What a bold statement! Jesus claimed to be the only light in a dark world. His Jewish listeners would have remembered Genesis 1:3-4: "And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness." They knew that God is the only true source of physical, moral and spiritual light, and that without God the world is naturally in darkness - physically and spiritually.
Jesus had just claimed to be the Light of the World. But the religious leaders challenged His personal testimony: who could prove that He was telling the truth? They assumed that He was a liar, and told Him so. But Jesus exposed their shallow thinking. A single eye-witness is not false if he or she tells the truth. Jesus said that He was an eye witness of heaven; that is where He had come from and the place to which He would return. He knew Father God intimately. But His hearers had no such experience and were not qualified to judge His testimony.
Jesus repeatedly spoke about His 'Father'. He was not talking about Joseph, the husband of his mother, Mary, and the religious leaders knew that. The 'Father' was clearly identified as being God; as in Isaiah 63:16b "you O Lord are our Father, our Redeemer from of old is your name" and in Psalm 89:26 "He will call out to me, 'You are my Father, my God, the Rock my Saviour."
Jesus said He was going to go away, and then it would be too late for His critics to decide to follow Him. It was a strange statement. He declared that He would be out of their reach: that prompted the Jews to wonder if He was contemplating suicide. Far from it. Jesus knew that only Father God has the right to determine when everybody enters this world and when they shall leave it. Even though He was God, Jesus still submitted to His Father's timing and did not allow Himself to be crucified until the time that was appointed.
There was no doubt that Jesus was a very remarkable person. He claimed to be the Son of God, fully united with the Father and having previously lived with Him in heaven. He claimed to know the Father intimately and claimed to be the only person who could lead people to heaven. He said that those who believed in Him would not be condemned, but those who refused to believe were condemned already. In many ways, His words and miracles proved that He was God in a human body. The cross and resurrection were to prove that He was the perfect sacrifice for the sin of the world.
There were many people who liked to think that they were disciples, followers or supporters of Jesus. Which ones were real disciples? Surely it must be those who believed in Him. Yes, but how deep did that faith go? It was easy to be caught up with the enthusiasm of the crowd and to enjoy the teaching, realising that it made sense. But what happened when they went back to their homes and into the workplace?
Jesus had just told the religious people that if they obeyed His teaching, they would know the truth and be set free. Their response was that they were not slaves of anyone, so why would they want to be free!? But they were enslaved: physically and politically, the whole nation was dominated by the Roman Empire; but worse, they were slaves to sin. Like every human being they were sinners, incapable of escaping the desire to be righteous in their own eyes.
The Jewish people all belong to one family; they are descended from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. So when Jesus accused them of behaving like their father, they thought of their forefather Abraham, who was a godly man. But Jesus said that if those who opposed Him had the same nature as Abraham, they would not be trying to kill Him. Those people belonged to the devil! What a bold and uncompromising statement!
Nobody ignored Jesus. The more they got to know Him, they either loved Him or hated Him. Those who were against Him could not argue logically against His teaching and so they slandered Him. They accused Him of not being a proper Jew, but a Samaritan; and not being from God, but belonging to Satan. In accusing Jesus of blasphemy they uttered the greatest blasphemy by ascribing the glory of God to the devil. So Jesus pointed out that by dishonouring Him, they were also dishonouring His Father.
They hated Jesus but claimed to love Abraham. He was, they said, their father. Their claim to be children of Abraham implied that they were like him. But they were not. Abraham listened to God's word and obeyed: but when they heard Jesus, they argued. They claimed that Jesus was inventing Himself as a religious celebrity: but He said that Father God had given Him glory from heaven. They claimed to know the God of Abraham but hated the Son of God. So Jesus said they were liars!
