So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples,” (v 31)…The Jews answered him, “Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?” (v 48)…The Jews said to him, “Now we know that you have a demon! Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet you say, 'If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.'” (v 52)…So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple. (v 59) – John 8 select passages (ESV)
John 8:31-59 shows a type of faith that disappears when the Lord reveals Himself for who he is. What Jesus was talking about earlier (being the light of the world), evidently garnered a seemingly positive response (v. 30) but it was a spurious response. The listeners turned on Jesus as He showed them who they really were and, in turn, He revealed who He was. While some may hold Jesus in high regard, this doesn’t mean that they have a full understanding of what He is claiming.
When we run into something that is uncomfortable in Scripture, we either (1) find some ‘smart person’ who agrees with us, helping us to avoid the uncomfortable issue, (2) ignore the issue, we mentally deny that the Scriptures actually said ‘that,’ (3) we say, ‘this isn’t for me’ and quit believing, or (4) we acknowledge that it is difficult, but we continue to trust our Lord and Savior. Lord, help us to always choose option four.
