John 8 - Preacher's Commentary

8:1-11

The Merciful Judge

Here is an incident which seems out of place in the flow of the intense tabernacle dialogue, an account that is abruptly inserted with somewhat artificial transitional language. It is almost certain that this account was not written by the apostle John. For neither the language nor the style of writing are his. Yet this account has shown up in the inspired record in a variety of places, most recently and permanently in this Gospel, and it is a lovely witness to Jesus’ caring love for one lonely, frightened sinner. The details in the story are so unusual that it is highly unlikely it could have been fabricated, as some have claimed. Professor Westcott says, “It is beyond doubt an authentic fragment of apostolic tradition.”⁴

Then why include it, particularly at this point? Because, I believe, the incident makes visible the meaning of judgment. All through the verbal encounter at the feast Jesus is being judged by His antagonists. They say that He has never studied (John 7:15), or He has a demon (7:20), or He comes from the wrong place to be the Messiah (7:27). They claim His witness is not true (8:13), that He is a Samaritan (8:48), and repeatedly seek to take Him (7:30).

But paradoxically Jesus becomes their judge, not because He came to judge them, but because of who He is, “the true witness,” the “One who has come from above.” So as light reveals darkness, Jesus unmasks His enemies’ angry motives.

So, in the incident, they test Him “that they might have something of which to accuse Him.” A woman, whose name we do not know, has been caught in the very act of adulterous sex. According to the law, this could mean her death (Lev. 20:10; Deut. 22:20–24). The Pharisees push Jesus to pronounce the final word of judgment, a clever trap, for they surely know of Jesus’ compassion for the weak and sinful. So if He said, “Let her go,” they could accuse Him of breaking Moses’ Law. But if He gave them permission to stone her, He would break the Roman law which did not allow death for anyone without their approval.

In the face of this pressure, Jesus deliberately “stooped” and “wrote on the ground with His finger.” He disregards them, for He is a free man. He has His own thoughts and no one can tell Him what to do. We can only wonder about what He wrote. Did He list the sins of those seeking to trap Him? Or the sins of the woman? Did He write down the probing challenge He would throw out in a moment? In any event, the wind would shortly erase whatever He had written. It is His independent action, the way He sets His own pace, that is important. These enemies could not corner or push Him. He is their Judge.

His response to their insistent demand for some verdict is spiritually devastating for these Pharisees. “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.” Suddenly what they have attempted to make a legal issue is seen as a deeply personal, moral matter. A group of proud, righteous men now find themselves on the same ground as the woman they are about to stone. Their pious armor has been pierced as each one faces the depths of his own sinful nature. Each has to deal with the inner darkness which is so closely intertwined with self-righteous legalism—the savage delight in catching this woman in the act of sinning, the pompous pride in being able to use her as a shameful test case, or the vengeful anger which drives them to get at Jesus. Are not these the ugly passions we all seek to hide?

Then which of these men, or who of us, can stand up to this test and be the first to pick up a stone? None. All they can do is leave, one by one. And it is the one with the most experience, who has lived more of life, who leaves first.

There is a royal dignity about Jesus as He quietly stoops to write again on the ground. He has no need to speak a further word. The truth has judged them. And now He seems to ignore them as they leave. A sad scene, for in their departure they walk away from any word of cleansing or hope.

Now Jesus raises Himself and sees no one but the woman. Augustine has written, “Two persons were left, the unhappy woman and Compassion Incarnate!” What a trembling, fragile moment. If there was a crowd present, because she was still “standing in the midst,” the two are oblivious of that, only aware of each other. It is always that way when Jesus deals with us.

Jesus lets her tell Him, when words are finally spoken, that her accusers have left without condemning her. She is now facing this merciful Judge, who is not her enemy. But He neither minimizes nor covers up her sin. She is to rid herself of it, cut it out like she would a cancer. Otherwise it will destroy her. Jesus will always judge our sin.

But Jesus also shows her mercy. The door of grace has been opened and she has been given an opportunity for a new beginning. He will not condemn her. Guilt is not the last word, but hope. This besmirched woman has faced “a tribunal more searching, and yet more tender, than the tribunals of men.”⁵

Is this woman not like the vacillating crowd that we see and hear through the tabernacle dialogue, seeking and needy, longing to come out in the open and claim Jesus as their Messiah, but constantly not wanting to displease their religious leaders? They are so hopeful, but so uncertain! They too stand at the door of grace but are fearful to enter.

Any word of judgment, healing, or cleansing the church seeks to speak that is not spoken in the name of Jesus Christ is a false, empty word. It has no authority. It is only by His name and by His authority that we can say, “Go and sin no more.”

