ here are not intended to represent ‘Jews’ in general, then or now. Jesus and his followers were after all Jewish as well, and so were people like Nicodemus who had already begun to follow him (7:50). The ‘Judaeans’ are the first-century Jerusalemites, to whom Jesus came as ‘his own’, and who did not receive him (1:11).”
So Jesus is not providing justification for anti-Semitism and hate through the centuries, as has been often maintained. Jesus is specifically addressing a group of Jewish leaders and people in his day who are so locked into their pre-existing paradigms that they cannot see Jesus as the one sent by the Father to bring light, life, and fulfillment of the mission which God had given the Jews centuries before. That mission was encapsulated in Isaiah 49:6 which says:
“It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I WILL ALSO MAKE YOU A LIGHT FOR THE GENTILES, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth." (Isaiah 49:6, NRSV)
In a sense, though, Jesus is speaking also to us! Again, we must consider the power of paradigms and our own hard-baked traditions that keep us from seeing Jesus as he actually is rather than the Jesus we want to see.
Again picking up on something Bishop Wright says:
“However we imagine the devil, it is clear that there is a force which opposes God and his good creation,which drives people to commit acts of destruction and murder, and which regularly invents lies – the ‘religious’ ones are often the most effective – to excuse such action, and even to make it appear noble and right. There are plenty of these in today’s world, including (alas) several that call themselves Christian.”
In my book, The Genesis Project: The WHY of Discipleship, I point out that when Genesis 3:1 introduces the serpent who will tempt Adam and Eve, he is called the most “crafty” animal the LORD God had made. The Hebrew word translated “crafty” is the word arum. After Adam and Eve rebel against God they discover that they are “naked.” The Hebrew word there is erom. The word erom means both “naked” in the sense of having no clothes, but also “vulnerable,” like that feeling you have when you step out of the shower and someone thought it would be funny to hide your clothes. These two Hebrew words, arum and erom sound very much alike when spoken aloud, which would be highly significant because these stories were originally transmitted orally. The biblical writer is using this fact to point out just how vulnerable we human beings are to the crafty one.
When Bishop Wright describes “a force which opposes God and his good creation,” do I think I am immune from such power? Am I any more equipped to fend off the crafty one than Adam and his wife were? I had better notthink so, or I become even more vulnerable to the crafty one.
And so do you.
Once again, this passage is a call to examine the way we see Jesus. Do we see him as we want him to be? Or as he actually is?
APPLY
As I wrote above, in applying this passage to my life, I need to ask myself whether I think I am immune from what N. T. Wright calls “a force which opposes God and his good creation.” I need to examine whether I believe, or act like I believe, that I am more equipped to fend off the crafty one than Adam and his wife were.
PRAY
Gracious and Holy God, I am so sorry for the way your Word has been misunderstood, misapplied, and abused over the centuries, including in my own time, to justify pre-determined, hard-baked points of view. I so want to not be guilty of that! Again, remove my spiritual cataracts and help me clearly see Truth with a capital T. In Christ. Amen.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
1. How do you react to knowing what Martin Luther wrote in the later years of his ministry? How do you suppose he justified that?
2. How would you state the importance of context in interpreting a biblical passage?
3. What happens when we take a biblical passage out of context? Besides Luther’s example, are you familiar with any other examples? How can we be sure we are not guilty of doing the same?
4. We’ve spent a couple days now considering the power of paradigms and worldview to impact how we view Jesus. What are you learning about yourself and your paradigms?
5. How will you apply these insights in your life?