The next, harshest words of Jesus are addressed to... Jews who had believed in Him. Evidently, they believed in some way other than the Lord wanted. Therefore we too need to think: do we believe rightly or not? They proudly declare that they were born free, being children of Abraham, the chosen people. Therefore they do not need freedom, for they are not slaves, and they do not need the truth, for they already know it. They call God their father, but this already follows from their belonging to the holy people; no step is required of them in order to be adopted by the Lord.

And what is most frightening is that all this is characteristic not only of the Jews. Do we not believe in the same way? Do we not consider ourselves chosen people who have freedom and truth in our pocket, and who have long since been God’s own people? If so, why do we need to believe in Jesus? Let us think about this...

Jesus' conversation with the Pharisees listening to Him at first glance appears to be a simple misunderstanding, a dispute over words that each person understands in his own way. Meanwhile Jesus Himself does not appear especially eager to resolve this misunderstanding. On the contrary, He speaks in such a way that new questions are added to old ones, and fresh perplexities are layered onto the earlier ones. At first glance it can appear that Jesus is trying to confuse His interlocutors as much as possible, but in reality He is trying to help them see both themselves and the life they are living in a way completely different from what they are used to seeing, for they are used to seeing themselves and their life from the viewpoint of the religious tradition of which they were bearers.

For a believer, religiosity can in a certain sense be considered a natural state, and therefore it is not surprising that such a person perceives everything around him through the prism of his religion. The Pharisees were no exception; on the contrary, Pharisaism as a special movement within Judaism can in a certain sense be called the quintessence of religiosity as such. And the Pharisees' view of the world, of their life, and of their history was naturally religious. Jesus, however, is trying to lead them beyond the limits of this religiosity. He says to them, for example: you think you are free? What about sin? Or do you not count slavery to sin as slavery? Are you descendants of Abraham? But to be Abraham's descendant means to continue the work he began, not to declare loyalty to a tradition. And what are you doing? You want to kill Me because I testify to you about what has been revealed to Me by God? And you consider this a deed worthy of Abraham?

Jesus is constantly trying to lead the people listening to Him beyond the limits of their own religiosity. He wants them to understand what spiritual life is in all its purity and fullness, unrestricted by any human framework, including religious frameworks. He says to the people listening to Him: Tradition is not religion. Tradition is life with God and in God. Everyone who lives such a life continues the Tradition. Abraham is not the founder of a new religion; he began the Tradition of communion with God and life with God, and only in this way can his work be continued. True Tradition, Tradition with a capital T, is precisely the Tradition of life with God. And the fullness and completion of this Tradition is life in that very Kingdom which He, Jesus, brought into the world.

This is the life the Savior is trying to tell the Pharisees listening to Him about, plunging them into complete bewilderment that gradually grows into irritation, and then into hatred. This is what brings Christ's earthly path to the outcome that follows naturally in such a situation.

Addressing the Pharisees who are listening to Him, Jesus keeps trying to bring them back to the very foundations of what is called spiritual life. He tells them: you see what I am doing, and still you dishonor Me - that means you are not from God.

At first glance, the argument may seem somewhat strange: Jesus Himself understands perfectly well that His listeners doubt Him and do not trust Him. To declare to them, when they have this attitude toward Him, that He is from God and they, if they do not accept Him, are therefore not from God, may seem somewhat naive at first glance. Making oneself the criterion when people do not believe you appears completely absurd. But Jesus is not speaking about Himself in isolation; He is speaking about His works - the very works about which even many Pharisees could say nothing except that they were from God. Simple logic should then have forced them to acknowledge that the One who performs these works is also from God. But nothing of the sort happens.

What prevents those listening to Jesus from acknowledging what is obvious? And what does He mean when He tells them that "their father is the devil"? Of course, when false witness is involved, that is, a direct violation of the ninth commandment, and a violation of which the offenders have no intention of repenting, one can already speak of direct submission to the devil as the spirit of lies.

But why does this happen? After all, these are deeply and sincerely religious people, for whom a conscious violation of the commandment means betrayal of their own religion. True; but, as can be seen, all this is valid only as long as religion itself is not at stake. If someone appears who encroaches on religion as such, that person is considered an enemy by definition, and the commandments no longer apply to Him: in their eyes He has placed Himself outside the religious law that they follow. There is nothing to discuss with such a person. "He is a Samaritan" (it would be hard to imagine a worse insult in the Pharisees' religious language), "He has a demon," and it does not matter that He works miracles: miracles are no proof if the One who performs them does not conform to religious norms.

And Jesus again and again tries to bring His listeners back to a normal, not religious but spiritual, vision of the situation: look not at your religion, He tells them, but at the One who does God's works; look without prejudice, with unblinded eyes, or else you will fall into the snares of the father of lies and lose everything, despite all your religiosity.