Lenten blog | March 13, 2024

Where was Jesus from?  Oh, that's right.  It doesn't matter.

Throughout the year, the Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ reproduces the Daily Lectionary for use by churches.  These are the suggested readings for March 13th:  Psalm 107:1-16; Isaiah 60:15-22; and John 8:12-20.  I would encourage you to read these short selections as part of your Lenten practice.

Today’s Gospel passage continues a theme that John begins at 7:1.  Jesus has gone up to Jerusalem for the Festival of Booths or Tabernacles, which is known today as Succoth.  It was originally an autumn harvest festival.  The people would live in temporary shelters as the work of the harvest took place.  Eventually, an historical interpretation of the festival would be added.  The temporary abodes, sukkot, symbolized the nomadic dwellings of the people during the 40 years of the Exodus wanderings.

Between the beginning of the account at 7:1 and where we pick up today at 8:12, there is an interruption.  The pericope of the woman caught in adultery is inserted by a later editor into the Johannine text.  We spoke about this extensively at our Bible study group, not only the text per se, but also the editing.  This was from a time before the Gospel became the unalterable sacred text that we recognize.  An unknown editor changed the Gospel, added a story that was not part of the Johannine tradition.  This was our discussion in Bible study.  I raise it now because today’s Gospel passage, originally, was not preceded by John 8:11, but by John 7:52.

If we look back at those verses, we read of disputes between people who are tending toward belief in Jesus as the Messiah and others who reject the notion.  The particular reason at this point is that Jesus is from Nazareth in Galilee, while the expectation was that the Messiah would come from Bethlehem. (7:40-43)   When the chief priests and the Pharisees enter the debate, they also insist “that no prophet is to arise from Galilee.” (7:52)  Remember that John has no Christmas story.  There is no Bethlehem in John until it is mentioned in the questioning remarks of the doubters.  Jesus is from Galilee (“‘Can anything good come out of Nazareth?’” John 1:46).

This is the discussion that leads into 8:12.  This is the discussion that leads Jesus to state, “‘… my testimony is valid because I know where I have come from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going.’” (8:14)  For the Johannine Jesus, the place of physical birth is unimportant.  What is of consequence is the eternal nature of Jesus, and thus the Gospel’s prologue:  “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.” (1:1-2) 

Jesus complains that His accusers “judge by human standards.” (8:15)  The reader might expect this to be followed by, “But I judge by God’s standards.”  Instead, Jesus offers the contrast that “I judge no one.” (8:15)  In John, the religious leaders are judged because they judge without seeing the full picture.  Jesus, who does see the full picture and who should then be in a position to judge, chooses not to judge.

As a Lenten reading, this draws our thoughts away from thinking of the cross in terms of judgment.  Rather, the cross continues Jesus’ revelation, “‘I am the light of the world.  Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.’” (8:12)  Jesus is the light of a better way and we are to follow that light.  This means, in part, that as religious people we choose not to live by judgment, but by light.  Too often religious people think it their privilege to judge others.  Jesus, however, offers the example that if we are the light in a dark world, people will follow.  Ours is not to condemn, but to model a better way as we abide in these temporary abodes on our way to God’s eternity.
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If you’d like, here is the link to the Southern New England Conference’s daily reading schedule:  www.sneucc.org/lectionary.