Knowing the Father

Who is Jesus? part 88 – John 8:12-20

If you want to anger someone on social media, be truthful. If you want them to be really angry, send proof. People like it when what they believe is agreed with, even if it’s wrong. When someone tells them gently the truth, they get upset. Social media shows this up; certain platforms have become a place where hate is tolerated. Chatbots are programmed to be agreeable rather than truthful. I asked Google Gemini why this was: The answer: “Humans naturally rate polite, agreeable, and supportive responses higher than responses that sound argumentative or confrontational.”

Even AI knows about AI sycophancy. Or more accurately, doesn’t know, it’s just a machine.

¹² Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” ¹³ So the Pharisees said to him, “You are bearing witness about yourself; your testimony is not true.” ¹⁴ Jesus answered, “Even if I do bear witness about myself, my testimony is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going. ¹⁵ You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one. ¹⁶ Yet even if I do judge, my judgement is true, for it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father^[a] who sent me. ¹⁷ In your Law it is written that the testimony of two people is true. ¹⁸ I am the one who bears witness about myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness about me.” ¹⁹ They said to him therefore, “Where is your Father?” Jesus answered, “You know neither me nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also.” ²⁰ These words he spoke in the treasury, as he taught in the temple; but no one arrested him, because his hour had not yet come.

John 8:12-20

A quick recap, I’ve already said this in the last two posts on this subject. Jesus has been in this situation before. In Chapter 5, after Jesus has healed a man on the Sabbath, the Jews or Judeans opposed him, and when asked about other witnesses, he points to John the Baptist, who had pointed him out as the Lamb of God. Three chapters in, I can only assume that this is after the death of John the Baptist, as the Pharisees are saying, “You are bearing witness about yourself; your testimony is not true.”

What the encounters in chapters 5 and 8 have in common is that they both mention the Father. Jesus said, “My Father is working until now, and I am working,” (5:17) and, “The Father who sent me bears witness about me.” (8:18). The problem here is that the Pharisees are misquoting from the Jewish law. They knew the Law of God, but they didn’t know the God of the law.

Without a relationship with God, the Law is just empty rules. Christian writers like Paul, a former Jewish theologian, write that keeping the law does not lead to salvation. It never did. God saved the Israelites from the Egyptians before there was the law, then led the saved nation to Sinai to get the law. The law is a set of rules for how to live as God’s saved people as an example for other people, and it does not and cannot in itself lead to God. It was never intended to do that. It may lead people to repent, but they are saved by God’s power, not their own.

They knew the Law of God, but they didn’t know the God of the law. It’s worth repeating. Knowledge of God’s law, or even knowledge about God, is no substitute for having a living relationship with God.

Verse 20 is interesting. It says, “but no one arrested him, because his hour had not yet come.” Even under the hardest questioning, Jesus is still the one in control in this situation.

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