John 8:12-59
Jesus’s next discourse is set in the temple (8:20) and also draws on imagery related to the Feast of the tabernacles. During this feast, four candlesticks with bowls at the top were lit in the court of the women, where the treasury receptacles also were located. Much celebration took place under these lights as the people sang through the night. It is said that every courtyard in Jerusalem reflected this light. The light symbolized God’s presence in the pillar of fire guiding the people in the wilderness.
In this context, Jesus declared Himself to be the light, not just of Israel but of the world. This image was used in Israel not only for God’s presence but also for God’s instruction in the law. Isaiah shared that God’s servant was to be light to the gentiles (Isa. 49:6). So this image is rich with significance and meaning. Light and darkness are soteriological terms, images which contrast the bright joy the saved experience in the presence of the Lord, with the fearful gloom through which those separated from God must trudge. God is the Source of salvation, of hope and of joy. In the midst of the feast, Jesus spoke, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
The Pharisees challenge Jesus’s testimony as invalid because it comes from Himself. Jesus’s reply is that even if He accepts their premise of a problematic self-testimony, it still holds true because of His origins and destiny. Jesus knows where He came from and where He is going, while the Pharisees do not.
Jesus came to save; any judgement that emerges through His coming arises from a failure to receive the saving opportunity that He brings. But even if He does judge, that judgement is true because He does not judge on His own but judges with the One who sent Him. To know Jesus is to know the Father; He is inseparable from the Father in their mission. In order to know the Father, a person must see and embrace Jesus.
Jesus again disclosed that He is going away but they (the Jewish leaders) are unable to come and they will not share His exalted destiny but will die in sin unless they believe in Him and who He claims to be. He speaks next of the Son of Man being lifted up, a dual reference to Jesus being lifted up on the cross and being exalted. When that happens, they will know and have more evidence that Jesus is the sent one and the Son of Man. At this point, many believe in Him.
Jesus exhorts those who believe to abide in His Word and know the truth and this will set them free. The mention of being set free implies that the Jews are in bondage and the Jews deny that they are in bondage. Jesus declared that everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. Jesus as the Son makes people free, leading to genuine freedom. He acknowledges His opponents’ descent from Abraham but notes that their desire to kill Him results from their refusal to accept His word and that of the Father. This proves a lack of real descent from God, showing their roots in another father (implying Satan). In response, the Jews insist that they are children of Abraham. Jesus challenges their remark by arguing that if they were children of Abraham, they would respond as Abraham did and believe God’s testimony; instead they seek to kill Him for telling them the truth from God. Jesus repeats the charge about their following their father.
The implication leads them to retort that their paternity does not reside in fornication, a retort carrying a suggestion that Jesus’s birth came in unusual circumstances that were the topic of rumours. In contrast, the Jews claim to have one father, even God. Jesus responds that if God were their Father, then they would love Him, for His mission is not His, but God’s. Their incapacity to appreciate what Jesus said has roots in their spiritual ancestry in their father, the devil, who is a liar and who rejects the truth. Jesus speaks the truth and He asks, “Who can convict Me of sin?”, indicating how Jesus reflects and lives authentically with a pure clean conscience in communion with the truth.
The Jews deny that Jesus speaks for God and accuse Him of being a Samaritan and being possessed. Jesus replies that, far from being possessed, He seeks to honour His Father while their remarks dishonour Jesus. He does not seek His own glory; God Himself will make the judgement between them. Life, however is a matter of keeping Jesus’s word. The one who does keep His word will definitely not see death. The claim for authority over life is a claim for heavenly authority. Jesus’s claim that He can give life implies that Jesus also will not die. The Jews seize upon this and argue that even Abraham and the prophets died; surely Jesus is not claiming to be greater than Abraham and the prophets?
Jesus replies that Abraham rejoiced that he would see His day and he saw it and was glad. The Jews question how Jesus could know what Abraham thought and saw, given that Jesus could not be more than fifty years old. This leads to one of the greatest claims to be divine that Jesus makes anywhere in the scriptural material: Jesus replies, “Before Abraham was, I am,” claiming not only to predate Abraham, but also sharing the divine name, “I am” (Exodus 3:14). Jesus is actually claiming that He existed before the patriarch Abraham and He is greater than Abraham; in fact, He is one with God. Neutrality no longer was possible; what identified God identified Him.
The Jews concluded that this was blasphemy and sought to stone Him. Jesus hid himself and left the temple; it was not yet the hour for ‘night’ to come (John 13:30),