Today’s Scripture Readings

Gospel Reading

NRSV

Very truly, I tell you, whoever keeps my word will never see death.’ 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.” Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? The prophets also died. Who do you claim to be?’ 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”, though you do not know him. But I know him; if I were to say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you. But I do know him and I keep his word. Your ancestor Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day; he saw it and was glad.’ Then the Jews said to him, ‘You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?’ Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, before Abraham was, I am.’ So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.

Abraham was a successful Middle Eastern businessman. But for all his success in business, there were two things he lacked that mattered ultimately in the culture he knew – children of his own and a land of his own. In his culture, you lived on beyond death in your children and your patrimonial land, and without them, Abraham appears as a human being in whose life, death will have the last word. God promises to give him both, but the hard-nosed businessman knows that his wife is barren and all the land is taken. Still, he learns to trust in God and his strange promise.

The opponents of Jesus were hard-nosed religious leaders who regarded him as a blasphemer who should be stoned to death. Jesus says that those who listen to his word will not taste death; but the leaders who refuse to listen to him and put their faith in him are signing their own death warrant.

Jesus knows Abraham; he has seen him. But the leaders who claim to be children of Abraham neither know him nor see him, since to know and see Jesus is to know and see Abraham. The coup de grâce comes when Jesus says, “Before ever Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58). Not only does Jesus see and know Abraham, he existed before him “in the bosom of the Father” (John 1:18). His status is divine. This is either outrageous blasphemy or ultimate truth. We put our faith in the truth.