John 8:41

“You are behaving like your true father does,” Jesus adds. They respond with malicious contempt. “Unlike you, we were not born as a result of illicit sexual conduct. We know who our father is—his name is God!” John 8:41 EFP 

Jesus touches a sensitive nerve with his comments regarding their inconsistent life and their murderous intentions. He concludes his declaration with an assertion about their behavior being more in line with their true father—a thinly veiled allusion to the devil, an entity more in line with their underhanded and devious machinations. 

Exposed for what they are, they immediately retort with a vengeance. Their reply has little to do with the veracity of his assessment, rather they choose to bring to light the long-circulated rumors surrounding his birth. No doubt they had done their due diligence in digging up dirt on Jesus. His mother’s untimely pregnancy. His “father” not truly his progenitor. The scandal. The so-called “virgin birth.” They launch the “we at least know who our father is” salvo. They then lay claim to God as their father, since their births are not questionable. In their narrow-minded minds God is not the father of illegitimate children.

I, for one, am delighted to know their point of view is not valid, at least not on the basis of the Bible narrative. Jesus may have questionable human associations, but that is by choice. He chose to cast in with the riff-raff of humanity—like me. The truth is that all humanity is riff-raff, compared to God. Few are truly willing to admit it.