Jesus and Abraham

Gospel: John 8: 51-58

There were two ideas from the Greek world that Jewish theology opposed.  The first was the idea of an afterlife, of a heaven and hell.  In general, Jewish thinking held that this life on earth is the only one we have, and that any notion of an afterlife was at best just a land of the shades or place of the dead.  So when Jesus speaks of death here in reference to the death of the soul in the afterlife, we find that idea unthinkable by his conversationalists in today's Gospel passage.

Equally odious to Jewish thinking was the Greek idea of pre-existence prior to life on this earth.  Jewish belief held that a person begins their sole existence here at birth, that no prior existence has occurred.  So, when Jesus speaks of knowing Abraham and having this existence prior to this life of his on earth, this idea also becomes unthinkable to those speaking with him here.  

What does all of this mean for us in our lives? Our continuity and connection to Abraham is not had through ancestral lineage or belonging to a particular group of people.  The connection to Abraham is through faith in the one God and following God wherever that leads.  Jesus comes to provide the definitive example of following God through a life of mercy and love culminating in a selfless death for the sake of others.  This way of Jesus is the way of the one God, the way to the one God.