Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word

 

 They answered Him, "We are Abraham's descendants, and have never been in bondage to anyone.  How can You say, 'You will be made free'?"  Jesus answered them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.  And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever.  Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.

"I know that you are Abraham's descendants, but you seek to kill Me, because My word has no place in you.  I speak what I have seen with My Father, and you do what you have seen with your father."  They answered and said to Him, "Abraham is our father."  Jesus said to them, "If you were Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham.  But now you seek to kill Me, a Man who has told you the truth which I heard from God.  Abraham did not do this.  You do the deeds of your father."  Then they said to Him, "We were not born of fornication; we have one Father -- God."  

Jesus said to them, "If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me.  Why do you not understand My speech?  Because you are not able to listen to My word.  You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do.  He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him.  When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.  But because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me.  Which if you convicts Me of sin?  And if I tell the truth, why do you not believe Me?  He who is of God hears God's words; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God."

 

- John 8:33–47 

 

In our current readings, Jesus is at the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem, where He has been preaching and contesting with the leadership.  Yesterday we read that 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, but 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."

 

They answered Him, "We are Abraham's descendants, and have never been in bondage to anyone.  How can You say, 'You will be made free'?"  Jesus answered them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.  And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever.  Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed."  Jesus continues the conversation from what we read in yesterday's reading, above, when He told them, "If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed.  And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."   The leaders are confused as to what He is referring when He tells them they will be made free.  Jesus further elaborates that He is speaking of sin, and our relationship to sin.  We need someone to help us to be free, and it is the Son who is able to do that.  

"I know that you are Abraham's descendants, but you seek to kill Me, because My word has no place in you.  I speak what I have seen with My Father, and you do what you have seen with your father."  They answered and said to Him, "Abraham is our father."  Jesus said to them, "If you were Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham.  But now you seek to kill Me, a Man who has told you the truth which I heard from God.  Abraham did not do this.  You do the deeds of your father."  Then they said to Him, "We were not born of fornication; we have one Father -- God."  My study bible says that to be a child of Abraham, it is not enough to be simply related by blood.  Instead, Abraham's true children share Abraham's faith and virtue (Luke 3:8).  According to St. John Chrysostom, Christ wanted to detach these men from racial pride, and to teach them that their hope of salvation is not by being descendants of Abraham by nature, but rather to come to faith by their own free will.  My study bible elaborates that their idea that being a descendant of Abraham was enough for salvation was the very thing which prevented them from coming to Christ. 

Jesus said to them, "If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me."  Proceeded, according to my study bible, refers not to the Son coming eternally from the Father, but rather to Christ being sent from the Father to His Incarnation on earth.   

 

 "Why do you not understand My speech?  Because you are not able to listen to My word.  You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do.  He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him.  When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.  But because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me.  Which if you convicts Me of sin?  And if I tell the truth, why do you not believe Me?  He who is of God hears God's words; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God."  My study bible tells us that just as being a child of Abraham is based on sharing his attributes, in the same sense, those who reject Christ share the same attributes as the devil -- in particular, a hatred for truth.  This deliberate rejection, especially on the part of these men learned in Scripture and their faith, results in Christ's words that they are the devil's children.

So what is it to be a child of the devil?  While we don't judge people on the basis of what we know only (for only Christ can judge the heart), we can come to recognize significant truths in what Jesus is saying to these men.  He asks them, "Which of you convicts Me of sin?"  The answer, of course, is that none of them can.  He asks, "And if I tell the truth, why do you not believe Me?"  Jesus' explanation is simple:  if they truly loved God, they would hear the words that God gives Him.  They would hear that truth.  Moreover, their rejection of Christ is deliberate, mean-spirited, vicious, and selfish.  It's not really based on a consideration either of their own legal procedures for convicting a person, nor is it well-reasoned and rational.  They aren't willing to hear Him out.  Theirs is quite a rejection of truth, indeed, for it is not based on sincere questioning, only upon a concern for who has authority and who has not -- and, in particular, a concern for their own places in their world.  Why do we reject truth?   There might be all kinds of reasons, but there is one thing that is important to understand, and that is the connection of this truth with love, and with the reality of that love in the Person of God the Father, and shared through Christ and the Holy Spirit.   There may be times when we cannot understand why something might be good for us, but if we know the giver of that word or teaching to be one who loves us, it makes all the difference in our acceptance.  Obedience, and the ability to hear and listen to this truth, comes not out of penalizing obligation, but out of the assurance of of love.  It comes out of trust.  And trust is both the substance of faith and the relative of truth.  In John's First Epistle, he writes, "He who does not love does not know God, for God is love" (1 John 4:8).  Jesus repeatedly emphasizes that He is sent from the Father, the Father who has given Him the words of truth to give to us.  So, if we read the Scriptures right, we need to understand that everything starts from love.  Our basic trust starts there.  But without a heart that is open to this love, how are we open to truth?  Conversely, if a heart is not open to truth, how do we come to experience God's love?  These things are part and parcel of the mystery of God, and the mystery of us.  For we, as human beings created by God for communion and for adoption, are made for this relationship in love and in truth.  Although we know that Jesus was fully aware of eventual betrayal and rejection from early on, we can still read into His words a plea for reasonableness, for the salvation of these men.  When we get right down to the rootedness in our hearts of a deep basic instinct toward Christ, we have to find love, and we have to find trust.  That is, a confidence that His words are, indeed, true.  We should let nothing interfere with that trust and our sense of His love, for whatever wishes to push us off that path is not doing us any favors but leading the way to our loss.  Let us consider His words carefully to these men, and take them very seriously.  There is a place where we are known and will come to know.  It is a trap to follow what leads us away from there.