Bible Text: John 8:46-59 | Preacher: Pastor Christian Preus
The Jewish leaders insulted and slandered Jesus. They called the Son of God a Samaritan and said the divine majesty had a demon. Jesus had to become like us in every way except for sin. He is the perfect substitute here. He’s faced it all, including the insults and the slander. Jesus’ suffering was not simply in the body. The worst suffering isn’t in the body. Even on the cross, the great cry of our Lord is not, “Ow, this hurts.” It’s “My God, my God, why have you forsaken Me?” It’s the crushing weight of bearing the sin of the world as His Father forsakes Him, this is His great suffering. Suffering of soul not just body. So see Him here suffering insult – falsely did thy foes accuse Thee, we just sang. The pain of slander is as severe as any festering wound. The Proverb says it, “The words of a talebearer are like wounds” and again, “A man that bears false witness against his neighbor is like a maul, and a sword, and a sharp arrow.” And the Psalmist cries out, “Deliver my soul, O Lord, from lying lips, and from a deceitful tongue.”
When you suffer insult, think on your Lord, know that He suffered them. He became like us in every way. He sympathizes with our weakness. This is what St. Paul calls sharing in the fellowship of His sufferings. The disciple is not greater than his master, Jesus says, and if they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they insult those who belong to His house?
We don’t suffer like Jesus though, because we’re sinners, and so much of our suffering happens because of our pride, our inflated view of ourselves, “How dare he say that to me?” To me, as if I am so special. The beauty of Jesus’ suffering is that there is none of that there. He suffers insult for us. He suffers insult for the honor of God. He suffers insult for the truth. He doesn’t even defend Himself against the insult of being called a Samaritan. Who cares? Let God avenge that if He wants to.
The fear of insult and slander silences people. It didn’t silence Jesus. Our Gospel lesson enters into the middle of a very contentious debate, accusations being thrown left and right, and Jesus, the lowly, the gentle, is calling very important people, the leaders of the Jews, calling them liars and telling them they are children of the devil. He doesn’t back down from the debate. And this is not to defend His pride. It is to defend the truth. Even though at the end of it, people are picking up stones to kill Him and his reputation is shredded by the most important people around. Because the truth is God’s honor and it is our salvation. So Jesus won’t back down. Praise the Lord.
The truth is the words He speaks. “I have come from God” he says, and, “If anyone keeps my word, He will never see death.” This is exactly what He says at the end of our Gospel too, “Before Abraham was, I AM.” Because I AM is the name of God, the LORD, YHWH. These are Jesus’ assertions, very clear, so clear that the Jewish leaders took up stones to kill Him: He is the God who has come in human flesh and blood to give His life, eternal life, to all who keep His Word.
It’s a truth that is worth fighting for, worth dying for, worth taking insult for.
It is easier to compromise though. Just don’t speak the truth and you won’t face opposition. You see this on the political stage all the time. Test the wind, check popular opinion before you speak. Political pundits are warning candidates not to run on pro-life issues in America today, because it’ll cost them votes. The President of the United States just dared anyone to run on pro-life issues in his state of the union address. Why? Because most of America, according to the polls, supports the legal killing of unborn babies. It has nothing to do with the truth, whether that’s right or wrong. It’s obviously wrong. It has to do with what people will say about you if you speak the truth. It’s the same reason conservatives have decided to stop opposing so-called homosexual marriage. Public opinion will destroy you if you take the stand. So the truth has to be sacrificed. Because you don’t want to be called a bigot, to be insulted, you certainly don’t want to lose an election, for holding to the truth.
You expect this in politics, it is the art of compromise. But the devil is constantly tempting the same thing in your life. What mom or dad wants to choose between their kid and their faith, but the devil is so wicked, kids will give their parents ultimatums, I won’t have anything to do with you if you talk about Jesus and his word. When I was growing up there was not this hostility in people. But the same hostility you see in the Jewish leaders is now common today: don’t talk to me about Jesus, about creation, about marriage. And you want a good relationship with your kids, with your neighbors, your coworkers, your family. But the truth needs speaking. Jesus calls Himself the light of the world because He lives this truth, He is this truth, He speaks this truth. But He calls us the light of the world too, because we confess this truth. And the world needs to hear it. And confessing it will mean insult and lies. So be it. The truth is love, because Jesus is the truth and Jesus is love. These two can’t be separated.
