John’s Gospel #7 Sticks and Stones
CHCC: March 2, 2008
John 8
INTRODUCTION:
Sticks and Stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me. This section of John begins and ends with people ready to throw stones. In the beginning of our text for today we notice that the Jewish leaders brought in a woman caught in the very act of committing adultery, but rather than judging her themselves, they brought her before Jesus hoping to trap him in some way. From the nature of what happened here we know this was a set up from the “get go” If it had been legitimate, the male adulterer would have been brought in as well since he was as guilty as she was, and being caught in the act of adultery means some man was definitely in the same area where she was caught. Jesus was asked a question by the Jewish leaders, but rather than speak to them he simply bent down and began to write something in the dust. We’ll never know what he wrote, but what ever it was it had an impact on the gathered mob. He stood and said simply, “Let the man among you without sin cast the first stone.”
Now, there is a particular protocol among groups of Jewish men that calls for the eldest in the group to give their input first, then each is given his turn according to their age from eldest to youngest. This is the order in which the men in the mob left the scene dropping their rocks one after another going from eldest to youngest. I must admit, I was surprised to notice that the courtyard of the temple had dust to write on and large rocks of the kind used by angry groups wanting to stone someone to death. At any rate, the stones dropped by this group of men, lay there available for another angry group to pick up and threaten to throw at Jesus a short time later. (Or at least that’s the view we have from the Mel Brooks version of the movie about Jesus.)
At the beginning of John 8 people are gathered around a woman caught and adultery ready to stone her, and at the end they are ready to throw stones at Jesus. In between the Jewish Religious Leader throw a lot of WORDS at Jesus.
1. Where is your Father?
Chapter 8 has more to say than we have time for today, but I want to simply take a look at the questions the Jewish leaders asked Jesus and the responses he gave them to those questions. Looking at vs. 19 we observe this question:
19Then they asked him, "Where is your father?"
This question comes in response to the fact that Jesus repeatedly referred to his Father and repeated the message of his close connection to his Father. Because this was his consistent theme, they asked a question that was actually a not-so-veiled slam on his reputation. Since his mother claimed Jesus was begotten of the Holy Spirit, some may have whispered that Jesus was more likely a child begotten by a Roman Soldier, an assertion not necessarily provable in history, but certainly the kind of rumor unbelievers could easily come up with. When Jesus spoke lovingly of his heavenly Father, their response was not so much to ask of the location of his father, but a question more like what we hear these days, “Who’s yer daddy?”
These were not legitimate questions. The Jews were trying to trip him up and stir things up. This question came from rumors about his illegitimate birth and from the fact that he called God his father. Jesus answers their insults by saying:
"You do not know me or my Father," Jesus replied. "If you knew me, you would know my Father also. 20 He spoke these words while teaching in the temple area near the place where the offerings were put. Yet no one seized him, because his time had not yet come."
21Once more Jesus said to them, "I am going away, and you will look for me, and you will die in your sin. Where I go, you cannot come."
22This made the Jews ask, "Will he kill himself? Is that why he says, ’Where I go, you cannot come’?"
23But he continued, "You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. 24I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be, you will indeed die in your sins."
The way Jesus spoke about his Heavenly Father is the way one might expect the authentic messiah to speak about Father God, but the unbelieving Jews were incensed by each statement of relationship Jesus asserted. Jesus was being honest and transparent about his relationship with God, but those listening to his words didn’t buy into anything he said. At one point they even called him a Samaritan (vs 48) indicating that they judged his real father to be far removed from Father God. They wouldn’t allow him to claim relationship to either Father Abraham or to Father God. The fact that he had spent time teaching at Sychar in Samaria was proof to them that Jesus had to be a half breed thereby disqualifying him from possibly being the legitimate messiah. They concluded that Jesus had the wrong pedigree.
2. Who are You?
The next question the Jews asked Jesus called on him to hang himself by saying outright that he claimed to be messiah. Having studied what Jesus actually said in this chapter, I can testify that Jesus said what they wanted to hear him say no less than 3 times (vs. 24, 28, and 58) Jesus was not being evasive in any way. He was not covering up his messiah-ship even though his statements were sealing his doom. Here we see Jesus resolutely marching step by step toward the cross.
25"Who are you?" they asked.
"Just what I have been claiming all along," Jesus replied. 26"I have much to say in judgment of you. But he who sent me is reliable, and what I have heard from him I tell the world."
27They did not understand that he was telling them about his Father. 28So Jesus said, "When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am the one I claim to be and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me. 29The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him." 30Even as he spoke, many put their faith in him.
