Chapter 3 – The Second Rejection of the King (Part 6 of 8)

Last week we looked at the betrothal and marriage in the days of Jesus, and how the news of Mary’s pregnancy would have created real tension between the two teenagers and their families, based on the way such unions were arranged. And in the Law of Moses, it was customary to stone a woman who was found in Mary’s predicament along with the male partner (Leviticus 20:10, Deuteronomy 22:22).

As you can see, Joseph had a major decision to make: Have her stoned or divorce her, based on the verses referenced above and the allowance given by Moses in Deuteronomy 24. Both decisions were not good for Mary or her baby. It’s a good thing God sent the angel to clear things up (Matthew 1:20-23).

Man’s Way of Explaining God’s Ways

To add to the controversy and confusion, some scholars believe Matthew wrote chapter 1 of his gospel account specifically to counter a slander against his Lord which was prevalent in Jesus’s day. What was that slander exactly?

That Jesus wasn’t deity.

Are you surprised? The people around the incident surely would have talked. They would have gossiped and attempted to determine how Mary became pregnant. In Greek and Roman culture, the depraved and gross results of mingling and cohabitation between gods and goddesses with humans happened all the time. However, in Jewish culture, such occurrences were foreign. Therefore, for the Israelites living in Joseph and Mary’s village, the explanations in the minds of the onlookers would have been much more human-centered.

The most popular story propagated was that Mary either cohabitated with a Roman soldier during the early days of her betrothal to Joseph or right before the betrothal began. Therefore, the slanderous conclusion was that Jesus was an illegitimate son born out-of-wedlock. He was therefore the product of an illicit affair between Mary—a Jewish woman, and an unnamed Roman soldier—a Gentile. As a result, Jesus would have been a half-breed, a Samaritan, which in that day was a term of derision and mockery, and was not used specifically just to refer to people who were born in the region of Samaria.

In John 8, we have a confrontation between Jesus and some Jews who had chosen to believe His teachings to some degree but were having a hard time understanding them. They argue that they are children of Abraham (vv. 33, 39). Jesus tries to get them to see that if they were children of Abraham, they would do as Abraham did. In other words, they would do the will of their Father in heaven. However, they were trying to kill Jesus, which Jesus claimed was the work of their “own father” (v. 41), the devil.

Then, they respond by making an interesting comment in verse 41: “We are not born of fornication,” they protested. “We have one Father, God himself.”

Did you hear what they said? In a backhanded fashion, they beat around the bush and accused Jesus’s mother of having a sexual relationship outside of marriage (porneias in the Greek, from which we get the word “porno,” is always used to refer to sex between two people not married). This relationship “procreated” (gegennemetha in the Greek) a child as a result, in a very human manner, just like all other human births. They were claiming that there was nothing supernatural about Jesus’s birth. On the contrary, they were claiming not to have been born as illegitimate children like “others they knew,” namely Jesus. They were claiming to have been born of God as children of the promise, with Abraham as their father. What a stark contrast, and what a lie!

You see, they had heard the rumors too. 

Jesus responds by telling them in essence that their actions speak otherwise, and they are doing the work of their father, the devil, because he’s been a liar and a murderer from the beginning.

Jesus then asks these questions: “Which one of you can prove I am guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why do you not believe me? I’ll tell you the truth. The person who belongs to God hears what God says. This is why you cannot understand what I am telling you. You do not belong to God” (vv. 46-47). 

Jesus was telling the truth. If they believed in Him the way they were supposed to believe, then they would know everything He was teaching was true. But they could not believe it.¹ 

Do you know why?

The answer is found in their response. In verse 48, they answer Jesus: “Are we not correct in saying that you are a Samaritan? And demon-possessed also?” 

Wow. So much for beating around the bush. 

The “obvious explanation” of how Mary got pregnant was still alive and well over thirty years later. And not only was Jesus an illegitimate half-breed, according to them, He was also demon-possessed because He claimed to be God in the flesh. Jesus said they were of their father, the devil. So, they used an old rumor to accuse Jesus of the same thing because in their minds, Deity was never born of human flesh. That was a “pagan” thing. Thus, humanity once again tried to understand the realm of the Kingdom of Heaven, where God Almighty resides and reigns, and failed miserably.

This is how twisted the truth of God’s teachings and instructions in the Old Testament had become in the days of Jesus’s earthly ministry. It is here where the words of Isaiah come to light: “Woe unto them who call evil good and good evil; who call darkness light and light darkness; who call bitter sweet and sweet bitter. Woe unto them who are wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight!” (5:20-21).

This scene in John 8 is a continuation of Rejection #2, by the way. For when Jesus said in verse 58—“I tell you the truth, before Abraham was, I am!”—everyone understood what He meant because at once, the text tells us, they picked up stones and were going to carry out the will of their father, the devil, because Jesus had supposedly spoken blasphemy by claiming to be God. 

In other words, these “believers” had rejected God by rejecting Jesus, which was Jesus’s point through this entire episode. They were talking and acting just like their forefathers in 1 Samuel 8, only now, their thinking had become even more corrupt. 

