glory missed
Noel K. Anderson
First Presbyterian Church of Upland
Last week, we saw Jesus teaching in the Temple during the Feast of Booths, celebrating how God led the people in the wilderness by being their light, bread, and living water. Jesus reveals himself as the giver of bread, the light of the world, and the living water of eternal life, but the Scribes and Pharisees want him killed as a blasphemer. They can’t quite manage to pin him down.
This week, we’re talking about Death, Blasphemy, and Glory—which should have been my title.
Chapter 8 begins with the famous story of the woman caught in adultery. The Scribes and Pharisees try to trap Jesus into having her stoned to death, but Jesus—the true judge—shows her mercy.
Today, he is teaching in the Temple again, and he makes clear that those who do not believe in him can’t possibly say they know or love the Father and again proclaims their essential unity. Our text picks up there.
Text: John 8: 48-59 New Revised Standard
48 The Jews answered him, “Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?” 49 Jesus answered, “I do not have a demon; but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me. 50 Yet I do not seek my own glory; there is one who seeks it and he is the judge. 51 Very truly, I tell you, whoever keeps my word will never see death.” 52 The Jews said to him, “Now we know that you have a demon. Abraham died, and so did the prophets; yet you say, ‘Whoever keeps my word will never taste death.’ 53 Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? The prophets also died. Who do you claim to be?” 54 Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, he of whom you say, ‘He is our God,’ 55 though you do not know him. But I know him; if I would say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you. But I do know him and I keep his word. 56 Your ancestor Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day; he saw it and was glad.” 57 Then the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” 58 Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, before Abraham was, I am.” 59 So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple. †
DEATH
Was Jesus more Greek than Hebrew?
“Jesus, just a question: are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?”
To call Jesus a Samaritan was to say he is an enemy of Israel, despite being a Jew. To say he has a demon is entirely rational from a worldly view. Jesus has said he can confer life on whomever he pleases, that God Almighty has given overall judgment to him, that he can forgive sins and a dozen other things that would make such a question reasonable.
One of C. S. Lewis’s most famous quotes comes from his book Mere Christianity:
Jesus [. . .] told people that their sins were forgiven. [. . .] This makes sense only if He really was the God whose laws are broken and whose love is wounded in every sin. [. . .] I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: “I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.”
That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. - C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
Jesus says, “Of course not—but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me.” Which, by extension, means they dishonor God. They would have felt this was an offense immediately because they were “the righteous ones” of Israel.
Jesus then raises the stakes—verse 51:
“Amen, Amen, I tell you, whoever keeps my word will never see death.” —John 8:51
At this, I imagine every jaw-dropping. What? Never see death? What does that even mean? They come at him: Look, Abraham and the Patriarchs all lived and died; the prophets all lived, all died; David, Solomon—all of them were human beings! They all lived, but they all died. How can you say, ‘Whoever keeps my word will never see death? Who do you think you are? Are you greater than Abraham?
Jesus answers I’m not here to glorify myself. My Father glorifies me, and He is the one you dare to call your Lord and God, but you don’t really know him. I know him. If I said that I don’t really know him, I’d be a liar like all of you.
They say, “You’re not a day over 40, and Abraham died 2200 years ago! How can you say you’ve seen him?”
Of Abraham, Jesus says (v. 56)
Your ancestor Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day; he saw it and was glad.
What are we to make of this? Does this mean that Abraham is not really dead? How can he be alive and observing the arrival of Christ 2200 years later? Jesus implies that Abraham is still looking on as he cheers on Jesus from his heavenly box seat.
Orthodox Christian teaching says we are simply dead—or “asleep”—until the resurrection of the flesh. “Rest in Peace” is what we used to put on gravestones (according to the cartoons, anyway—though I’ve never seen one). We die in the hope of the resurrection when our physical bodies will be raised from the grave—as Christ’s was—and live a new life with an immortal body. But what are we to make of the in-between time? Abraham hasn’t yet been resurrected, has he? No, his bones lay somewhere underground in Old Hebron, as do the bones of all the patriarchs, prophets, apostles, saints, Christians, and atheists right up till today. So in what way is Abraham observing? Where are Peter and Paul right now? Where’s my mother and father—and my grandparents?
There are many verses undermining that doctrine that sound much more like the pagan Greeks than the Hebrew Old Testament.
Matthew 22: 31-32
31 And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God, 32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is God not of the dead, but of the living.”
So those who have biologically died yet live in God’s realm? Apparently so. Also, remember what Jesus said to the thief beside him on the cross:
Luke 23: 42-43
42 Then [the criminal] said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” 43 He replied, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”
That’s today, not someday, not Sunday, once I have been resurrected, or after the final trumpet at the resurrection of all flesh, but simply today.
When we live to the Lord and keep his word, we never taste death, though we do and will experience biological death. There is no spiritual death for those who are in Jesus; he has already saved our souls for eternity.
