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Then Jesus said to them again, "I am going away, and you will seek Me, and will die in your sin. Where I go you cannot come." So the Jews said, "Will He kill Himself, because He says, 'Where I go you cannot come'?" And He said to them, "You are from beneath; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins." Then they said to Him, "Who are You?" And Jesus said to them, "Just what I have been saying to you from the beginning. I have many things to say and to judge concerning you, but He who sent Me is true; and I speak to the world those things which I heard from Him." They did not understand that He spoke to them of the Father. Then Jesus said to them, "When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and that I do nothing of Myself; but as My Father taught Me, I speak these things. And He who sent Me is with Me. The Father has not left Me alone, for I always do those things that please Him." As He spoke these words, many believed in Him.
Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, "If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."
- John 8:21-32
In yesterday's reading, Jesus was speaking with the Pharisees about His identity as Son, and His relationship to God the Father. They seek to seize Him not only for breaking the Sabbath, but also for calling Himself Son. He has already given several witnesses to His identity. Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, "I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life." The Pharisees therefore said to Him, "You bear witness of Yourself, Your witness is not true." Jesus answered and said to them, "Even if I bear witness of Myself, My witness is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going; but you do not know where I come from and where I am going. You judge according to the flesh; I just no one. And yet if I do judge, My judgment is true; for I am not alone, but I am with the Father who sent Me. It is also written in your law that the testimony of two men is true. I am One who bears witness of Myself, and the Father who sent Me bears witness of Me." Then they said to Him, "Where is Your Father?" Jesus answered, "You know neither Me nor My Father. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also." These words Jesus spoke in the treasury, as He taught in the temple; and no one laid hands on Him, for His hour had not yet come.
Then Jesus said to them again, "I am going away, and you will seek Me, and will die in your sin. Where I go you cannot come." Again, Jesus speaks of His "going away" (see yesterday's reading, above). My study bible tells us that going away refers to His death and Resurrection.
So the Jews said, "Will He kill Himself, because He says, 'Where I go you cannot come'?" We recall that for the most part, when John speaks of "the Jews" He is speaking of the leadership. Everyone in this story is a Jew, including the man Jesus Himself. Already they've asked if He'll go to the dispersion (or diaspora) among the Greeks. Now they ask if He will kill Himself! A paper could be written on these words and the psychological projection involved, coupled together with Christ's knowledge of "His hour."
And He said to them, "You are from beneath; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins." Here's a kind of answer to the upside-down understanding of the question about Jesus killing Himself: He's "from above." Jesus has the perspective and the words that reflect where He comes from and where He's going. They have the perspective that reflects where they "come from" and where they "are going." In His words to Nicodemus earlier in John's Gospel, after teaching about baptism in the Spirit, Jesus said, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life." We look to the Cross in faith in order to be "lifted up" with Him; He shows us the Way where He comes from and is going.
Then they said to Him, "Who are You?" My study bible quotes St. John Chrysostom on this passage. He wrote, "Oh, what stupidity! After so long a time and miracles, and teaching, they asked 'Who art thou?'"
And Jesus said to them, "Just what I have been saying to you from the beginning. I have many things to say and to judge concerning you, but He who sent Me is true; and I speak to the world those things which I heard from Him." They did not understand that He spoke to them of the Father. Then Jesus said to them, "When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and that I do nothing of Myself; but as My Father taught Me, I speak these things. And He who sent Me is with Me. The Father has not left Me alone, for I always do those things that please Him." As He spoke these words, many believed in Him. My study bible notes here: "Lift up has the double meaning of being nailed to the Cross and of being exalted by the Father upon the completion of His work." If we look at these passages together, we see two significant statements about their response to Him: 1) They did not understand that He spoke to them of the Father; and 2) As He spoke these words, many believed in Him. The latter comes after the (hidden) mention of the Cross, and His death that will come at the hands of the leadership: "when you lift up the Son of Man."
Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, "If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed." A note here reads: "Jesus expects all who follow Him to be disciples (learners). Abiding in His word is not something reserved for an elite class of zealots."
"And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Here is liberation, even for those among the leadership who will believe. My study bible teaches that "being free refers specifically to freedom from bondage to sin, granted by the Redeemer through His death and Resurrection."
As we read these words of Jesus, we have to think about our own liberation, and what it means to "know the truth" and that the "truth makes us free." As a general principle, we accept this statement. To get to the truth of a matter -- of any matter -- is to be able to begin to heal it, to solve a problem, to deal with the issues at hand. In this case, Jesus is of course speaking of spiritual truth, but we really can't separate truth into the spiritual and otherwise, because Truth is a Person in our understanding of faith. As Creator, therefore, Truth permeates anything and everything in God's creation, and this is why truth is essential to healing. Any oppression by evil, by the "ruler of this world" as Jesus has put it, is an oppression of truth. Evil throws obstacles in our way to understanding truth, an evil oppression blinds us to true health and creates stumbling blocks for us, of suffering, whether that be physical, mental or spiritual. Therefore truth, in Jesus' context, cannot be separated out from the wholeness and entirety of our lives. It is such an important understanding that John the Evangelist in writing Revelation will group together all kinds of evil practitioners with "and whoever loves and practices a lie." So Jesus' liberation for us is not only the truth about Himself and His relatedness to the Father, but especially about healing and making well our own relationship to both and also to the Spirit, to one another, and within ourselves to all. It's like polishing a mirror to see more clearly; Christ's healing includes polishing away the lies we tell ourselves, and about anything and everything else. So let us consider that His liberation enables us to make good choices, to stand before His Cross, and to bear our own upright and be lifted up with Him. The liberation of this truth does not necessarily make life more easy or less complicated; it may throw difficult things in our lives with which we must contend. But let us remember that His followers entered this arena not to be afraid of life and truth, but rather to run the race, to win a type of victory, to fight the good fight of faith. That's what we call freedom. We cannot do that without truth.
