and what I have heard from him I tell the world.”
-Jesus, talking with the Jews in John 8
Christ certainly had much to say in judgment of the Jews. God had entered the world and His very people had rejected Him and ridiculed Him. Yet all of mankind is like the Jews! All are born sinful alike; all possess hearts which incline only towards evil. It is as the psalmist says- All have turned aside, all have together become corrupt, there is no one who does good, not even one. And here Christ is- standing in the midst of a people who are, by nature, objects of His wrath! With this opportunity in front of the Pharisees, he has every right to condemn, to judge, and to make clear just how righteous and holy Him and his Father are. At this point, I’m on the edge of my seat waiting for Him to rightfully administer wrath upon this very stubborn and obstinate people… and then…it doesn’t happen!
No words of judgment proceed from the lips of Christ… Only these- “what I have heard from my Father I tell the world.”
What is it that Christ tells the world? Jesus, in John 1, is described as the “Word of God.” In short, He is all that God wanted to say to the world. And as I look upon the life of Christ, I cannot help but be astonished by the fact that the message of God resulted on a cross. His message was this: That He will be bear the penalty of sin upon his own shoulder and remember them no more. This is an absolute far cry from the words of judgment we all deserve. Rather, these are words of good news and that of those which give life. That though He had much to say in judgment of us, He said otherwise.
You see, in Hebrews 12, it writes, “Jesus…speaks a better word than Abel.” In Genesis, Abel is the murdered brother of Cain. The Bible says that his blood “cried out from the ground.” What did it cry out? Revenge, justice. And as blood dripped down from that rugged cross of Jesus onto the ground, it cried out as well. But it “speaks a better word”- love.