Just to show how far the lie about Jesus being a half-breed Samaritan had gone, they actually knew Jesus wasn’t from Samaria. When Phillip told Nathaniel about Jesus and tells him to come see, Nathaniel responds, “Can anything good come from Nazareth” (John 1:46). Even after the scene in John 8, the crowds are hailing Jesus in Matthew 21:11 as a “prophet from Nazareth of Galilee.” They knew Jesus was from Nazareth. Calling Him a Samaritan was a slam. Therefore, it is true that Matthew could have been writing it to counter this slanderous accusation, and probably was, but the purpose was far greater than simply winning a debate with doubters.² 

When it comes to the actual birth of Jesus, Matthew is very careful with his wording in chapter 1. His phrase “before they came together” (v. 18) implies that Mary was not pregnant because of a premarital relationship with Joseph. No consummation yet. 

But what about the scoffers who concluded she had an illicit relationship with a Roman soldier, you ask? 

Matthew anticipates this too. His phrase in verse 18, “she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit,” implies that this birth was different. It was unique, and in the history of Jewish births, it was one of a kind. It was born of the work of the Holy Spirit. God’s Spirit. 

The Holy Spirit has always been in business of creating. In Luke 1, Mary is confronted by the angel,

Gabriel. He tells her of what is about to happen soon with her becoming pregnant. Even Mary, like we would be, was skeptical. She asks in verse 34, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” Good question. 

Gabriel then uses some interesting imagery to describe this incarnational process: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.” In Genesis 1:1-2, we see the same imagery as the Spirit of God hovers over the formless, dark, empty waters of the earth. 

Out of nothing—ex nihilo—the Spirit of God creates what we know as planet Earth with all of its life forms as well as the universe in Genesis 1. Now, in Matthew 1, we have the same Holy Spirit of God at work again, creating out of nothing, despite no human relationship, a baby, the Son of God. The emphasis here is not that Jesus was born of a virgin so much as He was the work of the Holy Spirit.

In this one action, God was reestablishing His Kingship. This action would eventually lead to God’s reestablishment of His theocracy, but in a different manner. Instead of a group of specific people of a specific nationality, with boundaries and a geographical location they could call “home,” this reestablished theocracy would have no boundaries, no geographical location, and would be open to all peoples of all nationalities. We would call that The Church. Within this reestablished theocracy, in a more tangible manner, God made known the Kingdom of Heaven by having His Son, Jesus, exemplify what life in this kingdom looked like on a daily basis, thus renewing all the instructions and teachings (torah). This “Law and the Prophets” was not to be thrown away or rewritten. It was to be fulfilled in the person of His one and only Son (Matthew 5:17-20; John 3:16).

Thought for the Week:

“If something is repeated enough, it will become truth.”

Have you ever heard that phrase before, or something like it? We see it all the time in today’s culture, especially via media outlets. They call them talking points. When someone wants to get a narrative out there, they give media outlets "talking points” to use, and then one by one, you’ll see those points used over and over again for days on end. When a montage is pieced together, it becomes quite comical and disturbing at the same time.

The plan is simple. Have those “trusted news sources” say it enough, the vast majority of viewers and listeners will believe it to be true, whether it is or isn’t. To show how it works, you can watch the first two-and-a-half minutes of this clip and see it for yourself. And to be fair, you can watch this clip, too, as these two clips are proof that both sides of the aisle in Washington are equally guilty of doing the same thing. It’s not a “conservative” thing or a “liberal” thing. It’s a satanic thing. 

Satan has used this age-old method of fighting in the “arena of ideas” for centuries. And the people of Bethlehem, Nazareth, and the surroundings areas of Israel, to eventually include Jerusalem, fell prey to it as well when they believed the lie that Jesus was the product of an illicit affair. “Everybody is saying it, so it must be true.” 

People use these tactics when they want to hide something. They usually claim it’s their rights or their way of life they are defending. And sometimes, it does fall under the category of something “simple” or “benign.” Examples of this could be arguing against dieting when you really want to eat boxes of Oreos every day, or whether or not you should binge watch a certain TV show when you know you should be mowing the yard. 

However, in most cases, the act of spreading talking points is ultimately about hiding our sin. In the case of Jesus and the so-called believers in John 8, that is what this was all about. If they could discredit the One who was claiming their lifestyle choices were harmful, they would feel justified in continuing to live in their sin. In their minds, the “charlatan” would be exposed, and they would be off the hook. 

So, as Christians, we have to be careful what we defend. The only thing we should defend is truth, if we truly wish to be free. The truth of Scripture, that is. For that is the only truth Christians should defend. All other “truths” must be sifted through God’s Word. If a “truth” is proven otherwise, then we must expose that for what it is so others cannot be led astray, using God’s Word as our “preponderance of evidence.” Even Jesus, ministering in the midst of an oppressive Roman occupation in the land of Israel, didn't gather all the zealots and rabble-rousers and start a revolution. Instead, He was more concerned about the witness of Israel and their waywardness from God. Oh, if only the Church was so like-minded.   

This is what Jesus meant when He said in John 8 (and I’m paraphrasing here), “If you hear and obey God’s Words, then you are of God. If God is your Father, you will love Me. And if you continue in that Word, which is My Word, too, you will know the truth, and that truth will set you free. If you do not believe any of this, and you believe I am lying, then you are of your father, the devil, because he has been lying since the beginning about God and Me.”     

