John 8:21-30

Numbers 21:4-9

Psalm 102:2-3, 16-18, 19-21

John 8:21-30

Jesus said to the Pharisees:

“I am going away and you will look for me,

but you will die in your sin.

Where I am going you cannot come.”

So the Jews said,

“He is not going to kill himself, is he,

because he said, ‘Where I am going you cannot come’?”

He said to them, “You belong to what is below,

I belong to what is above.

You belong to this world,

but I do not belong to this world.

That is why I told you that you will die in your sins.

For if you do not believe that I AM,

you will die in your sins.”

So they said to him, “Who are you?”

Jesus said to them, “What I told you from the beginning.

I have much to say about you in condemnation.

But the one who sent me is true,

and what I heard from him I tell the world.”

They did not realize that he was speaking to them of the Father.

So Jesus said to them,

“When you lift up the Son of Man,

then you will realize that I AM,

and that I do nothing on my own,

but I say only what the Father taught me.

The one who sent me is with me.

He has not left me alone,

because I always do what is pleasing to him.”

Because he spoke this way, many came to believe in him.

Opening Prayer: Lord God, the one who was, and who is, and who will be, grant me a share in your divine life. Inspire me to speak what you teach. Send me to proclaim your kingdom. Do not let me die in my sin, but live, rather, in your grace.

Encountering the Word of God

1. A Warning to the Pharisees: In his conversation with the Pharisees after the Feast of Tabernacles, Jesus continues to reveal his divine identity to them. Yesterday, he brought up his relationship with the Father and how the Father testifies on his behalf. Today, he speaks about the deliverance from sin and death that his cross and resurrection will accomplish (John 8:24, 28). But just as the Pharisees misunderstood when Jesus spoke about his Father and asked him about Joseph (John 8:19), so also the Pharisees misunderstood him when he spoke about his destiny. Jesus warns the Pharisees that if they do not believe that he is “I AM,” that Jesus is the Son of God, they will die in their sin. “Jesus came to take ‘away the sin of the world’ (John 1:29) and offer eternal life with the Father to all. Because Jesus is I AM – the divine name – only he can heal humanity of sin and reconcile it with the Father. Those who believe in him accept his gift of eternal life with the Father, whereas those who reject him refuse his gift and thus die separated from God” (Martin and Wright, The Gospel of John, 159).

2. Misunderstanding Jesus: The Pharisees think about Jesus in earthly terms, not in heavenly terms. They thought Jesus was talking about killing himself when he was actually talking about his heavenly destiny: “Where I am going you cannot come” (John 8:21). John’s Gospel often relates how Jesus was misunderstood. When Jesus spoke about raising up the temple in three days, the Judeans thought he was speaking about the physical temple, and not his resurrection (John 2:13-25). When he spoke to Nicodemus about being born again, Nicodemus tried to understand it as physical rebirth, rather than spiritual rebirth through Baptism (John 3:1-21). When Jesus spoke about living water with the Samaritan woman, she thought he was speaking about a running stream and didn’t understand he was speaking about the grace of the Spirit (John 4:4-42). When Jesus spoke to the crowds in the synagogue in Capernaum about eating his flesh and drinking his blood, they quarreled among themselves and didn’t understand he was speaking about the Eucharist (John 6:22-66).

3. Who are You? When Jesus identifies himself as “I AM,” this provokes the Judeans to ask, “Who are you?” They want him to complete the phrase and say something like, “I am the prophet” or “I am the Messiah,” and don’t grasp that he is speaking about his divine identity. Jesus tells them that he has been speaking about his divine identity “from the beginning” (John 8:25). The people continue in their misunderstanding and do not realize Jesus is speaking about the Father when he speaks about the one who sent him. Jesus’ destiny as the Son of Man is to be lifted up. This is the second time in John’s Gospel he has spoken about being lifted up. “The first statement, to Nicodemus, reveals the mystery of the cross as salvation (John 3:14-15). This second statement focuses on the cross as the culmination of Jesus’ revelation” (Martin and Wright, The Gospel of John, 159). Seen with eyes of faith, the cross will reveal Jesus’ divine identity: the Triune God is radical and subsisting self-giving love.

Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, the one who was, the one who is, and the one who will be. You have been lifted up on the Cross to save us from sin. You have been lifted up from the grace to bring us to resurrected life. You have been lifted up to heaven and now sit at the right hand of the Father to intercede for us and rule over all things.

Living the Word of God: Do I humbly seek to understand Jesus’ words in prayer? What is the word of Jesus or phase that I strive to live each day? Am I in danger of misunderstanding Jesus or thinking in merely earthly terms? How can I better contemplate my life and my mission in heavenly terms?