8:12-20

The Open Witness

The temple dialogue is now resumed. Jesus boldly faces the Pharisees and claims that He is the light of the world. He does so against the background of four great candelabra in the court of the women that had been lighted on the first day of the feast, a reminder that the children of Israel had been guided at night by a pillar of fire in their wilderness pilgrimage.

But now a greater living Light has come, not simply to guide a particular people who sit in darkness, but for the whole world. This went beyond all orthodox messianic expectations of the day. These scholarly Pharisees had not grasped the mighty vision of the prophets that the Messiah would come as a light to the Gentiles as well as to their own people (Is. 43:6, 49:6; Mal. 4:2).

And all those who followed Him, including the first disciples who had “come to see” and now walked with Him, would know the very character and glory of God. They would no longer be in darkness for they would have the gift of life. “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men” (John 1:4).

Jesus’ bold witness about Himself—who He is and why He has come—is crucial! And this is where the Pharisees attack Him. They say His “witness” is a lie, and His claim to be light is a grandiose illusion! However, there remains an integrity in Jesus’ claim about His being. He knows the Source of His nature and mission.

Jesus takes these accusers a step further in establishing the truth of His witness. According to their law, He points out, “the testimony of two men is true” (v. 17). Each authenticates the word of the other. This is precisely the relationship of Father and Son. The Son seeks only to be a faithful witness to the Father, who has sent Him. And the Father bears witness to the Son by approving and blessing His mission. This is the calling of the believing community and the disciples—to bear witness to the One who has sent them. Only then will their witness be authenticated by the Father.

The question the Pharisees finally ask, “Where is Your Father?” cannot be answered. Some questions only reveal the distance between two differing parties. It is really impossible for Jesus to communicate with them, for they are not at the place of hearing or understanding.

Jesus is fearlessly speaking these truths in an open place between the court of the women and the inner court. He is light and has nothing to hide. And no one can take Him until His hour comes.

8:21-29

The Infinite Chasm

He is going away! Leaving this world beneath, returning to the Father by way of the Cross and the Resurrection. It is an infinite journey that cannot be measured by any earthly standards. These hostile listeners will seek for Him after He has gone, but it will be a search of despair, for they cannot come where He is.

All through His ministry Jesus has sought to penetrate their darkened, unbelieving world, longing to kindle faith that He might bring them where He is. Here He speaks of Himself for the first time as “I am He” (v. 24). But they have stubbornly refused to believe, rejecting His every overture. This is the nature of sin. All their acts of sinning are the expression of their rebellious unbelief as boils on the body are evidence of poison in the blood. Now they can only die in their sin. When Jesus leaves, the Source of their life is gone. The opportunity has passed. This is the final sorrow of His going.

The separation between these two realms, His and theirs, becomes final, an infinite chasm fixed between the world above and the world beneath. An abyss that cannot be crossed.

As I have meditated on the awful finality of this passage my mind has turned again and again to a dark abyss which haunted our lives in our earlier ministry. We lived in a lovely suburban section of the city with neatly trimmed lawns and well-kept homes. And these neighbors were such bright, gifted people. No one would have guessed it, but they lived in a world of isolated alcoholism, frequently withdrawing from all of us, pulling down the shades, waiting for the cab to come every few days with another supply of booze. It was a world we could not penetrate, even though on a couple of occasions we called in the law to get them into an alcoholic treatment program at the state mental hospital. But this only deepened their suspicion and hostility toward those of us who wanted to help. As they moved further and further into a hazy, twilight world of semiconsciousness they finally died tragically and hopelessly! Here was a chasm, an abyss, which we non-alcoholics simply could not cross!

The response of Jesus’ opponents to His telling them He was going where they could not come only reveals again the darkness of their unbelief. They can only assume that Jesus proposes to kill Himself. And according to the Pharisee’s teaching, anyone who committed self-murder would be condemned to the deepest region of Gehenna, a place of unrelieved darkness and judgment, which is translated hell in the New Testament. Unbelief can lead to the strangest attempts to rationalize.

And when the Jews ask Jesus, “Who are You?” there is no way He can give them a satisfactory answer. For they ask, not as honest seekers, but as angry, prejudiced nonbelievers. How can He bridge the abyss of their rejection with another explanation when they have neither understood nor accepted His ministry over these months? And Jesus has not held back in directly speaking the truth, for He has spoken only what He has heard from the One who sent Him, which at times has meant painful exposure and judgment.

