There is no greater darkness that descends upon a person's life than the death of a loved one. There is a very real understanding that comes from the soul that the loved one will not be there any longer. There is an anticipation of missing them, even though it may be to early to actually do so. There is a grief from the loss of fellowship. Only in the account of the death of Lazarus do the Scriptures record — twice — that Jesus was greatly moved. He even weeps. The One who knows what happens after death was still moved by the curse.
Last time we witnessed Jesus heal a man who was blind from birth. Some were astounded, other's couldn't believe it was the same man, but it all ended well with laughter and slaps on the back. That is, until, the Pharisees heard about it. Jesus was healing people again, on the Sabbath again, and after they had already explained why he shouldn't be doing that back in chapter five. It would seem the Messiah needed a lesson in who was in charge. Step one, try and debunk the miracle. They called in the beggar formerly known as "the Blind Man."
Jesus continues to teach the crowds, and the Jewish leaders have still not moved to arrest him. In his usual fashion, Jesus makes some statements to teach and others to confuse his adversaries. Still testifying about himself and his Father, Jesus speaks in such a way that some will understand and others will not. This is evidence by the various reactions the people have to his teaching as recorded by John. Verse 21 is a typical example of such language, "I am going away… Where I am going you cannot come," he said. The religious leaders immediately tried to discern his meaning.
The story is referred to by early church fathers as the Pericope Adulterae, but to modern readers it is know as the Adulterous Woman, or A Woman Caught in Adultery. You know the one, where a woman caught in adultery is brought before Jesus to be stoned? Jesus challenges the crowd with the words, "he who is without sin cast the first stone." It is one of the most well-known stories in the New Testament and, surprisingly, not original to the New Testament at all. All the earliest manuscripts omit the story, and among the later it shifts location.
This marks the start of a prolonged series on the Gospel of Luke. As we’ve already examined the book of Acts, it seems reasonable that the first Gospel we study should be Luke as both share a common author. Ask anyone to compare the gospels and two facts will almost always be mentioned: (1) that John is the Gospel of Love, and (2) that Luke is the Historical Gospel. While it is true that John gives us a look into Jesus’ personal struggles and relates stories not contained in any other gospel account, it is not true that Luke is purely a historical account.
As Christians God has entrusted us with a lot of knowledge. Unfortunately, even good people often fall into narrow perspectives. Take the disciples, for example. In chapter nine Jesus and his troop happen upon a blind man. Knowing that sometimes the sins of the father are visited upon the son, they asked Jesus (thinking themselves very holy and smart, I'm sure), "was it his father or mother whose sin caused the blindness?" A narrow perspective indeed. Jesus widens that perspective. It wasn't sin that caused the man's blindness, it was God who had great things in mind for the man.
If we remove the first 11 verses of chapter eight we have a continuity problem with today's passage, 8.12-20. Chapter seven ends with the religious leaders planning Jesus' fateful end, and in chapter 8 verse twelve Jesus is again teaching in the temple. The story of the Adulterous Woman provides us with the reason Jesus is back in the temple teaching, which is another reason I think it is a mistake to simply eliminate the pericope from the Bible. In today's passage, Jesus is at the temple, standing near the offering box, to teach the gospel using a metaphor.
The Feast of Tabernacles is still underway, in fact John identifies it as the both the last day, and the greatest day which presents a problem for modern readers. According to Deuteronomy 16 the feast was 7 days, with a ceremony of water and lights on the seventh day (Mishna, Sukkah 4). This is likely the day that John means, though Leviticus 23.36 mentions an eighth day which was intended as a day of holy assembly. Due to the seventh day having a celebration, and the eighth being described as a solemn assembly, the seventh is more likely to be the "greatest day".
Chapter ten brings us half way through the fourth section of John's gospel, the conflict of men against the Messiah. Even when Jesus tells two parables about the good shepherd and the shepherd's gate, controversy arises. Perhaps it was the speaker and to the message that caused such dispute? Only the text can answer that. Even though this passage may be familiar, there are three more obscure truths that are important to note. Before we get to that, however, we ought to first examine Jesus' teaching and what was so contentious about it.
While it is unclear if all these teachings of Jesus were on the same occassion or different events strung together (probably the later), the point isn't when Jesus taught these truths but what truths Jesus taught. Today's passage (8.31-59), however, is directly linked to yesterdays (8.21-30). John links the two by informing the reader this discussion was to those who believed him to be the Messiah. This is amazing seeing as how the passage ends with the people wanting to stone Jesus. We're getting ahead of ourselves, however, so let us see how this transformation takes place.
While we may not be able to state this story is true, one thing we can be sure of and that is that it doesn't contradict anything revealed in Scripture about Jesus, Biblical theology or any other truth. We also know that it is an ancient story, one that began in the early church and whose roots may go back to the time of Christ. It may be a true story, even though it was likely not written by one of the Bible's authors. We'll leave the debate as to its canonical status to the scholars; today we'll examine the story itself.
Today we are picking up right where we left off yesterday. Knowing that the Pharisees in Jerusalem wanted to kill him, Jesus went into town anyway to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles. It should be noted the while the feast looked back to the time before Israel was a nation and the people wandered the desert living in tents (or tabernacles) in the presence of God, it also looked forward to the day when God would once more dwell with man. There is no little irony then, that Jesus — God in the flesh — was walking among them during this feast period.
