Bible Study Notes -
John 8:21-30
In
this brief passage, the evangelist portrays the Lord Jesus Christ as “The Father’s
Ambassador.” Jesus perseveres in His
claims about being the Son of God. He
expands His teachings as He states that He is the ambassador of the Heavenly
Father on Earth. As all ambassadors
leave their home countries and travel to foreign and other lands to represent
the interests of their nations, they eventually return home. Blinded by their longstanding presuppositions
about God and their disdain toward Jesus, the Pharisees are unable to
comprehend anything that Jesus says about His heavenly origins. Nevertheless,
Jesus continues His teachings to reveal the Father’s perfect love.
Like
an ambassador who has been given a clear directive to pronounce in the country
to which he has been sent, Jesus straightforwardly share the Father’s message
about love, holiness and Law within relationships with other persons. The indescribable love that the Father and
Son share as they are One is the message Jesus shares with His audience. The Father sends the Son into the world to simply
the Law, the heart of which is love.
Contrary to the heavy laden millstone upon the necks of Jesus’ listeners
of which the Pharisees make of the Law, the Father gave the Law to Moses during
the wilderness period to enable the people to relate rightly and lovingly to a
holy God. Essentially, the Law depicts
God’s holy character; more specifically, the Ten Commandments characterize God
as a jealous God who will not tolerate any displacement from the number one
place in anyone’s heart. God demands unequivocal
allegiance and unwavering love from each daughter and son because He covenant
with Israel means that Almighty God must extend love with the same quality that
He requires. In complete contradiction
of Jesus’ teachings, the Pharisees defile the Law and offend God’s holy
character as they use the Law to exploit the people. As they are unable to understand God’s
original intent in delivering the Law which the Pharisees spend their lives
studying, assuredly, they are unable to comprehend Jesus’ delivery of the “new
Law of Love.” As it conflicts with their
religious racketeering and seemingly incalculable profits from demanding
ill-gotten but lucrative sacrifices from common people, the Pharisees summarily
dismiss Jesus’ teachings and portray Him as a dangerous and blaspheming lunatic
who deserves death as a means of relieving His misery.
Consider
the following thoughts and questions as you more fully explore this brief
passage.
·
To
where is Jesus going? If you respond
heaven, please offer a vivid description.
Perhaps, Jesus means Calvary instead.
Compare these two possibilities.
·
What
exactly does Jesus mean when He tells the Pharisees, “you will die in your
sin.”
·
He
tells them that they cannot join Him where He is going.
·
They
do not understand His heavenly origins and thus could not return to his
celestial space.
·
Within
the original context and chronology of this teaching, Jesus’ words probably
sound like the ravings of a lunatic. The
Pharisees would not have any point of reference with which to appreciate
anything Jesus says. Quite possibly, we
too suffer with the same scientific and faith challenges that they had. Discuss the similarities between their
hurdles to faith relative to their period in history and the hurdles before us
as we live in a world that uncritically accepts the scientific method as the
surest means to verify truth.
·
In
the next verse, Jesus distinguishes between heavenly and earthly realms. Were we to emphasize the natural and
scientific dimensions of these two worlds, we miss the opportunity to apply the
evangelist’s allegorical writings to our personal spirituality. John emphasizes the necessity of a relationship
with Jesus, Emmanuel who is God with us, rather than strict adherence to
religiosity and personal piety. Higher
realms allude to communion with God.
Lower spheres revolve around human self-reliance and methods
self-justification before Almighty God.
Colloquially, it is said that religion is an effort to reach God and
spirituality is a genuine attempt to relate to God.
·
Dwelling
in this world ends in physical death and thus death in one’s sin. However, faith in the great “I AM” whom God
sends enables anyone to transcend final termination, decomposition and ultimate
annihilation. Jesus who defeats death
thereby empowers anyone who believes in Him equally to overcome death.
·
Jesus’
use of the characterization, “I AM,” particularly infuriates the Pharisees who
consider Jesus’ words as repugnant blasphemy as those words are the very Name
of God.
·
Thus,
they question Him about His origins. He
rebuffs them as He insist that He condemns their lack of faith.
·
They
do not understand that Jesus means the Father when He speaks about the One who
sent Him.
·
To
assist them in understanding His teaching, mission and destiny, Jesus predicts
His forthcoming crucifixion. His cross
will prove Jesus is the Son of God and One with “I AM.” His resurrection from the dead will seal the
authority of Jesus’ teachings and provide the surest evidence and validation of
everything that Jesus says.
·
You
will recall that many Israelites ignited God’s wrath during the wilderness
years with their obstinacy, complaining and faithlessness. He sends a plague of scorpion s to bite,
poison and kill them. After interceding
in their behalf, Moses lifts up a snake in a cross. Anyone who goes to that cross and looks upon
the snake receives immediate healing and a new life.
·
For
John, similarly, anyone who looks to Jesus and the cross finds healing and new
life.
·
Jesus
submission to the cross proves that He does whatever the Father instructs Him
to do.
·
Jesus
humility and obedience means that He is the Father’s ideal ambassador as Jesus
willingly lays down His life to offer abundant and eternal life to anyone who
believes the Father sent Him to reflect God’s unconditional and covenantal love
for humankind.
·
John
does not include the Garden of Gethsemane episode in his gospel. However, in the twenty-ninth verse, Jesus
appears to allude to that fateful experience in which He began to sweat drops
of blood as the synoptic gospel writers record.
·
That
very graphic image of anxiety reassures us that Almighty God is always with us
in the midst of every trial and tribulation regardless of how palatable and
power our anxiety may become.
·
It
helps disciples to retain permanent mental images of the scene in the Garden of
Gethsemane and Christ’s cross on Mt. Calvary.
John depicts a very human Savior who walks beside us on the journey of
life. As the well-known poem, Footprints,
teaches, if we fall He will pick us up and carry us until we are able to walk
again. Christ’s example of redemptive and
even unjust suffering infuses us with divine strength when challenges
spontaneously arise.
·
Utterly
debilitated by domestic abuse inclusive of emotional, verbal and physical
violence, a professor of Religion at a Southern research university could not function
vocationally. For a year and a half, she
could not read and write which are non-negotiable functions for an
academic. Mercifully, she was able to
listen to music to avert lapsing further into a clinical and paralyzing
depression. Within that period, she freshly
recalled the imagery of the cross. She
substituted herself for Christ realizing that the resurrection of the Easter
dawn always follows the death and finality of crucifixion on Good Friday. Fortunately, Jesus’ example empowered this
suffering with divine strength to surmount her most regrettable experience.
·
The
passion narratives offer reassurance that Almighty God intervenes in human
messiness and intervenes in accord with His sovereign will to empathize with myriad
human pain and suffering.
·
In
the twenty-ninth verse, Jesus reminds His listeners that the Father never
leaves Him and in turn them.
·
John
concludes this brief passage with an affirmative note of belief. “Because he spoke this way, many came to
believe in him.” To evade condemnation,
a person must believe in Jesus and the One who sent Him. Earlier in the gospel John declares, “Anyone
who does not believe in the Son stands condemned already.” It is important to note that a person must
believe in Jesus and the One who sent Him.
Belief in Jesus practically means that a person crosses over from
existential death to abundant and eternal life.
