Like Father, Like Son

John 8:37-59 | Trinity Sunday, Year C

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

This morning, I want to take a moment to think about the impact fathers can have on their children. Have you noticed a kid acting so much like his dad, you’d swear they’re clones? It’s not always about physical traits, like the shape of his nose or the colour of his hair and eyes. It’s also about deeper traits: maybe they both laugh at silly jokes, get quiet when things are overwhelming, or are surprisingly good at fixing things with just some duct tape and a prayer. We’ve got sayings for this kind of thing, don’t we? “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.” “They’re cut from the same cloth.” “He’s a spitting image of his dad.” Or the old standby, “Like father, like son.” If you say it with a smile or with a sigh and a shake of the head. Either way, it’s a truth older than dirt: fathers leave their mark, for good or bad, and sons often carry their fathers with them.

In today’s Gospel from John 8, Jesus is in the temple, surrounded by a crowd of Jews who claim to believe in him, sort of. He’s been preaching, teaching, and stating the plain truth, but it’s starting to get a little tense. The longer he speaks, the more blunt he becomes, and the more these people start to bristle and oppose him. The Temple Authorities have already tried to arrest him once. It’s in this context that Jesus grabs this whole “like father, like son” idea and gives it a spiritual twist.

Hearing Reveals Paternity (vv. 37-47)

Jesus starts in verses 37 and 38 by pointing out a disconnect. The Jews Jesus is talking to claim Abraham’s lineage, but their actions betray a different family resemblance.  If the Jews are claiming Abraham as their father, Jesus is rightly claiming God as his Father. He is proclaiming what he has seen in God the Father’s presence, but it has no place in them. Jesus’ word has nowhere to go in their hearts and minds. The Word bounces off them like water off a duck’s back.

When the crowd fires back, “Abraham is our father!” They’re leaning hard on their heritage, as if being Abraham’s descendants guarantees their spot with God. Jesus says in verses 39-41 that their response to him is precisely the opposite of Abraham’s. When God spoke to Abraham, when God visited Abraham, despite living in an idolatrous, pagan world, he responded with trust. Abraham heard God’s word and responded with faith. But they are not open to God’s Word. They’re plotting murder instead. That’s not Abraham’s way. It’s not about heritage; it’s about their response to God’s Word. Abraham trusted God’s word; these guys reject it.

They pivot, claiming, “We’re not illegitimate! God’s our Father!” But Jesus sees through the posturing. In verses 42-43, Jesus said that they don’t understand what he’s saying, because they cannot even stand to listen to his word (v. 43). Jesus ties their rejection to a deeper spiritual problem—they’re not just hard of hearing; they’re spiritually deaf to God’s truth. According to our Lord, that is how we determine who our Father is. The paternity test is our response to God’s Word, continuing, abiding, remaining, and persevering in Christ’s Word. This is the heart of it: hearing reveals paternity. Just as a child mirrors their dad’s quirks—good or bad—our response to Christ’s Word reveals who our true spiritual Father is. Believe it or not, it’s not about your family tree; it’s about whether you listen to Jesus when he speaks. If you’re God’s child, you hear his word, love Jesus, and let his truth shape you. If not, you reject God’s Word and Christ, and that’s a dangerous family trait.

That’s why, Jesus cuts right to the chase in verses 44-47: “You are of your father the devil.” And how do we know that? Because the devil is a murderer and a liar, and these guys are looking to murder Jesus. That’s not Abrahamic. That’s demonic. They can’t handle the truth He speaks. They’re so wrapped up in their own self-deception, their own religious works, that they’ve made themselves deaf to God’s voice. They claim God as their Father, but if God were their Father, they’d love Jesus, because Jesus is God’s Son.

The point is clear. Two families, two fathers, two lines of descent. You’re either from God, or from the devil. Like father, like son. How you respond to God’s Word shows you which family you belong to. God’s Word is the means God has chosen to reveal himself to you, and through the Word, you grow in your understanding of him. Jesus said in verse 31, “abide in his Word.” His Word guides and shapes us, bringing every aspect of our lives—our thoughts, words, and deeds—under its control.

