And he said unto them, Ye are from beneath; I am from above;

ye are of this world; I am not of this world. John 8:23

 

         Jesus is talking to the Pharisees and scribes who had brought a woman to him who had been caught in adultery to test him. They know the law but want to catch Him in the act of disregarding the Law of Moses and He knew it. Man I want to know more about this interchange. Jesus is so quiet. He writes words in the dust that are not revealed. In the end He lets the woman go refusing to condemn her. The question of the ages has been, What did He write in the dirt?

        Well that took some nerve, or at least that’s what I imagine the scribes and Pharisees were thinking. They know the law inside and out. They know it so well they can use it as a weapon.  In this case they were using the law and this poor woman to trap Jesus. Yeah, like that will ever happen.

       Still they tried and at one point it seems they called Him a liar and asked to see some ID. They didn’t understand His description of Himself as light or His accusations that they could not know His Father. He told them about His Father but they had no desire to know Him. So then He gets basic, goes back to the early childhood lesson of where things are in space: above, below, behind, beneath, next to. Jesus seems to be saying we are from two different worlds and you’ll just never get it.  Sigh.

      But we can get it. We have a tourist guidebook to help us in this foreign land of beneath until we join Him above at Home.