The Gospel for Thursday, February 12, 2004
John 8:21-32
Again he said to them: I am going away; you will look for me and you will die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come. So the Jews said to one another, ‘Is he going to kill himself, that he says, “Where I am going, you cannot come?” ’ Jesus went on: You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. I have told you already: You will die in your sins. Yes, if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins. So they said to him, ‘Who are you?’ Jesus answered: What I have told you from the outset. About you I have much to say and much to judge; but the one who sent me is true, and what I declare to the world I have learnt from him. They did not recognise that he was talking to them about the Father. So Jesus said: When you have lifted up the Son of man, then you will know that I am He and that I do nothing of my own accord. What I say is what the Father has taught me; he who sent me is with me, and has not left me to myself, for I always do what pleases him. As he was saying this, many came to believe in him. To the Jews who believed in him Jesus said: If you make my word your home you will indeed be my disciples; you will come to know the truth, and the truth will set you free. -- The New Jerusalem Bible. 1995, c1985. Doubleday: Garden City, N.Y.
A Study
"To refuse Christ is to be a stranger to God; to accept him is to be the friend of God, and in that friendship the fear of death is for ever banished." -- William Barclay, Daily Bible Study Series, The Gospel of John, vol. 2, 2nd edition. 1956. Westminster John Knox Press: Louisville, KY
In reading Barclay, the student encounters the expression "the opponents of Jesus" instead of "the Jews." What a much more precise description "opponents" is. Certainly not all Jews were his opponents. Nicodemus, of the Sanhedrin, was not. The Pharisees were a zealous, studious, committed lot; no one knows whether it was but a tiny fraction of their sect who are mentioned in the Gospels as opposing Jesus. And often, "the Jews" are those who believe him and in him.
It is tempting to think that John, writing 70 or so years after the crucifixion, was really laying it on to those who opposed Jesus. With knowledge that Jesus is God, that he had come on a mission from the Father, that he was totally obedient to the Father -- it would certainly have been easy to see these opponents as bumbling but vicious miscreants, wouldn't it?
The New Century Version's translation of the what the New Jerusalem Bible renders as "if you make my word your home" is "if you continue to obey my teaching." And if they would do that, they would truly be his disciples. As his followers, they would know the truth about his messiah-ship, and that would make them free -- of the Law and of the spiritual death that awaits those who try to keep it instead of following Jesus.
A Reflection
As this is written, there are plans to open Mel Gibson's movie The Passion of Christ on Ash Wednesday (Feb. 25, 2004). Gibson is reported to be a zealous, studious, committed Roman Catholic layman. Many thoughtful people have expressed considerable concern, however, that the film will arouse hatred for Jews, prompting the vicious thoughts that led earlier Christians to do horrible things to Jewish people, in the name of Christ.
Please recall that Jesus is a Jew. The New Testament, by itself, is a mansion without a foundation. It is built on the history of the people chosen by God to be special, who are our spiritual forbears. And without an understanding of the background established by the Hebrew Bible, the work beginning with the Gospels is an interesting book, but you feel that you've missed the first half of the story. You have.
So many Sunday School children recount tales about the horrible men, those Scribes and Pharisees, the Jews! And were you to ask them what Church Jesus belonged to, there's no telling what answer you would get. In trying to make things simple for children to understand, many have tended to cast all Jews, as John seems to lump them in his Gospel, as the bad men, while forgetting that the same descriptor is used in "those Jews who believed on him," to John's credit.
Dieing in sin portends a terrifying future. Opposing Jesus puts us in the opponents' camp, those who are strangers to God. But as Barclay reminds us, friendship with God can forever banish that fear from us.
And His Truth will make us free.
5:52:40 AM 
|
|
