“WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?”
John 8:48-59
1) Who did the Jews think Jesus was?
• Someone who was demon-possessed (vs. 48). The Jews were responding to all the things Jesus was telling them in the previous passage. Unfortunately, instead of being humble and accepting that they weren’t what they thought they were, they got defensive. “How dare he call me a child of the devil? You’re the devil’s child, not me.” They didn’t have any way to prove Jesus was a liar so they resorted to insults to try to discredit him. They couldn’t adequately answer Jesus’ challenge to them in verse 46 so they had to come back with something to try to discredit him. “You are a Samaritan”. Using the term ‘Samaritan’ meant that Jesus was an enemy to them (since the Jews and Samaritans were hostile toward one another). Also, the Jews considered Samaritans half-breeds. Therefore, calling Jesus a Samaritan was a slam regarding Jesus not being Joseph’s son and therefore some sort of half-breed. “You are demon-possessed”. Here and in verse 52 they were basically calling him insane. It was their way of discrediting him so that they wouldn’t have to take him seriously. The problem was they didn’t understand what he was saying about never having to see death (just like they didn’t understand when he talked to them about being a slave-(vs. 33). So, instead of being humble and wise, trying to understand what Jesus meant by what he said, they responded in pride and arrogance, jumping to erroneous conclusions and just passing his words off as senseless. We can be the same way. Instead of being humble when confronted with the truth we make the other person out to be the foolish one. In order for me to not have to acknowledge the truth I’ll convince myself that you’re being ridiculous. “This is crazy talk. I’m not going to listen to your absurdities. Take your foolish accusations and get outta here.” When we are like this we are being like the Jews; shutting out the opportunity to hear wisdom.
• Someone who was prideful (vs. 53). “Who do you think you are?” It’s interesting that the prideful ones are accusing Jesus of pride. They were blind to their own pride but thought they saw clearly the pride in Jesus. How many times has this happened to us? We have an undetected, unaddressed pride problem yet we are so quick to point out the pride we see, or think we see, in others. Again, instead of trying to understand what Jesus was trying to say, the Jews just went by what they thought he was saying and thus perceived his statement to be a prideful one. How often do we make this mistake? We go by what we think someone is saying without gaining clarification as to what they actually meant by what they said.
• Someone who was a blasphemer (59). (58): Either Jesus didn’t know how to speak grammatically correct or there was more than meets the eye here. There was. The Jews knew exactly what he was saying. Ex. 3:14-15. The Jews knew this to be the most intimate name of God. The name by which he was to be called for generations to come. From the I Am we get the name Jehovah. God is the I Am, not simply ‘I was’ or ‘I will be’ but ‘I Am’. I am always present tense. I am unchanging. Thus, in Jesus calling himself the I Am he was saying that he was God. ‘Picked up stones to stone him’. Jesus saying this was the last straw for them. They had heard the radical statements from Jesus regarding their sin and about having the devil as their father but now Jesus had gone too far. Now he needed to be put to death for saying what he said. He, in their eyes had committed blasphemy of which stoning was the penalty. Lev. 24:16 states that “anyone who blasphemes the name of the Lord must be put to death”. Blasphemy was committed when someone said slanderous statements against God or spoke maliciously about God. The Jews considered Jesus’ statement to be breaking the commandment in Exodus 20:7, “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.” That’s what the Jews considered Jesus’ statement to be by him equating himself with God he was degrading God and elevating himself to a holy status meant only for God. John 10:32-33, “but Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many great miracles from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?” “We are not stoning you for any of these,” replied the Jews, “but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.”
2) Who did Jesus know he was?
• He knew he was not demon-possessed (49). If Jesus was possessed he wouldn’t be able to do the things he had been doing. If Jesus was possessed by a demon he more than likely would’ve been irate and out of control in response to their insults. Ironically, I suspect that if anyone here was acting like they were possessed by a demon it was the religious leaders; not Jesus. We see that Jesus could stay calm in reacting to them because he knew what they were accusing him of wasn’t true. We need to learn this. When people accuse us of things that aren’t true we need to respond with tact. Why get defensive when we’re not guilty?
• He knew he was humble (vs. 50, 54). Jesus wasn’t making himself out to be anything other than what he was. Unlike the Jews who were making themselves out to be something they weren’t. “If I were to glorify myself (like you guys do) my glory would mean nothing (like yours doesn’t). Your glory comes from yourself; mine comes from the Father. Therefore, I am the valid one and you are the invalid one.” Jesus was going after the religious leaders in Matt. 23 and during that discourse he warns them in verse 12. “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled (by God) and whoever humbles himself will be exalted (by God).” It’s easy to elevate ourselves but we need to allow God to be the one to do that for us. Rom. 12:3, “For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.” We need to self-examine ourselves. We need to remember where we came from and remember what we are without Christ. We need to humbly consider how we fall short of perfection. We need to be humble like Jesus.
