NOTES for Joh 8:42-51
The conversation between Christ and the Jews that we read today in the Gospel of John takes place under enormous tension, which is very noticeable in the Gospel text. The Lord speaks a terrible truth, which the Jews find absolutely impossible to hear, and they have nothing to set against it. "Which of you convicts Me of sin?" (in the Synodal text, "of falsehood"), the Lord exclaims. The authors of the Synodal translation did not even find it possible to use such a word in relation to Christ, although in the Greek original that is exactly the word used. But if it is impossible to convict the Lord Jesus of sin, then it obviously follows that He speaks the truth, and the Jews do not want to accept it because they themselves remain in sin.
They have nothing to set against Christ's words, so the Jews "make it personal." "You are a Samaritan and have a demon," they say. In our present reality, an argument of this kind would sound like, "You are crazy, a Jew, and a Chechen," because the Jews treated Samaritans as we, to our shame, treat certain peoples. Incidentally, the Jews here are very unoriginal: we all, when argument becomes impossible, begin insulting the one with whom we are arguing.
What is striking here is how different the things said by the opposing sides are. Christ's words exist in some other dimension; He does not lower Himself to skirmishing on a human level. And therefore what matters to us is the content of what He says, regardless of the turns of the polemic. First of all, He says that He honors the Heavenly Father, and here the issue is that worship of God which all sinful humanity rejects. In these words lies the pledge of the coming creation of the Church, which will become the Body of Christ and in which, by taking part, we take part in this honoring of the Father by Christ. And, of course, the words that whoever keeps His word will never see death are of exceptional importance for us. This is our only hope of sharing with Christ His victory over death.