With Dale Ratzlaff
John 10:30-42
The Jews picked up stones again to stone Him. 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 answered them, “Has it not been written in your Law, ‘I SAID, YOU ARE GODS ‘? If he called them gods, to whom the word 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 ‘? 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.” 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 sign, yet everything John said about this man was true.” Many believed in Him there.
Just after Jesus announced that He and the Father are One, as mentioned in the last study, the Jews picked up stones to throw at Him. There true reason for this anger was jealousy and hatred of Jesus that rationalized with the law:
You shall speak to the sons of Israel, saying, “If anyone curses his God, then he will bear his sin. 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” (Lev. 24:15-16).
By immediately picking up stones to kill Jesus, however, the Jews were not following their own laws. First, their had to be an inditement, and then a trial before the Sanhedrin before an execution could be ordered.
We note the calm response of Jesus. Surrounded by Jews holding stones in their hands, He calmly asked a question. At first, one might consider His comment was designed to change the subject matter, but it was not. In fact, it bears directly on His claim to be one with the Father.
I showed you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you stoning Me?
Strong statements such as Jesus just made must be backed up with evidence. Note that Jesus showed them many good works. John has shown in some detail how Jesus healed the man at the pool of Bethesda, fed the five thousand, and healed the man born blind. These were good works. Nothing in them was selfish or staged. The power of this statement relating to good works is that they were from the Father. This was evidence that Jesus’ statement, “I and the Father are one,” was indeed true. However, the Jews were not looking for evidence to believe; they were looking for a reason to put Jesus to death.
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.”
Because the Jews were blinded by their desire to put Jesus to death rather than believe, they completely dismissed the evidence of the “good work”.
Jesus answered them, “Has it not been written in your Law, ‘I SAID, YOU ARE GODS ‘? If he called them gods, to whom the word 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 ’?
Just as the Jews went to the law to find evidence for stoning Jesus, Jesus, in turn, goes to “their law” to show that it supports His statement that He is One with the Father, the Son of God. Jesus quotes from Psalm 82. Technically, the “law” refers to the five books written by Moses. However, at times the whole Old Testament is considered as “law”, and Jesus uses this Psalm do drive home God’s word to them:
A Psalm of Asaph. God takes His stand in His own congregation; He judges in the midst of the rulers. How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? Selah. Vindicate the weak and fatherless; Do justice to the afflicted and destitute. Rescue the weak and needy; Deliver them out of the hand of the wicked. They do not know nor do they understand; They walk about in darkness; All the foundations of the earth are shaken. I said, “You are gods, and all of you are sons of the Most High.” Nevertheless you will die like men And fall like any one of the princes (Ps. 82:1-7).
Just as Aaron was Moses’ “prophet”, or spokesman, so God had commissioned the leaders of Israel to be like “gods” in that they were to mediate the word of God to the people. The argument of Jesus is that if God could call these “rulers” in Israel “gods” even though they did not follow through with the correct administration of the word of God and judged unjustly, then by how much more could Jesus be called the “Son of God” who justly carried out the will of the Father by doing good works and judging righteously? To this reasoning, Jesus adds, “and the Scripture cannot be broken.” The Jewish rulers had appealed to Scripture. In essence, Jesus says, “Very well, to Scripture we shall go, but it must be interpreted correctly!”
So Jesus clarifies,
[How] 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 continues to give evidence after evidence to these Jewish leaders. As Jesus said when He entered Jerusalem a few days before the cross,
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling (Mt. 23:37-38).
He continues to plead for them to believe:
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.
Earlier, in John 10:24 the Jews asked Jesus,
How long will You keep us in suspense? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.
He has now done exactly what they requested. Not just once, but time after time He gave them evidence to believe both by His good works and His direct statements.
Good works
- Healing at the Pool of Bethesda
- Feeding the five thousand
- Healing the man born blind
Direct statements
- Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I AM
- I and the Father are One
- The Father is in Me and I am in the Father
They had more than sufficient evidence, yet they were unwilling to believe.
Therefore they were seeking again to seize Him, and He eluded their grasp.
John does not expressly state how Jesus eluded them, but several times elsewhere, Jesus’ escape was “because His time had not come.”
Jesus spent some time in Jerusalem. He had given the Jewish leaders evidence to believe, and they would not. Now, John records,
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 sign, yet everything John said about this man was true.” Many believed in Him there.
Here, away from Jerusalem and the learned scribes and Pharisees, the common people either saw or heard about the ministry of Jesus and remembering what John the Baptist had said about Jesus, “many believed in Him there.”
Application
- In this section of John, we see the long-suffering and patience of Jesus giving evidence after evidence for belief. We also see how dangerous it can be to reject the evidence God has given us to believe in Christ.
- Jesus said, “Scripture cannot be broken”. We ought to think about this, and discus how to apply it in our study of God’s word. For example:
- Do we know when to take things literally or symbolically?
- Do we know how to interpret wisdom literature? Does every statement in Proverbs have to come true? Or, is this wisdom literature teaching us what usually happens when following God’s moral principles?
- Is every prophecy unconditional, or are there conditional prophecies? How do we tell them apart?
- Can we take an isolated statement of Scripture and say, “Scripture cannot be broken”? How does context come into play in reading Scripture?
- The Jewish leaders were blinded by their own pride and jealousy. We should be careful in presenting our views of Scripture so that we do not let pride of opinion influence our conclusions.
Prayer,
Father, thank you for your abundant love for lost sinners. Thank you for providing sufficient, even more than necessary evidence for belief. Keep me humble to accept the truth of your word.
In Jesus name.
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