Jesus says in verse 58
“Amen, Amen, I tell you, before Abraham was, I AM.”
That I AM is the name of God the Father, and this is why they wanted to stone him.
BLASPHEMY
Who is NOT guilty?
Our text from Leviticus lays down the law for blasphemy. Verse 16:
One who blasphemes the name of the Lord shall be put to death; the whole congregation shall stone the blasphemer.
What is blasphemy? In short, it is trash-talking God.
It is the opposite of glorifying him—giving him praise, honor, and thanks.
Think of a polarity with blasphemy at one end and glorification of God on the other.
Blasphemy is the opposite of the first and greatest commandment:
‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ [Matthew 22:37]
Blasphemy is to do the opposite, but what is the opposite of love? The opposite of love isn’t necessarily hate, which would read,
•One who hates The Lord with all his heart, soul, and mind.
•One who ignores The Lord with all his heart, soul, and mind.
•One who neglects The Lord with all his heart, soul, and mind.
Put simply, blasphemy is not to observe the first and greatest commandment. Anything other than loving God with our whole heart, soul, and mind amounts to blasphemy.
Who is guilty of blasphemy—most of humanity, to be sure.
Who is guilty of blasphemy in this passage?
The Jewish leaders are out to kill Jesus. That’s more than neglect or ignoring him. It is active hatred. They are going out of their way—to a great deal of work—to have him destroyed. Their blasphemy is willful and intentional defiance of God—as hateful as hatred can be.
Going back to their own law, all of them—the entire congregation—deserves to be stoned to death.
But they are blind to their sin even as they are deluded about their own righteousness. This is all hypocrisy—found among churches, yes, but also in the secular world—mainly politics. And business. And entertainment. And the media, academia, education, the military—and we should probably face it: All humankind dabbles in blasphemy regularly and is all worthy of death because we fail to love God fully and give him his due glory.
Which leads us to glory….
GLORY
Hint: It doesn’t come from us
Jesus says he does not seek his own glory but that of his Father, and his Father seeks to glorify him, the Son.
So what, exactly, is glory? What do we mean by it?
Glory is a shining light. In the Old Testament, the word for glory is Shekinah, something like radiance and light. Glory, in this sense, is the light that emanates out from God the way the light pours out of our sun.
Jesus has said, “I am the light of the world,” which means he is this world’s glory—God the Father has given all glory to his Son Jesus.
Now “to glorify” can mean to shine a light upon something. You can’t add glory to the sun by pointing a flashlight at it. To glorify God might be thought of as shining a light upon God, which isn’t all bad as an idea but falls apart quickly because God is glory.
There is an image for worship—we wrongly may think of ourselves as obligated to glorify God—to light him up in a dark world—to shine our lights upon him so that the world would see him, but this is more than a bit ridiculous. This is trying to point a flashlight at the sun.
God is all glorious—the source of all glory in heaven and earth. We are foolish to think we can add to his glory or highlight it—we can’t. Far better than our measly little flashlights would be simple mirrors—one small mirror, by reflecting the light of the sun, can do more than any flashlight.
We do not have glory to give God. We do not have light within us to add to his great light. No, at best, we receive his light and reflect it outward. We are not sources of light, but we can be conduits and reflectors of that light.
We can’t give God glory because all glory comes from Him. He is glorious in and of himself; we either acknowledge—or fail to acknowledge—his glory.
The better definition of glory—as in glorifying God—is to say that we give God all honor, praise, and thanks. We acknowledge that God is all glorious—the source and substance of all glory.
Question number one of the Westminster Shorter Catechism is something every Christian should have memorized. It is a question/answer format:
Q: What is the chief end of Man?
A: The chief end of Man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.
How do we glorify God? We acknowledge that he is the light from whom all light comes. He is the glory that outshines the cosmos. He is life before the life of the universe and after its end. He is eternal and eternally good.
We glorify God by worshiping him. The Father is God; the Son Jesus is God; the Holy Spirit is God—one identity, one name, one I AM.
“Before Abraham was, I AM,” said Jesus, and the religious leaders cried, “Blasphemy!”
But for us, to say that Jesus is anything less than the whole life and Glory of God Almighty is the greater blasphemy.
May all glory, praise, and honor be given to God—may we reflect his glory outward and proclaim his exceeding goodness, both now and forever! †
Questions
- Where is Jesus and what is the context/setting of this discourse between the Pharisees and Jesus?
- Why do Jesus’ enemies accuse him of being a Samaritan and demon-possessed?
- What lies does the devil use today in the church to excuse destructive/violent action?
- What does it mean to never see death? When does it begin? (See John 11:26)
- How does this make a difference in your life?
- Why are the rulers so provoked by Jesus? See vs.52
- What does Jesus mean by “before Abraham was born I am”?
- Why would this be so difficult for the rulers to hear or understand?
- What are the difficulties in hearing and understanding Jesus’ words today?
- How can we as the Lord’s ambassadors help people to know who the Christ is?