Playing Dumb

So they were saying to Him, "Who are You?" Jesus said to them, "What have I been saying to you from the beginning? (John 8:25)

I notice something interesting here in this verse. Repeatedly people kept plying Jesus with questions about His identity and many times Jesus either gave clues or sometimes even plainly stated who He was and where He was from. Yet it is apparent that many times His answers were totally ignored. In this verse Jesus calls them into account to begin acting like reasonable people and to begin to remember what He already had just said a number of times instead of acting like He had not said anything relevant to their questions.

One of the tricks people play when they want to advance deception and distort what someone else is attempting to convey is to play dumb and act as if the other person had not actually said something when in fact they had. It is part of having a conclusion firmly in place long before any evidence is ever evaluated and then forcing all evidence and statements to only support the foregone decision. That is what appears to have happened many times in people involved in the life of Jesus. Those who did not want to admit who He really was tried to make it appear that He was the one who was confused about His identity rather than to admit that they were simply being stubborn and were refusing to admit anything He was saying was true.

Throughout this whole period of discussion with these people Jesus kept amping up the tension by plainly stating things about Himself and His divine origin that incensed those whose picture of God was so distorted that they simply could not reconcile what Jesus represented God to be with their version of an austere, vengeful deity who played favorites and was eager to punish His enemies. Jesus' teachings about love, compassion, forgiveness and His constant example of humility was in direct conflict with the concepts of God that had been developed and were firmly in place to manipulate and control those under their influence. To acknowledge in any way that Jesus' picture of God might be right would be to seriously undermine their own ability to dominate and control others through their abusive religious and political systems and they simply could not start down that road.

As a result, they had to constantly seek ways of deflecting Jesus' clear statements about Himself and His very disturbing messages about a loving, forgiving Father in heaven who was radically different than the God that perverted religion had foisted on the people. But also, in doing so they ended up asking some rather obviously silly questions at times because of their willing ignorance or avoidance of the truth that was becoming too clear. Those who live in darkness and love darkness are very nervous when light begins to get brighter, and like criminals who prefer to operate at night, they wish that the light would simply not dawn so that they can remain comfortable in the dark.

Jesus calls them to account in this verse to remember what He has been saying all along. And although these men may not be willing to come into agreement with His statements about His true identity, there were some who were listening among the bystanders who were open-minded and willing to reason with integrity and whose hearts were more willing to being drawn into believing the truth about God as revealed in the life and words of Jesus. These ones are briefly mentioned in verse 30.

I have observed both in others and in myself the penchant for wanting to avoid acknowledging certain things someone has said when I don't want to hear those things. When people's statements may expose me or undermine what I want to think, it is a temptation to want to act like I simply never heard them and carry on the conversation accordingly. We do this with each other and we do it even more with God because it is so easy to do. But choosing apparent ignorance over conviction is a very hazardous choice for it is a choice that sears our conscience and sends us further down the road into deeper unbelief. And since sincere belief is a primary prerequisite for experiencing eternal life which begins in the present, violating our conscience for the sake of remaining comfortable is really an act of slow suicide.