Lent V- John 8:58

On some traditional Western liturgical calendars (including the 1928 BCP), the Fifth Sunday in Lent has been called Passion Sunday. The original meaning of the word passion is suffering, and we know that there are many aspects of Christ’s suffering.  There had been social, political, and religious opposition to Jesus since early in His ministry. Nevertheless, as His ministry approaches the end, the conflicts intensify. Something about Him makes His opponents even more determined to destroy Him.

Today’s Gospel from John 8 reflects this deeper conflict. The central issue is Jesus' identity and His character. He makes claims that some of His opponents find outrageous. He crosses the boundaries of acceptable eccentricity. Some of His sayings even frighten potential sympathizers. In  John 8, Christ implies that no one can convict Him of sin. He says that He can conquer death, and He implies that He is greater than the patriarch Abraham. Even more bluntly He says, “Before Abraham was, I am” (Jn. 8:58). In the Jewish context of Exodus 3:14, “I am” is a title for God that Jesus alludes to several times in John's Gospel. So Jesus implies that He shares the divine nature, and His listeners sense His claim.

This claim to share the divine nature is earth-shattering for first-century Jews. Christ’s Judean listeners confront a clear and radical choice regarding His identity. They can no longer ignore Jesus as a simple religious teacher from the backwoods of Galilee. This choice is what C.S. Lewis calls “the Shocking Alternative.” Either Jesus is telling the truth about His relationship with God the Father or He is a liar. There are three possibilities. Either Jesus shares the divine nature, or He is dangerously crazy, or He is a blasphemer who despises all that was sacred. Many of His hearers made a choice. They decided that He was guilty of blasphemy, the worst of sins. And given their assumptions, they felt bound to seek His death.

Most people in our time, whether Christian or non-Christian, fail to recognize the radical choice that Jesus Christ demands. Many contemporaries merely view religion as an expression of ethics. And they just think of Jesus as a nice guy who did some good deeds. So people in our time fail to see what He means.

However, Jesus knows what He is saying, and so do many of His opponents. Jesus asks for a radical choice- accept Him or reject Him: lukewarm admiration is not a real option. The biblical message still confronts each of us with the same choice. Jesus Christ asks us to have faith in Him as our divine Savior. The central point is whether people believe Christ’s claims.  If Jesus is who He says He is, then we are talking about the most basic human choice- to accept or reject God Himself. Every human soul that hears Jesus' claims must choose. We need to be in prayerful contemplation. We need to ask ourselves whether we have accepted Jesus in sincere faith. And if by grace we do have faith in Jesus Christ, we need to repent of our shortcomings each day and seek to grow in grace.