These antagonists will come to know who He is in a strangely unexpected way. It is when they “lift up the Son of Man,” arranging for His shameful Crucifixion, that they will know He is the Son of Man, the One who has been sent by the Father, the I AM, who has always been with the Father. Even in the act of dying He will be pleasing the Father who has never left Him. What an incredible paradox that in the very attempt to get rid of Jesus these angry men will end up discovering who it is they have killed! But it will be too late!

8:30-47

Not Children of Abraham

Now some in the crowd “believed in Him.” But how deeply are they committed, and how long will it last? Will they break loose from the old, antagonistic crowd and in faith cast themselves on the One whom the Father has sent? How will they handle the pressure of their leaders and being shunned and ostracized by their critical, unbelieving neighbors?

Jesus makes utterly clear the terms of discipleship for these who believed Him. He does not seek short-term followers, easy starters, who will fall by the wayside. They must “abide” in His word if they are to be a part of His company (v. 31). They must not only hear what He teaches, but abide in His Word, be at home in it! This means not only hearing, but obeying Him, sitting at His feet, living under His authority.

Only through this obedience will the disciple know the truth. The deepest knowing comes only through doing, a constant theme in this Gospel. This means far more than learning and memorizing concepts which can then be verbalized. The discovery of truth comes in encountering and yielding to the One who is living truth.

The disciple will be set free from the bondage of sin and set free to live out the will of the Teacher. This becomes the very purpose of his existence. The disciple has entered an eternal, liberating relationship eager to do the will of His Lord. He is no longer shackled by the endless demands of legalisms which have always bred self-righteousness, for he has been set free. In the words of George Matheson’s great hymn, “Make me a captive, Lord, and then I shall be free.”

I have discovered a joyful freedom in a faithful covenant I made with Ruth, my beloved wife, more than thirty-nine years ago. This is a liberation which comes only because I have given myself to another and accepted the commitment of that relationship. I would never have known this freedom if I had gone from one affair to another as a swinging bachelor or been unfaithful in marriage.

But Jesus’ antagonists attempt with some arrogance to brush aside this talk of freedom. Are they not the children of Abraham? In their thinking, that means they have never been in bondage to anyone. They are living in an illusion because even at this time the Jews are the political pawns of Rome, and in the past they have been captives of both Egypt and Babylon. Jesus is trying to communicate that the issue of freedom runs far deeper than any external, biological ties. It is a personal inner spiritual matter. If these people continue to sin, they are the slaves, regardless of who their ancestors are.

So their condition is very precarious. The slave can be put out of the house at any moment. It is not so with the children, who live in the Father’s house easily and comfortably. It is their home because they have been set free by the Son who now welcomes them as part of the family.

In this passage of John, Jesus clears up the misconceptions the Jews had about their ancestry. The Jews obsessively cling to the illusion that they are the spiritual children of Abraham because he is their physical father. Is not this an old trick which all of us constantly use to establish spiritual credentials? We are either Baptist or Catholic or middle-class or black or our forebears came over on the Mayflower or we were here when the church was founded.

These Jews are doing the same thing by seeking to prove their ancestry by insisting they have never committed spiritual adultery with other gods. They say they have always worshiped the one true God. (In using this language they may be implying by innuendo that Jesus has been born under suspicious circumstances.)

In verse 39 Jesus asks why they are not doing the works of Abraham if they are his children. This is the crucial test. They will not even listen to Jesus’ words. He tells them the truth, but His word has no place in them. In fact, the darkness in them is so perverse that because Jesus tells them the truth they will not believe. If they were the children of God they would hear Jesus’ words because His words come from God. They would then love Jesus because He has come from the very bosom of God; He “proceeded” from Him. We catch something of the meaning of the Incarnation again in this truth.

Because they will not accept Jesus’ word they seek to kill Him. Since this is not the work of Abraham, then surely they are not the children of God. Then who is their father?

None but the devil! He is the father of lies. He can only deceive and spread darkness out of the abyss of his own nothingness. His children are liars, perverters of the truth. These “Jews” have not only stubbornly resisted the truth Jesus has spoken, but have made their lies seem as truth. This has revealed who their father is. Untruth becomes division, spreads disorder, pits brother against brother, and finally kills both by word and deed, as Cain killed his brother Abel. The devil is the father of all murder, and as these religious leaders plot to kill Jesus they are doing his works.

Is not the work of this deceiver and murderer all around us? In a million homes where lies and violence tear people apart and the courts are left to decide what will “happen to the children”? Or in scores of church business meetings where ugly words are spoken and people divide up into sides insisting they must have their own way, often in the name of God? Or in the massive, overwhelming build-up of weapons for war which continues to rob the poor and the dispossessed of the resources of life while the powers” throw propaganda lies at one another calling it diplomacy? Who is really in charge here and whose children are we?

