ACCUSED OF BLASPHEMY
John chapter 10 v.22 to 42
This event took place nearly three months after the discussions following the healing of the blind man. The Lord Jesus had apparently spent the time between tabernacles and dedication in Judea (Luke 10:1-13:21).
The Pharisees greeted his return with the same desire to catch him as before [This feast of dedication (Hanukkah, festival of lights), was celebrated with much rejoicing and festivity for eight days about the middle of our December; it was instituted in BC 164 to remember the cleansing of the temple from the defilement of pagan worship, and the rebuilding of the altar after the Syrian invaders had been driven out. It was not one of the great feasts and could be observed elsewhere without coming to Jerusalem. Being winter, it was often a period of heavy rains (Ezra 10:9, 13)].
The Lord was walking around in Solomon's porch, a covered colonnade or portico outside the temple, in which people could walk in all weather and where the Gentiles were permitted to go (This particular part of Solomon's temple was left uninjured by the Babylonians and survived apparently till the destruction of the temple by Titus AD 70. When John wrote this Gospel it was, of course, gone, but its first readers would remember it). He was aggressively accosted by the religious leaders who demanded Him to declare clearly that He was the Messiah (translated Christ), as they had done before at the feast of tabernacles (chapter 8:25).
He probably declined to use the word Messiah before them because it had a strong political bearing in their minds [a crowd in Galilee had once tried to make Him king in opposition to Pilate (John 6:14), and when He eventually declared on oath before Caiaphas that he was the Christ the Son of God (Mark 14:61; Matthew 26:63), the Sanhedrin instantly voted him guilty of blasphemy and brought him to Pilate with the charge of claiming to be king as a rival to Caesar]. Jesus knew their minds too well to be caught now, before the right time.
In His reply, he said He had already told them, and they did not believe what He said, implying it was useless to say more. He had earlier shown that he was the Son of the Father (chapter 7:14-10:18) as he had previously claimed (chapter 5:17-47). His works confirmed His words as He had shown before (chapter 5:36). They believed neither His words nor his works because they were not His sheep. This had been the point in the allegory of the Good Shepherd. In fact, they were the children of the devil in spirit and conduct (chapter 8:43), pious ecclesiastics though they seemed, veritable wolves in sheep's clothing (Matthew 7:15).
In contrast with them, His sheep were not in doubt and suspense: they knew His voice and followed Him (chapter 10:4), and He gives them eternal life (then and now - chapter 6:27, 40, 1 John 2:25; 5:11). They are secure, for they shall never perish (chapter 3:16; 6:39; 17:12; 18:9), and no one shall snatch them out of His hand (chapter 6:37, 39, Colossians 3:3). The greatness of the Father, who gave them to Him, is the ground of the safety of the flock, because no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand.
The Lord declared that He and the Father were of one essence, or nature (not one person). The Pharisees had accused Him before of making himself equal with God as his own special Father (chapter 5:18), and He then admitted and proved this claim (chapter 5:19-30). Now He stated it tersely in this great saying, repeated later (chapter 17:11, 21). This crisp statement was the climax of Christ's claims concerning the relation between the Father and Himself (the Son). It stirred the Pharisees to uncontrollable anger. They took up stones again, perhaps fetching them from a distance, in order to overwhelm and kill Him by stoning.
The Lord knew perfectly well the reason why they wanted Him killed, but He gave them one more chance to reflect on their folly, by calling their attention to the many good works from His Father which He had shown them. Had any of these deeds made Him worthy of such punishment? No longer accusing Him of working on the Sabbath (chapter 5:18), they now limit themselves to accusing Him of blasphemy because, being a man, he made out Himself to be God (calling Himself the Son of God). This he did beyond a doubt. But was it blasphemy? Only if he was not the Son of God. The penalty for blasphemy was death by stoning (Leviticus 24:16; 1 Kings 21:10, 13).
