Beyond the Song

What this episode covers

Cue the song; Father Abraham has many sons, many sons has Father Abraham, I am one of them and so are you, so let us praise the Lord. This song if available at that time would have been the top song on the playlist of the Scribes and the Pharisees. They wore their identity as sons of Abraham on their sleeves. This song they sang was probably a sweet melody for many except one, our Lord Jesus Christ. In this particular instance, Jesus had an encounter with the Pharisees (John 8). During the course of the conversation, the Pharisees insisted that they are children of Abraham despite not wanting to believe the testimony of Jesus. So they wanted to plaster an identity on themselves but not embrace the actual actions / attributes that the claim portends. Jesus responding to them, said that being a son of Abraham is not just the most hearted song on your Playlist, or a chant to throw around. Jesus was saying to the Pharisees, if you are a son of Abraham, do the works of Abraham. This encounter is more instructive because of the calibre of people Jesus was speaking to, they were the Scribes and the Pharisees, the custodians of the law. They could reel out the Torah and cross reference scriptures, but Jesus' testimony about them evidenced their inability to deconstruct that same law into a lifestyle of faith. The question one then asks is what are the works of Abraham and how did Jesus arrive at that conclusion. Jesus based his conclusions on the quality of their belief and the extent of the place the Word of God has in their hearts. These two things are in effect very crucial underpins of a profession of faith and the conversion of such professions into a life of faith.

PodParley-generated summary based on available episode metadata and transcript content.