November 1, 2026 | John 7:53-8:11
Reflection:
We have a very tense relationship with justice. Notice in this story those who want that“justice” be done in relation to the “law.” They are always people who seem to want laws interpreted literally and implemented in clear-cut ways. In this story we have scribes and Pharisees, very law-abiding members of society, who bring a woman before Jesus (and the whole crowd), not with justice as their primary motive. If they had just wanted to try, convict, and punish this woman, they would have done so away from the center stage where Jesus was teaching in the temple. What motivates these people (and Scripture tells us this) is that they wanted to trap Jesus, publicly, in how he would interpret the law. The woman is just a tool for them. Among the amazing things Jesus does in this story, he sees past all the ways that these scribes and Pharisees are using this woman and the law to force him into a corner. Jesus looks past all this, and he sees the woman, not as a thing, but as a person. Jesus interprets the law before them all in light of the woman in front of him deserving mercy and not necessarily justice. He turns things around, so that the crowd had to face their own hypocrisy and lack of mercy. How have you encountered such mercy yourself?
November 2, 2026 | John 8:12-30
Reflection:
In today’s reading, notice the importance and role of “testimony” (witness). The Greek word for testimony supplies us with the word martyrdom in English. The martyr bears witness to truth with his or her whole life. Jesus again and again bears witness to the truth, and that truth points us to the deep connection between Jesus and the Father. It is in this connection that Jesus can say, “I am the light of the world.” The God who at the beginning of all things said, “Let there be Light,” is active in Jesus to provide light to all those who walk in darkness. John writes in such a way that we who read his accounts of Jesus will not only believe, trust, and have faith that what he tells us is true, but that we will encounter the person of Jesus, who is the Light of God, and that Light is life. The whole book of John functions as testimony and witness that “the Word was with God and is God.” The one who sent Jesus is true; therefore, Jesus is true. He is truly the Word of God and Light of the World. This is what John wants us to experience as we read his telling of Jesus’ life and death and resurrection. When did you first believe/trust/have faith that Jesus is true?
November 3, 2026 | John 8:31-38
Reflection:
The language of slavery and enslavement runs through much of the New Testament. The Apostle Paul seems to use the term in an affirmative way, repeatedly calling himself a “slave of Christ.” Paul also admonishes the new Christians to be “slaves of one another in love.” Paul is clear, though, that before they were slaves of Christ, they were slaves “to the weak and beggarly elemental spirits” and “slaves to sin and the flesh,” and he says that the Jews were held imprisoned under the Law. Paul asserts that the remedy for such enslavement came in Christ, that “for freedom, Christ has set you free” from all forms of slavery. Jesus here in our passage today counters such belief around him that these certain Jews held that they were not enslaved. Jesus tells them that they are indeed slaves to sin, but their hypocrisy keeps them from seeing it. Jesus tells them that only the Son can free them, and it is his Word that frees them. How have you been freed by Jesus as the Word of God?
November 4, 2026 | John 8:39-47
Reflection:
The word for “devil” here in Greek is diabolos. You might recognize the Spanish word diablo, which comes from it. “Devil” actually descends from this Greek word as well. The Hebrew word that diabolos translates is satan. The word throughout the Old Testament meant, “an adversary, opponent, or prosecutor.” It was not a proper name. In Jesus’ time, the idea of a malevolent, otherworldly figure who opposes God at all turns had developed in such a way that “the diabolos” came to personify the great deceiver or tempter, who caused people to stray from the way of God. Jesus appears to say that those who seek to deny his ministry and even seek to kill him have as their “father” this great deceiver. One of the troubles with this passage is the way it has been interpreted over the last 2000 years. Some people used this text to justify the murder of over 6,000,000 people of Jewish descent in Europe in the mid-20th century, saying that all Jews are descended from the devil. The early church struggled with the reality that not all Jews were becoming followers of Jesus. To those Jewish Christians, their fellow Jews who did not recognize Jesus as coming from God appeared to be living under a deception, and that deception seemingly could only come from the first deceiver. Jesus clearly appears frustrated that his fellow Jews do not recognize in him the God who had sent him to bring them “the truth.” Jesus calls those who listen to him to love him and to love the God who sent him, not relying on traditions that block our minds, eyes, and hearts from experiencing what God is doing here and now in our midst. What has ever blocked you from perceiving such a call to love?
