Wednesday in the Word...John 10:31-42...here come the stones again

Last Wednesday we left off with Jesus speaking very plainly to the Jewish crowd.  His final words were, "I and the Father are one."  What would be the response of His hearers to this straight up declaration?  

v.31 - The Jews picked up stones again to stone Him.

Jesus clearly claimed that He is God and the Jews understood Him to be saying and making this claim.  This is actually the third time that Jesus was facing some stone carrying Jews.  John chapter 5 and verse 18 says,

For this reason therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.

John chapter 8 and verse 59 says,

Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple.

This was a "stone-able" event.  Leviticus chapter 24 and verse 16 says,

Moreover, the one who blasphemes the name of the LORD shall surely be put to death; all the congregation shall certainly stone him.  The alien as well as the native, when he blasphemes the Name, shall be put to death.

v.32, 33 - Jesus answered them, "I showed you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you stoning Me?"  The Jews answered Him, "For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy; and because You, being a man, make Yourself out to be God."

Jesus makes them clarify why they are picking up the stones.  It wasn't because Jesus had healed the many thousands or even raised some from the dead but it was because He made Himself equal with God.  He was calling Himself God.  They didn't believe Him but they also validated for us that Jesus actually claimed this claim.  Their physical actions of picking up stones and their open confession of why they were doing it cements for us Jesus' words and claims of His deity.  Any religion that claims otherwise goes against the very words of Jesus.

v.34-36 - Jesus answered them, "Has it not been written in your Law, 'I said, you are gods'?  If he called them gods, to whom the words of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken), do you say of Him, whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, 'You are blaspheming,' because I said, 'I am the Son of God'?"

Jesus uses the Scriptures, the Word of God, to be the defense for His statements.  The passage referred to is Psalm chapter 82 and verse 6.  The people are spoken of as "gods," little "g."  If David called humans "gods," little "g" and the words were coming from God through David then why would it be a stretch for them to grasp that the One sent into this world from God would call Himself the Son of God?  Who is greater in this comparison, the humans called "gods," little "g" or Jesus, who is doing things beyond what any human has done calling Himself "God,", big "G?"

v.37, 38 - "If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; but if I do them, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father."

Jesus walks through this logically with them.  If He isn't doing the works of the Father, then don't believe in Him.  There might be a question here if they even knew what the Father had said about the coming Messiah through the prophesies of the prophets.  Jesus keeps asking them the question, "Have you not read?" or "Isn't it written in your Law?"  Jesus is reminding them of something that they should know or go question the local rabbi about.  

Jesus goes forward in the logical argument to give the other side of the coin.  If He is doing the works of the Father, even if they don't believe in what He says about Himself, they should believe in the works as of the Father and only things the Father can do.  As you look at those works and attribute them to God then you will be in a place that you may know and understand what Jesus is saying about Himself.  Just take a step back and examine the evidence before picking up a stone.  Maybe there is truth in what is being said because you have some physical evidence of the work and also Scriptural evidence that these kind of things would be done by one called the Son of God.

v.39-42 - Therefore they were seeking again to seize Him, and He eluded their grasp.  And He went away again beyond the Jordan to the place where John was first baptizing, and He was staying there.  Many came to Him and were saying, "While John performed no signs, yet everything John said about this man was true."  Many believed in Him there.

Even though this section starts out with some more hostility, it ends with some glimmer of hope.  Jesus retreats to an area where John the Baptist had done much ministry work.  The area was probably more sensitive to the Scriptures because John didn't perform any signs but just gave them the Word.  Their focus was on what was said rather than what was done.  John the Baptist spoke much to these about Jesus, the Messiah.  This group, even without a sign or work of God, were believing in Him.  

It reminds me of Thomas the disciple meeting up with Jesus after demanding that he personally see and feel the nail prints.  Thomas gives that great affirmation, "My Lord and my God!" but Jesus responds with, "Because you have seen Me, have you believed?  Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed."  Will we take Jesus at His word?  Will we hold onto what the Scriptures have said?  Will we know and understand that Jesus is God by His word, by God's word, and by what He and God have shown us supported by what has been said and written?  Let us pray.

"Heavenly Father, may my faith in what is written grow.  May I not just know the promises of God but actually lean on them because they are true.  May I protect myself and the flock you have put under my care from those who would make You out to be less than God.  You are the Messiah, the Son of God, You and the Father are one and the Father is in You and You are in the Father.  Amen."

Pastor Adam