31 At this, the Jews again picked up stones to stone Him. 32 But Jesus responded, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these do you stone Me?”
33 “We are not stoning You for any good work,” said the Jews, “but for blasphemy, because You, who are a man, declare Yourself to be God.”
34 Jesus replied, “Is it not written in your Law: ‘I have said you are gods’ ? 35 If he called them gods to whom the word of God came—and the Scripture cannot be broken— 36 then what about the One whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world? How then can you accuse Me of blasphemy for stating that 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 am doing them, even though you do not believe Me, believe the works themselves, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me, and I am in the Father.”
39 At this, they tried again to seize Him, but He escaped their grasp.
40 Then Jesus went back across the Jordan to the place where John had first been baptizing, and He stayed there. 41 Many came to Him and said, “Although John never performed a sign, everything he said about this man was true.” 42 And many in that place believed in Jesus.
REFLECTIONS
Written by Stephen Shead
Not long ago, I had a really frustrating conversation with a guy who seemed to be seeking the truth about Jesus, but as the conversation dragged on, it seemed to me that he just wasn’t listening. He had already decided that Jesus was not God become man. No matter where we went in the Bible, he would be looking for the word or phrase that proved Jesus was not God.
That’s what is going on with the Jewish leaders in today’s passage. They have just heard Jesus say, “I and the Father are one.” They didn’t stop to wonder if this might somehow be true, given that Jesus had just opened the eyes of a man born blind, among countless other God-like deeds. They had rejected him, and here was their proof: no one can ever compare themselves with God. Jesus had said a magic phrase they could jump on to prove what they knew all along: “Blasphemy!”
So Jesus quotes Psalm 82:6. In its context, the Psalm says: “I have said, ‘You are gods; you are all sons of the Most High. But like mortals you will die, and like rulers you will fall.” Jesus isn’t trying to prove to them that he is God the Son – they’re literally about to stone him to death, he doesn’t have time for complex arguments! He’s simply showing that their case against him is much weaker than they thought. According to Scripture, there’s a sense in which even sinful people can be compared with God.
Jesus made them pause long enough that he dodged the stones, nothing more. But if they really stopped to look at Jesus’ works and words, they would realise he is so much more than any other god-like person. He is “the one whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world” (v 36).
Today was a reminder that sometimes all we can hope for is to show someone that maybe they haven’t read the Bible as carefully as they think.
But the last few verses were a reminder that sometimes God uses the simplest testimony about Jesus to bring saving faith. Jesus meets others who had heard John the Baptist speak about him. John never did a single miracle. But when those people encountered Jesus, they simply realised: “What John said about him is true!” And they believed.
Pray that over the next month, as we invite people to our church evangelistic events, God might bring many of that second sort of person!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Stephen is our Senior Minister.