Readings:
2 Kings 24
Wisdom 15
John 8:31-59

2 Kings 24

So Josiah is killed by the Egyptians in Megiddo, which is in a valley that lends its name to the very famous Armageddon. After him his son serves only three months and is taken captive to Egypt and dies there. While this is going on, the Assyrian empire is facing its own internal problems. The neo-Assyrian empire was a multi ethnic state, not much different from the Austrian-Hungarian Empire of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

In 612 BC the Assyrian capital of Nineveh is sacked and destroyed by a coalition of Medes (Persians) and Babylonians. This war continues for the next several years and when Josiah is slain by the Egyptians it’s because the pharaoh had an army transiting through his territory to support their Assyrian allies/overlords. In 609 BC the war ends with the fall of the Neo-Assyrian empire and the rise of the Neo-Babylonian empire. It’s at this point that the main antagonist of the people shifts to the Babylonian kings.

The Babylonians will eventually sack Jerusalem and destroy Solomon’s temple, but their destruction of the nation actually took place over a period of decades and begins here with the first siege of Jerusalem and the capture of the royal household, including king Jehoiachin, that are taken as prisoners to Babylon to ensure the new king doesn’t revolt against their puppet master to the east. Along with the royal court, they also take 10,000 of the wealthiest and influential people in the country captive.

The king’s uncle is installed as the new king, and he is supposed to behave and keep in line because his family and 10,000 of his leading countrymen are being held as peace hostages in Babylon. But this ceasefire will not last.

John 8:31-59

Jesus tells the Jews that believed in him that they are freed by the truth, and he is truth personified. This gets under the skin of the nonbelievers and they claim Abrahamic sonship, and say they’re free and have never been slaves. This is a pretty ridiculous claim for several reasons; Israel’s national story begins with slavery in Egypt, then in the promised land they were oppressed by a succession of Canaanite peoples, after that they were subjugated by the Syrians, the Assyrians, the Babylonians and the Persians. Fast forward a couple centuries and the Greeks come to town, only to be replaced by the new boss in town, the Roman Empire. From Moses to Jesus, the freedom to slavery ratio in total probably tipped more towards slavery than liberty.

Jesus retorts that they are not even free currently, they are slaves to sin, and just like Moses led them from slavery through the waters of the Red Sea, Jesus is leading those who believe in him out of slavery to sin through the waters of baptism. He then starts a back and forth with them about true sons of Abraham, and this leads to one of my favorite lines in John.

Against all human hope, God promises descendants to Abraham, as the fruit of faith and of the power of the Holy Spirit. In Abraham’s progeny all the nations of the earth will be blessed. This progeny will be Christ himself, in whom the outpouring of the Holy Spirit will “gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.” God commits himself by his own solemn oath to giving his beloved Son and “the promised Holy Spirit . . . [who is] the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it.”

CCC 706

While arguing about Abraham and what he’d do and believe, Jesus tells them that Abraham longed to see him, probably referring to the promise made to Abraham that one of his descendants would bless the entire world, and that Abraham did in fact see him and rejoiced.

To this they respond incredulously that he’s only a young man, and yet claims to have been seen by Abraham, who’s been dead for at least 2000 years at this point. (Not quite getting what he’s saying here). So then Jesus drops the mic with his next line, and this is a great verse to share with people who say that Jesus never claimed divinity. He said “before Abraham was, I AM”

This can just sound like strange phrasing to us, because we’d expect him to say “I was” if he’s talking about 2000 years ago, but uses the present tense. This is more than just an odd way of speaking; remember what God said to Moses at the burning bush? He told Moses his name is “I AM” and that’s exactly what Jesus is saying here. He’s claiming the personal divine name of God, and the Pharisees hear this loud and clear. They know exactly what he means, and that’s why they attempt to stone him for it.

Only the divine identity of Jesus’ person can justify so absolute a claim as “He who is not with me is against me”; and his saying that there was in him “something greater than Jonah,. . . greater than Solomon”, something “greater than the Temple”; his reminder that David had called the Messiah his Lord, and his affirmations, “Before Abraham was, I AM”, and even “I and the Father are one.”

CCC 590

Tomorrow’s Readings:
2 Kings 25
Wisdom 16
John 9