Were it not for the seriousness of the situation, one could be led to think that in His reply the Lord was poking fun at these blind custodians of the Law (applying here to the entire Old Testament). He of course knew the Scriptures immensely better than they, and, meeting them on their own ground, He quoted from Psalm 82:6 where the judges of Israel, who abused their office, were called gods (elohim). He was not disclaiming His own deity, but simply stopping the mouths of the rabbis from the charge of blasphemy and he did it effectually, for it was a perfectly legal argument.
The judges were only called gods because the word of God came to them, but this is unalterable Scripture which the Pharisees had to accept. In contrast with the mere judges of Psalm 82:6, the Father had sanctified (anointed) His Son and sent Him into the world (thereby claiming He was the Messiah: God's anointed messenger). It was therefore no blasphemy for Him to say what He actually was: the Son of God. There was no answer to this argument, unless He was lying; but His works proved He was saying the truth, so it could not be denied!
Even if they continued not to believe His words, His works stood irrefutable (the claims, character, words, and works of the Lord Jesus challenge the world today just as then). If they were honest with themselves, instead of holding to a dogmatic belief that He could be no more than any ordinary person, they would test His works and find that they could only proceed from God; they would then come to know and believe His real claim to oneness with the Father as his Son, to actual deity. All they needed to do was to open their eyes and see for themselves.
Upon this masterful argument, overawed, they gave up the effort to stone him and let the stones fall to the ground. But they were still angry and kept on seeking in vain to seize Him. The Lord walked out.
He returned to Bethabara beyond Jordan, where He had been in the early part of His ministry (chapter 1:28). Probably from here He carried on the first part of the later Perean Ministry (Luke 13:22-16:10) before the visit to Bethany at the raising of Lazarus (chapter 11:1-44). This was a more congenial atmosphere than Jerusalem, and many came over to meet Him.
John the Baptist, who had been recognised as a prophet of God and attracted large crowds to these parts, had himself wrought no signs the crowds recalled; but Jesus did many here (Matthew 19:2), and the crowds still remembered John's witness to Christ and were now convinced it was true.
Jesus had made His identity very clear, and those who accepted Him understood that He was the Messiah, the Christ. Andrew had told his brother, "We have found the Messiah" (chapter 1:41). Nathanael recognised Him, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God; your are the King of Israel" (chapter 1:49). The Samaritan woman understood who He was, and the Samaritan men said, "Now we believe, not because of your saying: for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world" (chapter 4:42). Also the man healed of his blindness believed and worshipped Him. Only the religious leaders with their subtle questions were trying to catch Him out, making it sound as if it was His fault for not giving enough information, whereas it was their lack of will to believe what God had revealed to them. Jesus revealed His Messiahship to those who would hear.
R David Jones
22 Now it was the Feast of Dedication in Jerusalem, and it was winter.
23 And Jesus walked in the temple, in Solomon's porch.
24 Then the Jews surrounded Him and said to Him, "How long do You keep us in doubt? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly."
25 Jesus answered them, "I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in My Father's name, they bear witness of Me.
26 "But you do not believe, because you are not of My sheep, as I said to you.
27 "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.
28 "And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.
29 "My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand.
30 "I and My Father are one."
31 Then the Jews took up stones again to stone Him.
32 Jesus answered them, "Many good works I have shown you from My Father. For which of those works do you stone Me?"
33 The Jews answered Him, saying, "For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy, and because You, being a Man, make Yourself God."
34 Jesus answered them, "Is it not written in your law, 'I said, "You are gods" '?
35 "If He called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken),
36 "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'?
37 "If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me;
38 "but if I do, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him."
39 Therefore they sought again to seize Him, but He escaped out of their hand.
40 And He went away again beyond the Jordan to the place where John was baptising at first, and there He stayed.
41 Then many came to Him and said, "John performed no sign, but all the things that John spoke about this Man were true."
42 And many believed in Him there.