John 8:43

John 8:43, in plain English

Jesus asks: Why can you not understand what I am saying? Because you are unable to hear My message. Their hearts are closed, and that makes their ears deaf.

Why it's here

The problem is not Jesus' clarity. The problem is their hearts. When your heart is turned against someone, you cannot hear what they are saying no matter how clearly they say it.

Who's speaking

Jesus diagnoses the real reason they cannot understand Him.

Where it sits in the story

Have you ever tried to explain something to someone whose mind was already made up? That is what Jesus is dealing with. The truth is clear, but they cannot receive it because their hearts belong to someone else.

The scholarly reading

Jesus diagnoses their incomprehension: they cannot understand His lalian (speech/manner of speaking) because they are unable (ou dunasthe) to hear His logon (word/message), indicating a spiritual incapacity rooted in their allegiance.

Language and setting

The distinction between lalia (speech/discourse) and logos (word/message) suggests they stumble at both the surface level of His communication and the deeper level of His truth content.

Voice

Jesus explains the root cause of their inability to understand Him: a spiritual deafness caused by their allegiance to another father.

Significance

Understanding Jesus requires spiritual ears. Their allegiance to another master has made them deaf to the voice of God. They cannot hear because they will not hear, and they will not hear because they belong to someone else.

41You are doing the works of your father.”

42Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I have come here from God. I have not come on My own, but He sent Me.

43Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you are unable to accept My message.

44You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out his desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, refusing to uphold the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, because he is a liar and the father of lies.

45But because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me!

Read all of John 8 — A woman caught in adultery, a claim to be the light of the world, and a statement so audacious the crowd picks up stones: before Abraham was, I am.