Reading the Word

John 10:22–39 (ESV)

22 At that time the Feast of Dedication took place at Jerusalem. It was winter, 23 and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the colonnade of Solomon. 24 So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? 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 bear witness about me, 26 but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. 27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will 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 the Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.”

31 The Jews picked up stones again to stone him. 32 Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?” 33 The Jews answered him, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, 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 Scripture cannot be broken— 36 do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’? 37 If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; 38 but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” 39 Again they sought to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands.

Understanding and Applying the Word

During the Feast of Dedication, or Hanukkah, Jesus was confronted about his identity. He was asked to just plainly state if he was the promised Messiah. His response was that he had told them, but they simply did not want to believe what he said. Jesus went on to tell them that if they did want to believe his words, they should at least believe the works that he was doing in their midst that gave evidence that what he said was true.

The Jews were greatly offended when Jesus proclaimed that “I and the Father are one.” They immediately picked up stones to stone him when they heard those words because Jesus made himself out to be equal to God. This was blasphemous and deserving of death. As the Jews readied to stone Jesus, he explained to them that if he truly was doing the works of God then his claims were not blasphemous, but it meant that he truly was the Son of God. Once again the Jews wanted to arrest him, but he escaped them.

Jesus said many things about his identity and made great claims. He claimed to be one with the Father and the Son of God. Jesus claimed to be the Lord of the Sabbath and the great I Am. He not only made bold claims, but he performed great miracles to prove what he said was true. Many believed, but many did not. We must make a decision on who Jesus is also. Was he the Lord or was he an impostor? As C. S. Lewis stated in Mere Christianity:

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

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