Abraham knew this. The choice was between his child and his God. But it wasn’t. It never is. God told Abraham to sacrifice his son, and he obeyed, to the very end, he obeyed, but he did not do it because he was picking God over his son, but because he knew that to pick God was also to love his son. He didn’t know how. But he knew it. God promises the Savior of the world through Isaac, so Abraham knew that God would not let Isaac die, or if He did, He would raise him up again. And Abraham confesses this. He says to the servants, “Wait here, and we will come back to you.” We, he says, because he knows he’s coming back with Isaac. And when he says to Isaac, God will provide a lamb for the sacrifice, he isn’t lying to his kid, he is certain of it. God will provide His own Son, the Lamb of God, and He will not only spare Isaac’s life, he will give him everlasting life. So the choice is never between God and children or between God and your neighbor. It is always God for your child, God for your neighbor, because Jesus is the Savior of all and shed His precious blood for all and sends His Word out to all.
The lie of the devil is that we cause the strife by our insisting on the truth. But no, the truth is what belongs. The truth is what holds the right of existence. The lie doesn’t. It is the intruder. It doesn’t belong in this world. And when it intrudes, it causes the fight and the dissension and the accusations. No Christian should want the dissension. But it necessarily comes because the devil attacks the truth. And it’s his fault. Not Christ’s, not Christians’. What was Jesus supposed to do? Not say, I am the light of the world? Because it offended people? But He is! And people need to hear it. Was he supposed to tell John the Baptist to be quiet when he said, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world?” Stop pointing at Me John, that’s going to offend people. Was He supposed to silence these things because they were inconvenient truths for the Jewish leaders? That’s silly. And it’s just as silly for us to think we’re causing anything but blessing by speaking the truth in love. Because Jesus is the Savior of the whole world. And He wants them to know their sin and their Savior and to know the truth. He said earlier, and it’s the thing that started the whole controversy, he said, If you abide in my word then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. And it has set you free. The devil can throw all his darts at you and tempt you and test you with every lie, every accusation, every insult, but the truth that you need Jesus is not up for debate. You are a sinner and that sin separates you from God and brings death without your Lord Jesus – unless you believe that I AM, you will die in your sins, Jesus said. That’s the truth. And God your Creator loves you so much that He bore your sins and He destroyed your death by facing it and He gives you eternal life and you will never perish. So you hold on to His Word and you don’t let it go, no matter how anyone insults you for doing it.
This is the type of insult, not the petty ones that touch your pride, but these that touch the truth and salvation, that conform us to Christ. Christ stands firm. He takes the insult. It hurts. He came to His own and His own did not receive Him. He loved them as brothers and sisters, as children. And they rejected Him and insulted Him. But He held to the truth for them. Who knows how many picked up stones to stone Him and then chanted Crucify Him! before Pilate, and He prayed, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do, as He bore their sin, how many of these were baptized on that first Pentecost when they realized finally that they had crucified the Lord of life? And Jesus loved them through it all by standing always on the truth.
Abraham rejoiced to see Jesus’ day. Abraham died 2000 years before Christ. That’s why the Jews mocked – you’re not yet fifty years old and have you seen Abraham? But God is the God of the living, not the dead. And Abraham rejoiced, because Abraham lived, and Abraham lived because He trusted in Jesus. I don’t know how much the saints are looking down on us right now from heaven. I don’t like it when people assert that grandma is looking down on us, is our guardian angel. No she’s not. She’s a human being and will remain one forever. But she might be looking down, at least as we gather round the altar to commune with Jesus, and so with all the saints in heaven. We know Abraham was looking down. And He was rejoicing with all the host of heaven to see the day of Jesus.
Usually Jesus talks about His hour. My hour has not yet come. That’s the hour of his death. But here he says, my day. Because Abraham was rejoicing at it all. That the Son had left His throne in heaven and joined the ranks of sinners to redeem them. That He fulfilled every promise God ever made. That He brought the hope and certainty of everlasting life to this world. That He suffered insult and spilt His blood for us and carried our sins and reconciled God to us. That He gives us the truth and fights for it. Abraham rejoiced at it all. And so do we. Everything Jesus is and did and said, all of it, is our joy, now and forever.