November 5, 2026 | John 8:48-59
Reflection:
People, in general, have a tendency to “demonize” what they do not understand. In today’s passage, “the Jews” (meaning perhaps the Judeans or the scribes & Pharisees) seek to belittle Jesus. They call him a “Samaritan,” insulting him with the name of the Judeans northern neighbor, half-breed Jews, whom they do not like or trust. They most likely know that he comes from Galilee, but what they are really saying is, “You seem just like one of those heretical cousins of ours. Are you sure you’re not one of them?!” They seek to distance themselves from Jesus because they do not understand him. Jesus doesn’t really help them all that much. He makes it harder by saying that he has existed before Abraham, their ancient ancestor. The more Jesus says, the angrier they get. This kind of dynamic happens even in our own time. The more evidence we seek to present to someone else, the more their eyes become closed to truth. Those who turned to Jesus long ago did so because they encountered in his teaching not a verifiable truth but a deeper reality that they could only truly put their trust in as they met in Jesus the living God. Have any of Jesus’ teachings ever made you angry? What drew you back to him?
November 6, 2026 | John 9:1-12
Reflection:
In each of the Gospels, we encounter stories of Jesus healing the blind. John tells such a story, and this story comes right after we hear about how those around Jesus, who reject him, are “blind” to the truth he speaks. Stories of Jesus healing the blind usually point us to the power that Jesus used to bring about restoration; such a power is associated with God. John’s telling revolves around testimony and how such testimony divides communities. Some believe the blind man; some clearly do not. This is the story of the early church. As evangelists went out among the Jewish people and then out to the Greeks and Romans, some came to believe and trust these accounts of Jesus; some rejected them. This occurred even within families and close communities with family ties. In our story, we will see how this man, with regained sight, causes division in his own family. Jesus' ministry appears to cause division in the family of Abraham’s descendants. Remember, as we read these accounts of divisions, Jesus’ central call to love. Love is the primary posture we embody, even as we seek to draw people to the truth or light of God, as we have experienced it and seek to bear witness to it.
November 7, 2026 | John 9:13-34
Reflection:
Today’s passage unfolds like a courtroom drama. This is not unintentional. Remember that a key theme of the John’s Gospel is “testimony.” Pay attention to the factions that seek to undermine and outdo one another. Notice how generations are pitted against one another. It is the most unlikely person, a man born blind, who sees more than anyone else. Consider the testimony of the man born blind. His former blindness makes him suspect. Illness and deviation from a health norm were seen as the result of sin (whether it was one’s own or someone else’s). Yet, this formerly blind man’s testimony is the clearest and most trustworthy, at least for the believer. When the parents are brought in and they are questioned, notice that their fear is “because of the Jews.” Remember that everyone in the story is Jewish. The gospel writer does us no favors in writing this way. We are left with some work to do. When John refers to “the Jews,” we have to consider that there were divisions among the peoples referred to as Jews. In these stories, those Jews who are opposed to Jesus’ ministry most commonly are the religious authorities, like the scribes and the Pharisees. This scene plays out in such a way that we cannot but notice the deep divisions that occurred in the family of Abraham, especially in light of Jesus, his teachings, and his tradition-breaking ministry. The one who sees (and knows) the most is a formerly blind man, who is ultimately cast out because the authorities didn’t like his testimony. In the midst of reading through all this conflict, remember that Jesus’ act of compassion (in healing this man) is what causes the most controversy. What acts of Christ-like compassion today are met with most resistance?