In considering John 8
● remember that there are questions about the inclusion of the opening story of the woman caught in adultery, given that the earliest manuscripts do not have the story,
● notice that Jesus offers his second “I am” declaration- “I am the light of the world” (12), extending it to the “light of life” (12) which echoes the function of bread in chapter six being the “bread of life,”
● ponder the equation of knowing Jesus and knowing the Father (19): to know Jesus, the one standing before you and talking to you, you scheming Pharisees, is to know the Father God who sent him,
● reckon again with Jesus’ management of events, there being no arrest made because “his hour had not yet come” (20),
● see how Jesus points his challengers to the central task- What do they make of Jesus?- when he declares: “Unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins” (24),
● catch the reference to crucifixion- “when I am lifted up” (28)- and the accompanying knowledge “then” that Jesus is the expected one, the Christ, and that he submits to the authority of the Father,
● notice that many believed “as he was saying these things” (30), after Jesus spoke of his connection to the Father,
● rehearse the familiar link between truth and freedom (32), remembering that two steps precede the freeing power of truth: abide in my word, thereby being my disciples, says Jesus, and then know the truth and be set free by it,
● notice that in his elaboration of this process of becoming free (34-36) Jesus refers to the Son as the agent of freedom (36),
● understand Jesus’ emphasis (42-47) on truth abiding in God and in knowing Him, and
● recognize the sure claim of Jesus when he uses God’s self-naming language- the “I am” (58) with no following words, no predicate- that echoes the name that Moses heard at the burning bush (Exodus 3:14), the name that is absolutely clear to the stone-grabbing interrogators (59).
Thank you,
Randy Tumlinson