§22 Jesus and the Unbelievers (John 8:21–29)
Verses 21–29 serve to document Jesus’ indictment of the Pharisees in verse 19, “You do not know me or my Father.” The Father is Jesus’ past and his future. Jesus has come from God and is going to God again, but his hearers understand neither of these things. The earlier bewilderment about where Jesus is going (cf. 7:32–36) is echoed here as well (vv. 21–22), but with the somber added note that you will die in your sin (v. 21). His words should be taken not as an absolute pronouncement of doom but as a warning. The Jewish authorities (like everyone else) will die in their sins if they do not believe that I am the one I claim to be (v. 24). The reverse side of this warning is the promise of life in verse 51: “If anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.” Even in the nearer context, Jesus can speak more positively: When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am the one I claim to be (v. 28).
Which is it then? Will they die in their sins, or will they come to believe in Jesus and know who he is? The dialogue presupposes the same gulf between the world below and the world above that governed the conversation with Nicodemus in chapter 3. The Jewish authorities are of this world (v. 23) and cannot begin to understand Jesus without a new birth from above. When he says he is going away where they cannot follow, they can only think he is planning suicide (v. 22)! Yet just as a similar misunderstanding had earlier pointed to the profound truth of a mission to the Gentiles (7:35), so here the mention of suicide points forward to Jesus’ voluntary death on a cross to take away sin. Not until they have lifted up the Son of Man on that cross will they know who Jesus is and realize that he has spoken the very words of God (v. 28). The reference to a future moment of understanding only serves to accent their present ignorance. Who are you? they ask Jesus (v. 25), and they are told that all along from the very beginning of his ministry he has been making himself known, if only they would listen (v. 25). There is much he could say now in condemnation, but Jesus refuses to be drawn into bitter argument (v. 26). His intention is rather to deliver the message the Father has given him (vv. 26, 28b).
Insofar as this revelation is a self-revelation, it centers on the strange phrase, I am the one I claim to be (vv. 24, 28). Literally, the phrase in Greek (egō eimi) is “I Am” with no predicate (cf. v. 58). Is a predicate to be supplied from the context—for example, in verse 23, “I am from above,” or in verse 28, “I am the Son of Man”? Or does the point of the self-disclosure lie precisely in the absence of a predicate? The latter is more likely. Jesus’ identity is not linked to a particular predicate but emerges from all his words and actions up to this point in the Gospel. What the hearers must accept, and what the “lifting up” on the cross will verify, is that he is indeed who he claims (explicitly and implicitly) to be.
8:25 / Just what I have been claiming all along: The Greek is obscure (lit., “the beginning, what I speak to you”). It has been translated, “Primarily just what I tell you” and even (as a question), “Why do I speak to you at all?” One ancient papyrus has a longer reading: “I told you in the beginning what I speak to you now,” and although this reading is probably not original, it may represent an early paraphrase that captured the intended meaning.
8:28 / When you have lifted up the Son of Man: For “lifting up” as an allusion to crucifixion, cf. 3:14. The apparent implication that the Jewish authorities themselves crucified Jesus is surprising in light of 18:31 (which seems to focus on crucifixion as a Roman method of execution), but the present passage anticipates, instead, 19:16: “Finally Pilate handed him over to them [the Jewish priests] to be crucified.” The assumption is that in some sense the Jewish authorities (though not the Jewish people) did crucify Jesus.
Then you will know: Alongside the striking claim that the Jewish leaders themselves would crucify the Son of Man is an equally surprising note of hope. As a result of Jesus’ death, they will come to realize who he is and on whose authority he speaks. The emphasis, however, is not on the faith or repentance of these religious leaders in particular but simply on the fact that Jesus and his claims will be vindicated before the whole world by what happens after he is “lifted up” (i.e., by his subsequent resurrection).
Though this vindication is future, the verse as a whole (together with v. 29) intends primarily to affirm something about the present: Jesus is who he is now; he does nothing on his own, but speaks now what the Father has instructed him; God is with him, and he lives to please God now and always.
8:29 / He has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him. The argument of the previous section that in the words of Jesus both the Father and the Son speak is here presupposed and continued (cf. v. 16). The reason Jesus is not alone is that he does what pleases the Father (cf. 4:34; 5:30; 6:38). The same terminology is used of Christian believers in 1 John 3:22.