At the Feast of Tents in Jerusalem in AD 30, Jesus was teaching the crowds in the magnificent Temple there. But he personally was being strongly opposed. He had been called a Samaritan (a beyond-the pale outcast) and demon-possessed. His reply is in bold red above. “I honour my Father, and you dishonour me.”
The judgments demeaning him were seemingly of little account because he did not seek his “own glory”.
But when he said, “there is one seeking and judging”, I think he was referring to his “Father”, who “is one seeking” to be honoured – the Lord God above. That one also “is judging”. Seeking all and judging all.
“Truly, truly, I say to you, if a person may keep my word, he may never notice death, into eternity.”
What did the words “keep my word” actually mean? Sure, his “word” was what he spoke. But was Jesus also – himself, in person, in his whole being – his “word” to all humanity? I think so, He said that to “keep [his] word” will affect a person’s experience of “death” and of “eternity”.
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The Jews said to him, “Now we do know that you have a demon! Abraham died - and the prophets – and you yourself state, ‘If a person may keep my word, he may never taste death, into eternity.’ Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets died! Who are you making yourself?”
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An inflamed response ensued. They were furious about the arrogance of his statement. They repeated it, with a slight modification. Maybe they thought that, when he had referred to “my Father”, he had meant “our father Abraham”. They could not conceive that a greater than Abraham was there with them.
Jesus replied, “If I myself glorify myself, the glory of me is nothing. My Father is the one glorifying me, the one that you yourselves state, ‘He is our God’, and you do not know him. I myself do discern him and, if I might say that I do not discern him, I will be a liar resembling you, but I do discern him and I keep his word.”
Jesus replied to the overall thrust of their criticism – that he was “glorifying” himself by claiming that the keeping of “his word” would deal with “death”. For him, all self-seeking glory of himself was “nothing”. It would be great if every human being could see themselves like that. If so, these days, both President Trump and Elon Musk would be very different.
The real problem was their own position before their purported “God” – as compared with his position. This God they did “not know”. It seems unbelievable that the Jerusalem authorities then could maintain such a false façade of devout and religious worship of God - unlike Jesus who did in fact “discern him and keep his word.”
“Your father Abraham was joyful that he might see my own day and he saw and he rejoiced.” So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years, and discerned Abraham?”
The patriarch “Abraham” was the very first of God’s chosen people in the Bible’s Old Testament. He lived around 2000 BC. Jesus’ clarification of the relationship between him and Abraham was totally unacceptable to his opponents. For them, it was totally and irreversibly impossible to accept that he was who he said he was.
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Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I state to you, before Abraham came to be, I myself am.”
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Another “Truly, truly…” statement from Jesus back there in AD 30. He states clearly that he preceded BC 2000 Abraham. “I am.”
So they took up stones so that they might throw them at him. In fact, Jesus was hidden and he came out from the temple.
Rejection of Jesus comes from the heart. Stones are not the only method of getting rid of him. Now hidden, he’s not in the temple. He’s the “I am.”
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