NOTES for Joh 8:39-40

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.