• He knew he was the Savior (vs. 51-52). Jesus knew that salvation was to be found in him. He knew that life was found in him. Acts 4:12, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” This is the main message of Jesus’ teaching. Here he was reiterating what he said back in verses 31 and 32 about holding to his teachings which are the truth which would set them free. “Keeps my word” goes with ‘hold to my teaching’. We are not only to receive his word; we are to keep his word if we are to never see spiritual death. Jesus didn’t mean that if one believed in him that he wouldn’t die physically; he meant one would not see spiritual death. But here again we see the Jews not being willing to understand what Jesus meant by what he said. Instead of asking, “what do you mean they won’t see death”, they assumed they knew what he meant and attacked accordingly; to their own folly.
• He knew that he knew God (55-56). (55) ‘You don’t know Him, I do know Him’. Interesting use of words: "You have not known (ginosko- come to know or learn from observation or revelation) Him, but I know (eido- instinctively by nature and thoroughly know) Him. They knew of God but they did not know God. This goes with what he said of them in the previous passage. You claim God as you father but he isn’t. Rom. 10:1-4. The Pharisees were religiously zealous but their zeal was misplaced. Their zeal was not based in their knowledge and understanding of God it was based in their traditions and the upkeep of their image and status. Much like today, there are many religiously zealous people who claim to know God but they don’t. They know of God but there’s no real relationship with God. Their zeal is in religious traditions instead of it being in truth. Their zeal is not manifested in obedience. 1st John 2:3-6. We know that we truly do know God when we are obedient to him. These Jews were not obedient to God; therefore Jesus could rightfully call them liars as we see reiterated here in 1st John. (56) ‘Your father’. This may seem confusing since Jesus said earlier that they were not true children of Abraham. Jesus is acknowledging that although Abraham is their forefather in a physical sense, he is not in a spiritual sense. Like Paul said in Rom. 9:6-7, “for not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. Nor because they are his descendents are they all Abraham’s children.” One is a true child of Abraham spiritually, not physically. ‘Abraham rejoiced…he saw it’. Heb 11:13. Abraham lived by faith and he was allowed to see, and welcome, the promise that would eventually come-Christ. The Jews, who claimed to be children of Abraham, did not rejoice and welcome Jesus. Therefore they were not true sons of Abraham. Thus proving that they didn’t really know the God they professed to know.
• He knew he was God (57-58). (57): “50 years old”-this doesn’t imply that Jesus was around 50, the Jews were simply provided a good round number that represented the improbability of Jesus being beyond that age. “You have seen Abraham”-this was not what Jesus said but we see how they twisted what he said to try to present the absurdity of Jesus’ statement. (58): Here we see Jesus not responding to their statement but rather making a statement that made it clear what his point was in all this. Jesus had been spending time having to provide testimony regarding his validity. He had to continually show himself for who he was to the religious leaders. In these verses we see him making the claim of claims-not only is he the savior, he is also deity. “Yes, I am greater than Abraham because before Abraham was created, I am his creator.” John 8:12. Jesus started his discourse with the same statement, “I am the light of the world”. Now we have his climactic declaration to the whole discourse that started in verse 12. In the literal translation the words “I am” that Jesus spoke here are capitalized, as they are when God spoke them in Exodus 3. Jesus declaring that he was God goes with how John started this gospel (1:1). [incorporate section from Wednesday night study-Jehovah] With Jesus as the “I Am” we see him filling in some blanks: “I am the bread of life” (6:35); “I am the light of the world” (8:12); “I am the gate” (10:9); “I am the good shepherd” (10:11); “I am the resurrection and the life (11:25); I am the way, the truth and the life (14:6); I am the true vine (15:1). No other religious figures have ever claimed to be God. Mohammed didn’t claim to be Allah, Buddha didn’t claim to be God, etc. Jesus did exactly that here in verse 58. 8:59b. Jesus passed right through them while they held the stones. Chapter eight starts with the Jews wanting to stone the woman and they didn’t get their wish and it ends with them wanting to stone Jesus but again they didn’t get their wish. Jesus knew when to walk away. He could’ve caused every rock to go flying out of their hands but instead he slipped away without inciting more drama.
CONCLUSION: “Who do you think you are, Jesus?” From this exchange we have three things Jesus could be: a liar, a lunatic or the Lord. The religious leaders would’ve labeled him a liar and a lunatic even though they couldn’t prove him to be either one. But they had to say label him as such because otherwise if he’s the Lord then they would have to humble themselves and admit that they were wrong and that they were in need of salvation. What about us? If he’s not a liar or a lunatic but he is the Lord who speaks only the truth then are we wholeheartedly following him? If not, why not? C. S. Lewis said, "I am trying here to prevent anyone from saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: "I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God." That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic -- on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg - or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about Him being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to." Who do you think Jesus is?
