Good morning,
Next week in America we have
the custom of honoring our fathers on Sunday, so I have been doing some
thinking about that theme. As I was studying the verses on that topic I
came across a passage that was startling because it’s not the usual
approach to thinking about our fathers. In John 8, Jesus had been
talking to people who were upset with him. In fact, they were trying to
figure out how to kill him. What he said did not agree with their idea
of who he was and what he did was a threat to their ideas of right and
wrong. Their claim to their authority was that they were children of
Abraham and their support to their thinking was that they were children
of the God of Abraham. Jesus pointed out the truth we have in our
modern saying “Like Father, like son.” Jesus’s ministry was one of
healing, loving, teaching and encouraging people to repent and return to
loving the God of Abraham. Jesus was living out the truth that “God is
Love.” Their response to him was based on what they didn’t like about
him and not on what God was doing through him.
Jesus’ first point was that
if God was their Father, they would love him, not accuse him. His
second point was that they couldn’t understand him because they couldn’t
hear what he was saying. His third point was that they were children
of their real father, the devil, so the only filter they had for what
was going on came from God’s sworn enemy. Jesus reminded them that
their father was the one who plotted to kill Abel right at the beginning
of creation. His next point was that their father hated the truth, so
he would never admit that God’s truth was really true. His final proof
was that their father loved lying and he was the father of lies.
Jesus’ reward for this pointed truth was that they picked up stones to
kill him. I have watched this pattern play out again and again during
all my years of ministry. If our Father is the God of Heaven and Earth,
we can expect to be confronted repeatedly like Jesus was. Our Father
proved his love by the empty cross and the empty tomb. Our Father’s
love within us follows the guidelines of the Bible and empowers us by
his Spirit to keep on loving others in the face of their opposition. If
those around us who call themselves Christians react like these
supposed followers of Jesus, we need to think carefully about what Jesus
said. They may be telling us that we have very different fathers.
John 8:42 Jesus
told them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, because I have
come to you from God. I am not here on my own, but he sent me. 43 Why
can’t you understand what I am saying? It’s because you can’t even hear
me! 44 For you are the children of your father the devil, and you love
to do the evil things he does. He was a murderer from the beginning. He
has always hated the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he
lies, it is consistent with his character; for he is a liar and the
father of lies.
Roy Wisner
