John, Chapter 8

John 8

In summary --

There is a lot of really good stuff in this chapter. It begins with the familiar story of the church lawyers bringing a woman that had been caught in adultery. I think they were looking to trap Jesus into either disregarding the law by showing mercy or to make him be as legalistic and unmerciful as they were. Jesus gives them the freedom to judge her by the Law if they are guiltless under the Law.
In the end Jesus tells her that he won't condemn her either and tells her to go and sin no more.

Then there is more stuff of the Jews condemning Jesus and saying his testimony of himself is no good. Jesus continues to warn them that the signs are coming when they will know. He even hints at how they will kill him in verse 28 -- ..."When you have lifted up the Son of Man..."

The Jew try to discredit Jesus by mocking him. They say (verse 41) "We were not born of sexual immorality. ..." They know that Mary and Joseph were not married when she became pregnant. They were saying more than they were not born from immorality. They were saying that Jesus was and so his words carried no weight.

My favorite verse --

58 Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am."
Jesus, again declares that he is God -- the Son of God.

Something to think about --

In this chapter Jesus challenges the religious authority of the Jews. He asks, "Which of you convicts me of sin?" (verse 46) He's asking if he's done nothing wrong, why don't they believe him?
They are having a difficult time because this is different than what they expected from God.
I wonder if we sometimes have a difficult time following Jesus because we thought it would be different. I wonder if our preconceived ideas of God -- our God biases -- make following more difficult. Maybe we've been conditioned that God is legalistic and judgmental rather than full of grace and mercy. Maybe we are legalistic and judgmental because we think that's what God expects of us.
Maybe we're wrong.

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