John 8:52-55 - You've got a demon!

8:52,53

The Jews were still unable to see the truth. They were more convinced than ever that Jesus was demon possessed. Abraham and the prophets had all died. Yet if Jesus was who He said He was then surely they kept God’s word and should not have died. They did die, yet here was Jesus claiming that if anyone kept His word they would not see death. What did Jesus mean? Who was He claiming to be? He was clearly claiming to be greater than Abraham or any of the prophets had been. There is a lot of silly talk about Jesus not claiming to be divine, and that His being God was something Paul and later Christians foisted upon Jesus. The Jews of the time were perfectly clear about the enormous claims that Jesus was making for Himself.

8:54

Jesus did not glorify Himself, it was the Father who glorified Him. The Jews saw the glorification of Jesus as grounds for killing Him. The truth was that it was proof that the Father had sent Him, that the Father approved of Him. It is the Father who honours the Son. The Jews claimed that the Father was their God, yet they did not honour the One whom the Father honoured. They were working directly against God.

8:55

The truth was that the Jews did not know God, but Jesus did know Him. We are always wanting to come to God on our terms. Listen to arguments from liberals and sceptics and notice how often (in fact most of the time) what they are saying is that we will decide how we approach God. Just think about this. God is the creator and sustainer of all things. We are mere mortals. Yet we think we decide the terms of how we approach God? This is a ridiculous notion.

Jesus had to make the claims He did make, otherwise He would have been a liar. He does know the Father and does keep His word. The world is keen for us to say that all religions lead to God, but if we go along with this then we are making Jesus out to be a liar. Jesus is the only way to God, there is no other way. It doesn’t matter if we like it or not, it is the truth. And if we accept the truth we actually find that is very good news indeed.