Our problem is we want God’s Word to validate what we already think or feel. We love sermons that agree with how we think. We don’t like sermons that disagree with us. We don’t like the suggestion that something we believe could be wrong. We don’t like the suggestion that how we live our lives needs to change. We want our opinions and actions to be validated, not challenged. Do we really think that we never need to change? If you’ve got it all down, then you don’t need God. But you don’t have it all down. None of us do. Like father, like son. If God is our Father, we’ll hear his Son’s words, let them sink deep, and let them change us. If we’re dodging the truth, clinging to our own ideas, or worse, hating the one who brings it—well, that’s another father’s family traits showing through.

Jesus’ Divine Paternity (vv. 48-59)

Those listening to Jesus, stung by Jesus’ words, hurl insults: “Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?” (v. 48). They’re dismissing Him as crazy and heretical. Yet Jesus doesn’t back down. Jesus promises that if anyone “keeps His word”, they will “never taste death”, that is, they’ll have eternal life (v. 51). That includes you. If you cling to Christ’s Word, You will never taste death because Jesus was delivered into death in your place. When they hear this, the Jews now really begin to ask the right question, “Who do you make yourself out to be?” (John 8:52–53, ESV).  That’s a great question. Who is this Jesus?

Jesus responds by saying that their God is His Father and that He knows him (v. 55). He declares that Abraham “rejoiced to see my day” (v. 56), speaking as if He and Abraham were old friends. Then, He delivers the stunning claim: “Before Abraham was, I am” (v. 58). He’s not simply saying that He is older than Abraham. Jesus calls himself by the divine name, I AM. He is claiming to be the God who spoke to Moses from the burning bush, the LORD of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the covenant-keeping God. He proclaims, unequivocally, that He is the God of Israel, one with the Father. The question isn’t whether you can fully explain this but whether you trust Him. His opponents refused, branding Him a liar (v. 55).

The leaders grasp His meaning perfectly. They seize stones to kill Him (v. 59), seeing His claim as blasphemous. Yet their rejection sets them against God Himself. This moment reveals the foundation of the Trinity: Jesus, fully divine, one with the Father and the Spirit. Remember their question: Who is Jesus? This is a First Commandment matter: Who is the God you fear, love, and trust above all? To whom do you pray, offer praise, and gather to worship? Jesus declares He is that God, alongside the Father.

Two families, two fathers, two lines of descent. You’re either from God, or from the devil. Like father, like son. And Jesus reveals that we all were born in the devil’s family. So, where does that leave us? This is not something you can fix on your own steam, by your own strength. As Jesus told Nicodemus, we must be “born again” to see and enter God’s kingdom (John 3:3-5).  That’s how we get into God’s family. God the Father sent His eternal Son to die, reconciling the world to Himself (2 Corinthians 5:19). Through the Word, we are united with Christ’s death and resurrection, sealed with the Spirit, and made God’s children. You may have been born into the wrong family, but through the Word of Jesus, you are adopted into God’s family. To be born again is to be transferred from one family to another. “He has delivered us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:13, NKJV). Once you were under the power of the devil, but now Christ has claimed you as his own.  Though born into the wrong family, through Jesus’ word and baptism, you are adopted into God’s family. Through the Word, you are united to Christ—you are crucified, raised, and seated with Him. The Spirit stirs within you the cry of God’s children: “Abba, Father.”

Like father, like son. Just as earthly fathers leave their mark on their children, your response to Jesus’ word reveals your spiritual Father. Those who reject Christ and the truth of his Word show who their father is. But you, dear saints, you trust Jesus and His word. You have God’s family resemblance. The triune God—Father, Son, and Spirit—has claimed you through His Word in baptism, making you His own. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, and in Christ, you are God’s child, shaped by His word, destined for eternal life. Like Father, like Son.

May the peace of God, which passes all understanding, guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.