One senses in this passage the intensity of the spiritual warfare between Jesus and Satan. Jesus unmasks him, calls his bluff, and identifies him as the real enemy. As Jesus nears the Cross, this battle with the evil one becomes more deadly and more open. Even His most intimate friends are used by the devil in the struggle in their moments of weakness and confusion.

This Gospel is written not only to highlight the nature and mission of Jesus for seekers, but also to strengthen and encourage the early Christian believers, many of whom were Jews now facing intense pressure and persecution from those with whom they had previously worshiped. In the intense conflict between Jesus and His Jewish antagonists the issues are clarified: we see repeatedly the intimate relationship of Jesus to His Father from whom He has come; the true meaning of Abraham as a spiritual ancestor but also the bankruptcy of the Jews claiming spiritual credentials because of their blood ties with him; and the diabolical role of Satan in seeking to destroy the Christian community through the ridicule of Jewish non-believers.

8:48-59

His Majestic Identity

Jesus could not call His antagonists the children of the devil without having them strike back. So they not only accuse Him of being an outcast, a Samaritan, but a crazy one with a demon. In verse 48 John quotes what is apparently their common judgment, “Do we not say rightly?” How often we struggle to belittle the one who confronts us when we hear the truth that unmasks and shames us. But their attempt to degrade Jesus only focuses the issue of His identity more sharply. Jesus can have no demon for He seeks only to honor His Father, which is the central thrust of His whole ministry (v. 49). So in attempting to belittle Jesus, these Jews actually dishonor His Father.

In verse 51 there is a crucial turn of thought. Jesus declares there is the power of life in the very word He speaks. Anyone who “keeps” His whole teaching, or in other words obeys it and does not let His words slip away, will never “see” death; he will not face the dreaded abyss of eternal spiritual separation. Jesus can only make this claim because He is the Source of life. “In Him was life” (John 1:4).

His enemies are now utterly convinced Jesus is demon-possessed. Why, even Abraham, their greatest hero, as well as all the mighty prophets, is dead! None of them could make the unbelievable claim they could avoid or prevent death. Does this strange fellow think He is greater than they? Who is He making Himself out to be?

But the question is not who is He making Himself out to be, but who He is! Jesus knows the Father intimately and eternally. He has come only to do His bidding. If He does not confess this truth about Himself, He will be a liar like these enemies who claim to know God, but are in spiritual darkness, deceiving themselves.

We cannot help but wonder about the smug certainty of so many in evangelical circles who claim to know God on a “buddy-buddy basis.” It is all so glib and easy, but knowing a few Bible verses or moving with the “in” Christian group does not guarantee that deep, burning relationship of which Jesus speaks in verse 55. That knowing comes only in honoring the Son in word and deed.

In verses 56–58 Jesus relates His own mission to the status of Abraham, who saw what his descendants now refuse to accept. By referring to Abraham as “your father,” Jesus is, wisely and subtly, underlining the physical ties of these Jews, but making their spiritual rejection obvious. For in his obedience and sensitivity, Abraham was allowed to see the fulfillment of all that God had promised him. Jesus called it ‘My day’—His coming, His whole earthly ministry, and finally His saving death and Resurrection. Abraham had rejoiced in what was to take place.

The Jews are baffled, and again can only apply worldly standards of measurement. Jesus does not even seem to be fifty years of age, the time of mature manhood, and Abraham had lived and died centuries earlier. Then how can Jesus make the absurd statement that Abraham had seen Him?

The moment has come for Jesus’ triumphant proclamation, “Before Abraham was, I AM.” He makes clear the towering meaning of His claim by contrasting His own eternal existence with that of Abraham, who, though he was the father of his nation, was a fragile human being. Jesus is not saying, “I was,” but “I AM.” Abraham died, but Jesus is the Giver of life; the one is created, the Other is uncreated.

“I AM” is that sacred name for deity Moses heard at the burning bush. “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you’” (Ex. 3:14). Raymond Brown, a careful Catholic scholar, has written “no clearer implication of divinity is found in gospel tradition.”⁶ And Leon Morris, a renowned evangelical writer, says that Jesus’ dramatic statement brings out the meaning of His preexistence in a “more striking fashion” than anywhere else in the Gospel.⁷ We can only fall down in awe before the majesty of His Being.

Now there is no way that these Jews can miss the startling meaning of Jesus’ claim. He has spoken blasphemy, openly and brazenly. According to the law there is only one thing they must now do, stone Him to death (Lev. 24:16). And this they hurry to do, but Jesus hides and slips away “and so passed by” (v. 59). What a suggestive phrase. He had come to the feast, quietly and alone, and so He leaves!