Jesus is talking to people who believe in him. They've got the WWJD bracelet. They're in. Our expectations are set: Jesus will celebrate their profession of faith. But no. Jesus is unimpressed. He flatly denies that God is their Father and states they cannot listen to God's word. Then he names their true Father: the devil, who is so full of lies that deception is his native language. Abraham Lincoln once told a woman pleading for her Confederate husband's release, "The religion that sets men to rebel and fight against their government, because, as they think, that government does not sufficiently help some men to eat their bread on the sweat of other men's faces, is not the sort of religion upon which people can get to heaven!" To a Southerner whose family was already humiliated by the Union forces, Lincoln was saying, "Your religion is worthless. It's made you evil." My ancestors fought in the Civil War. I know this stung. We don't know how that woman might have cursed Lincoln on the way home, but we know how these 'believers' responded. They call him a Samaritan. Then they go lower, "No, you're the one with the devil!" These are the most vicious, cutting insults they can devise. Why can't they believe? Jesus is devastating: "It's because I'm telling you the truth." When lies become our native language, we can't translate the truth. It's like a language we've never heard before. Instead of wondering if we need to humbly hear what God is saying, we reject his speech as unintelligible. Instead of receiving truth as a gift, we hear it as a threat. My friend said he would believe if God showed up. But when God was surrounded by a crowd of believers, they couldn't recognize him. But Jesus doesn't retaliate. Instead, to a crowd that wanted to kill him, he offered life: "If anyone keeps my word, he will never see death."