John 8:56

“The patriarch Abraham, the one you claim as your spiritual father, took great joy in my arrival, he saw my day coming when he walked this very land—and he was delighted to see it.”  John 8:56 EFP 

Abraham is called the father of the faithful. He is the progenitor of the Hebrew nation. The “Seed” spoken of by God to the fallen pair, Adam and Eve, would come from his bloodline. The Jews were proud to be able to trace their lineage back to Abraham. His story was passed on from generation to generation. 

But Jesus makes a claim that must have put his listeners on their heels. He tells them that the patriarch looked forward to his coming. They must have wondered what he meant. There must have been an inner struggle even if they understood what he was implying. At least it means that Jesus is counting himself as one who can be mentioned in the same breath as Abraham. This is a bold statement in and of itself. But he goes beyond that by claiming that Abraham was even delighted by the very thought of his arrival. That could only mean one thing—Messiah. Jesus is laying claim to the promise made to Abraham about all nations being blessed through Him.

If I had any illusion that believing today would be more difficult than it was in the days when Jesus came to earth, I am certainly shaken into reality again in the reality of this scene. My faith today may be hard, but I do not have the layers of expectations placed upon the Messiah, a mantle Jesus was very willing to take on, even when he knew the chasm that existed between the expectations of the populace and his mission as he saw it. Believing in Christ has never been an easy proposition. When it seems easy, something is amiss. When it is made difficult by prerequisites placed upon it by people, not God, then something diabolic is at play.