John 8:38-47 I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and you do that which you have seen with your father.… I. WHAT DID HE CLAIM FOR HIMSELF? 1. God announced Himself to Moses as "I AM" — a marvellous name, which seemed as if it were going to be a revelation; but suddenly it returned upon itself and finished with "THAT I AM," as if the sun were just about to come from behind a great cloud, and suddenly, after one dazzling gleam, hide itself before one denser still — God's "hour" was not yet. He had said "I am," but what He did not say. 2. Does Jesus connect Himself with this mysterious name? We cannot read His life without constantly coming across it, but He adds to the name simple earthly words, everything that human fancy ever conceived concerning strength, beauty, sympathy, tenderness, and redemption — "I am the vine." What a stoop! Could any but God have taken up that figure? Forget your familiarity with it and then consider that One has said without qualification, "I am the Vine," "I am the Light." We know what that is: it is here, there, everywhere — takes up no room, yet fills all space; warms the plants, yet does not crush a twig. The "I am" fell upon us like a mighty thundering, "I am the Light" came to us like a child's lesson in our mother's nursery. "I am the Door." That is not a mean figure, if we interpret it aright, a door is more than a deal arrangement swinging on hinges. It is welcome, hospitality, home, honour, sonship. "I am the Bread, the Water, the Good Shepherd, the Way, the Truth, the Life." How any man could be a mere man, and yet take up these figures, it is impossible to believe. It is easier to say "My Lord and My God." II. WHAT DOES HE CLAIM FROM MAN? Everything. In mean moods I have wondered at His Divine voracity. Once a woman came to Him who had only one box of spikenard and He took it all. Would your humanity have allowed you to do it? Surely you would have said, "Part of it; I must not have it all." And another woman — she might have touched His heart, for she wore widows' weeds. I expected Him to say, "Poor soul, I can take nothing from you." But He took her two mites — all that she had. He is doing the same to day. How many things has that only boy been in his father's dreams! One day the mother feels that something is going to happen, and what does happen is a proposal that the boy should become a missionary! He must go. Humanity would have spared him — but Christ takes him. III. HOW DID THE BETTER CLASS OF HIS CONTEMPORARIES REGARD HIM. Here is a typical man — a man of letters and of local renown — who says, "Rabbi, Thou art a teacher come from God." Evidence of that kind must not go for nothing. Send men of another type — shrewd, keen men of the world: what say they? "Never man spake like this Man." Here are women coming back from having seen the Lord: what will they say? Never yet did women speak one word against the Son of God! Mothers, women of pure souls! sensitive as keenest life: what saw ye? "The holiness of God." Pass Him on to a judge — cold, observant, not easily hoodwinked. What sayest thou? "I find no fault in Him." What is that coming? A message from the judge's wife, "Have thou nothing to do with this just person. Let Him go." Crucify Him; will anybody speak about Him now? The centurion, accustomed to this sight of blood, said, "Truly this was the Son of God." Put these testimonies of observers, accumulate them into a complete appeal, and then say whether it be not easier for the imagination and judgment and heart to say, "My Lord and my God," than to use meaner terms. IV. FROM SUCH A MAN WHAT TEACHING MAY BE EXPECTED? 1. Extemporaneousness. He cannot want time to make His sermons, or He is not what He claims to be. Does He retire and compose elaborate sentences and come forth a literary artist, leaving the impression that He has wasted the midnight oil? No; His is simple graphic talk. 2. Instantaneousness of reply. God cannot want time to think what He will say? Does Christ? He answers immediately and finally. He had just thrown off the apron; rabbinical culture He had none, and yet there was an instantaneousness about Him to which there is no parallel but in the "Let there be light, and there was light." Give every man credit for ability, and give this Man credit for having extorted from His enemies, "Never man spake like this Man." 3. What do I find in Christ's teaching? Incarnations of the Spiritual. He Himself was an incarnation. He had to embody the kingdom of God, and hence He said, "It is like unto" — To embody the bodiless was the all-culminating miracle of the Peasant of Galilee. 4. Christ's is seminal teaching — that which survives all the changes of time. Where are the grand and stately sermons of the great Doctors? Gone into the stately past. V. DID THIS MAN LIVE UP TO HIS own principles? Some people say that the teaching of Jesus conveyed high theories, but too romantic to be embodied in actual behaviour. What said He? "Bless them that persecute you." Did He do it? "When He was reviled He reviled not again." What said He? "Pray for them that despitefully use you." Did He do it? "Father forgive them," etc. (J. Parker, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father. |
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