John 8:48-59

Read all of Chapter 8 if you have time.
John 8:48-59 John calls them “Jews” the Jewish “man on the street” or the Jewish crowd, multitude of other gospels. This distinguishes them from the Pharisees, Sanhedrin, the leaders These men and women saw what Jesus was doing The Jews were discussing this man Jesus. He had his 15 minutes of fame, at least in their eyes. He taught so well. He healed people. He was so interesting. Who was he?
8:31 “The Jews who believed in him”. John does not say what they believed. I do not think they believed he was the Son of God. This last section of chapter 8 proves that. They do not believe he is the messiah. That person would look different more angry and political. But they did believe he was someone special.
In historical terms this is how I see it. Strangely there is little writing left to verify this or much of anything else. I think it likely those in control destroyed any documents. And the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD would also have done that too.
This is what I think Jesus was speaking to historically. As Jesus approached his crucifixion all Jerusalem was a buzz. The man on the street found Jesus fascinating. He was all anyone could talk about. The majority of people believed in some fashion. He was Harry Houdini and Winston Churchill all boiled into one. But it did not affect their lives. And when Jesus was put to death and then the stories when round that he had risen from the dead they marveled. Peter was preaching about this Jesus that he was the Son of God. Many thought it true. But they never let it affect their lives. They never truly understood what it meant, as Jesus said of them.
Jesus told them that they must believe in him to live eternally.
Believing that he is the Messiah means taking his side. It means standing up and being willing to be called a follower of Jesus. Of course after Jesus died it meant repenting in your part in his death. We all must do that because we all have sinned and he died to justify us before God.
But soon after this after the leaders saw that most of Jerusalem was presupposed to accepting that this unusual man was the sought after Messiah, even if they could not quite understand all the consequences, they stamped it out. Anyone who believed in Jesus was no longer a Jew. Now you can believe most anything and still be a Jew. You can be an Essene, a Sadducee, a Herodian, a Zealot, or a Pharisee and still be a Jew. But if you were a disciple of Jesus, a Christian, you were immediately kicked out of the synagogue and the Temple. And you were likely to be persecuted. The Romans gave Jews freedom not to worship the state gods. But as a non-Jew you had no such rights.
Nowadays you can practice your Judaism just about any way you want. Most have decided God does not exist or at best is not very involved. Many Jews do not believe in an afterlife. But it is still true today that if you affirm that Jesus really was the long lost messiah and he died 2000 years but rose from the dead and now lives next to God the Father in heaven, you are kicked out of the synagogue and other Jews consider that you are no longer a Jew.
This brought the Jews back in line. They did not have enough invested in Jesus to stay committed. They never truly understood what they were committed to. This is what Jesus was saying to them and prophesying about them. This is what Jesus condemned in Chapter 8. Jesus knew what would happen in the near future. They did not understand his words. But they loved the side show. It was interesting.
Rather than consider his words and look at their hearts (as I do when I read this chapter) they began to argue with him. They called him names right back. They called him a Samaritan and demon possessed. This argument culminates with Jesus openly declaring to them that he was God. He used the phrase “I am” a well known expression that is how God describes himself. They knew what it meant and their reaction was to try to stone him.
So whatever it was that they began believing (this dialogue, discussion, debate, argument, whatever it was), they did not believe him to be the Son of God. Jesus did not convince them here. Jesus never wanted people to be left sitting on the fence. He wants us to commit one way or the other. The responded by rejecting him, even trying to kill him.
But the man on the street was fickle. They were still fascinated.