Jesus was more concerned about their relationship with God than their relationship to the Romans. We need to have the same mindset. 

  

NEXT WEEK:

We begin to see how the Rejection of Jesus becomes personal to those in positions of power as history comes together, like clay on the potter's wheel, in the hands of God Almighty.

 

Endnotes

1. This episode in John 8 is a classic example of how “believing” means so much more in the New Testament than how we perceive it today. In today’s culture, “to believe” means you believe it to be true, like the Earth being round as opposed to flat, or that the Earth revolves around the Sun as opposed to the other way around. However, do these “truths” affect your life or cause you to live your life any differently? Not really. In New Testament theology, “to believe” causes a significant change in your lifestyle. It’s not just words or an intellectual exercise. The “belief” causes one to change how he or she views life, interacts with it, and lives it on a daily basis.

For a believer in Jesus, it means to repent and follow Him, adhering to God’s instructions and teachings. It means a change of heart has taken place. Where God, Jesus, and the Bible were once viewed as irrelevant or even enemies, the person has “repented”—done an about-face, a one-eighty—and is now heading toward the things of God as opposed to away from the things of God. Hence the issue Jesus was having with these Jews in John 8:31, who obviously said they believed in Jesus but were having major issues with His teachings. They claimed to believe, but the evidence proved to the contrary. 

This is why Jesus referred to them (including the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law) as hypocrites and liars. He said in Matthew 15:7-8: “You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you: ‘This people draw near to me with their mouths, and they honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. In vain they worship me; their teachings are but commandments taught by men.’” These “believers” in John 8 are referred to as children of the devil because they wanted to carry out the desires of their father, Satan (i.e., murder Jesus). They said they believed one message but lived an entirely different one. 

We, the church, should take heed of these words, because as the current days speed recklessly toward the Last Days, those within our ranks unfortunately are looking more and more like these hypocrites and liars in John 8 than the kind of children who follow after Jesus because they believe correctly.

 

2. However, understand this: God’s Word was never written simply to argue against slanderous stories or theories or prove theological points in some kind of game of “one-upsmanship.” It was written to show us who God is (the Creator God who rules over His Creation justly and rightly) and what He requires of His people (His instructions and teachings). When we start saying that God’s sole purpose was to counter lies or merely prove points, as if arguing in a debate, then it lessens the sovereignty and authoritativeness of His Word and actually has the opposite effect of its intended purpose. 

We are witnessing this today. God’s Word in many circles is simply viewed as another piece of literature. Oh, it may be revered because it’s “the Bible,” but in their minds, it is no more authoritative than any other religious writing. This is how many so-called Bible scholars can tear it apart and come to the conclusion that most of the “red letters” really were not spoken by Jesus, but instead, they were myths and legends written down poetically by the biblical authors to argue against some accusation or hold up a particular truth as a lofty goal. However, it was never the singular, authoritative Word of God. 

Robert J. Miller, in a video associated with the Jesus Seminar—a liberal think tank from the 1980s—goes so far as to say that what occurs in Matthew 2 is written to prove the theological point, that “Jesus is recapitulating the entire history of Israel” (in other words, Jesus is a “type” for the nation Israel’s exodus from Egypt, their exile into slavery with Babylon, and their return to the promised land). There is truth in what he says. However, he goes on to say that the story of Jesus in Matthew 2 “won’t hold up in a realistic fashion.” Really? 

If you watch the video below, you can even hear Miller’s condescension in how he describes the Wise Men, or Magian priesthood, as they would have been known in that day. They weren’t “exotic strangers” from the East, as if nobody had ever seen nor heard of them before. They were very well known, and came from a people who had wreaked havoc in that region of the world, known as the Medo-Persians. The Medo-Persians (also known as the Medes and the Persians, the Persian Empire, and the Parthian Empire, in case your reading about them later) held multiple battles against the Romans and are the reason why the Roman Empire did not expand much past Israel’s boundaries. Even Marcus Antonius (aka, Marc Antony) was known to have fought a battle against Persian king Phraates IV in that region of the world. 

The Magian priesthood was present during all four major powers, the Babylonians, the Medo-Persians, the Greeks, and the Romans, and were known, among other things, to be “kingmakers,” as they would be summoned to anoint and consecrate kings as needed. Even Daniel is made, and referred to as, the “chief of the Magi” (Daniel 2:48; 4:9) by King Nebuchadnezzar during the Babylonian Empire. He continues to hold that position during the reign of King Cyrus as well. 

The Wise Men, or Magi, were well known, even to the Israelites, and both groups held Daniel in high regard in the days of Jesus. These kingmakers from the east were not some band of “exotic strangers” who came and went with little importance. 

You can find the excerpt of Robert Miller’s talk on “The Births of Jesus and Other Sons of God” here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNuwDg8B9bo.

 

 Pictures courtesy of  Unsplash and the following photographers/artists:

Book of Matthew by Tim Wildsmith

Angel by Andika Christian

Truth by Michael Carruth