We notice here a divide among the listeners of Jesus’ words. Some put their faith in him. They concluded that Jesus was really who he claimed to be. His words made sense to them. Meanwhile, the unbelieving Jews had succeeded in getting Jesus to say something they could arrest him for saying. He said “…I am the one I claim to be…”(28)
I never fail to be amazed by those who say that Jesus never claimed to be messiah. Obviously, those who make such an assertion never studied the gospel of John. So far Jesus has said who he is to Nathaniel (ch. 1), to the Pharisees (ch. 2), to Nicodemus (ch.3), the woman at the well (ch. 4), to the Jews again (Ch.5), to the crowds he had fed (ch. 6), and to the crowds in the temple courts (Ch. 7). So far each chapter of John shouts the message of Jesus claim to messiah-ship, and he says it no less than three times in this chapter. It is incredible that people can ask “Who are you?” when Jesus has never stopped saying who he is.
In fact, at this point Jesus shows his own frustration at their questions when he says, “Why is my language not clear to you?” (vs. 43) Then, Jesus answers his own question. “…Because you are unable to hear what I say.” At this point Jesus said something they took great offense at. They were claiming to be Children of Abraham and the covenant people of God, but Jesus said what he knew to be true of them. Their father was the Devil, and for that reason they did not have ears to hear anything he said about himself.
The topic of Fatherhood led to the next meaningful question they asked Jesus that day.
3. How can you say WE will be set free?
Jesus gave a word to those among the crowd who were beginning to believe in what he said. He promised them, “
31"If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
33They answered him, "We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?"
34Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. 35Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. 36So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. 37I know you are Abraham’s descendants. Yet you are ready to kill me, because you have no room for my word. 38I am telling you what I have seen in the Father’s presence, and you do what you have heard from your father."
When Jesus said these words, the Jews who disbelieved in him began calling him names. In this chapter hey had called him a liar (13), an illegitimate son (41), a Samaritan (48), a demoniac (48,52), and finally took up stones to make an end of him (59) When people can’t argue from logic or reason, what do they resort to? They call names; they spread rumors (“Samaritan” came from rumors of his illegitimate birth and the time he spent teaching in Samaria). And finally, when words fail, people resort to physical violence. At the end of chapter 8 we notice people picking up the same stones they had dropped after the attempted stoning of the woman caught in adultery. Jesus had halted the stoning at the beginning of this chapter but now inadvertently incited the mob to want to stone him for blasphemy all because he answered their question. “Who are you?”
Sticks and Stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me. Like the old saying goes, their WORDS could never hurt Him. In fact the words they threw came back to hurt THEM. In the middle was a war of words, Jesus didn’t retaliate by NAME CALLING. But He did answer their attacks with the hard TRUTH. And that’s what made them mad enough to want to kill him there and then.
They had already insulted him by saying that his father was not God in heaven, but possibly a Roman soldier, or maybe a half breed in Samaria. They were claiming that Jesus couldn’t possibly be messiah because his pedigree was all wrong. Then, when he said that those who believed in him could be made free, they rebutted, “We are children of Abraham, and therefore already free. We don’t need to be freed from anything. If only that were really true. The history of the Jews was a history of enslavement after enslavement. They had been slaves to Egypt for 430 years, slaves to the Assyrians, Slaves to the Babylonians, Slaves to the Persians, and now in slavery under the Romans. Jesus went on to say that they were enslaved by sin, and under slavery to their real father, the devil himself. Jesus wasn’t name calling here. He was giving a truthful assessment of their current condition. They were too blind to know they needed freedom from their current condition. They were too enslaved to realize that their connection to Abraham wasn’t enough in itself to bring them close to God.
They were living in bondage to rituals and traditions that had no power to save them, but they weren’t looking for the promised messiah even though he was standing in the flesh before them at that very minute. They didn’t realize it, but at that moment in space and time, the Holy God who was normally hidden behind the curtain in the temple, had put on flesh and walked out from the holy of holies into the open courts of the temple and was teaching them himself. The holy Father God had sent his beloved Son to face lost and enslaved people with the message of God’s love and grace. The gospel of Grace stood there staring the Jews in the face, and all they could do was call him names and then pick up stones to stone him to death.
CONCLUSION:
Chapter 8 of John is a kind of sandwich passage. It contains an angry confrontation sandwiched between two attempted stonings. Obviously, Jesus knew what was coming before he ever left Galilee to travel to Jerusalem for the feast. Jesus had debated whether to even go to Jerusalem for the feast or not, but he showed up half way through the feast and taught openly in the temple in spite of the dangers posed by his attendance. Jesus next visit to Jerusalem a few months later would end up in his arrest, trial and crucifixion. John reveals this conversation to us so that we can get a feel for those who believed in Jesus and those who didn’t He shares Jesus’ actual words with us so we can also decide for ourselves whether we will believe or not. Messiah has come. These are his words. But what do his words do in your heart? Do they resonate within you or leave you cold? Is Jesus your messiah? Or is he just some guy who lived 2000 years ago who taught stuff and held lambs a lot? The Jews asked him, “Who are you?” He told them clearly who he was. Who is he to you?
