John 10:22-42--I and the Father Are One

John 10:22-42
English Standard Version

I and the Father Are One
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.

​40 He went away again across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing at first, and there he remained. 41 And many came to him. And they said, “John did no sign, but everything that John said about this man was true.” 42 And many believed in him there.

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Jesus is in Jerusalem again, this time to celebrate what is called The Feast of Dedication here, but that most of us know as Hanukkah.  It's a time of remembering God's miraculous provision of the oil for the lamps in the Temple (representative of the Holy Spirit) that gave light to the Holy Place.  Jesus has recently called Himself the Light of the World and He is going to make an even bolder claim here about the triune nature of God.  The Father and the Son are One, yet they are at the same time their won unique Persons of the Trinity.

First though, we see Jesus once again in the Temple, and the people gathering around Him hanging on His every word to see if He will plainly say that He is the Christ (the Messiah).  They get to the point where they feel they can't wait any more and ask Jesus when He will tell them plainly to which He responds, "I have already told you and you didn't believe me."  He's been saying who He is ever since He performed the first sign in the wedding feast at Cana.  These are all clear signs that Jesus is the Son of God, but He's also been telling them by way of all the other miracles not called signs, and by His teachings, His parables, and the "I AM" statements that He's been making, along with the debates that we've seen Him having with the religious leaders about His identity.  Jesus plainly says once again to them is that the reason they don't believe Him is that they are not His sheep.  They don't belong to Him, and if they did belong to Him, they would hear His voice and would follow Him.  Then Jesus said that all who belong to Him, His sheep, receive eternal life from Him and He keeps them safe and secure--the implication here is that those who are not His sheep are not under His protection and will not have eternal life, but will "perish" and experience the second death that is the lake of fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

​While I can see the religious leaders getting upset and probably starting to gnash their teeth a bit, it's the next thing that Jesus says that once again gets them to pick up stones to try to stone Him again (and again in the same spot practically in the Temple as the last two or three times we've read about them trying to stone Him).  He is once again going to say something that they consider blasphemy when He says, "I and the Father are One."

Jesus then asks them for which of the good works that He has performed in obedience to the Father are they going to stone Him?  They say that it is not because of His works, but because of His words that they are going to stone Him because they understand that He has claimed equality with God, and they believed Him to be just a man.  This would probably actually be the right thing for them to do in accordance with the Law if Jesus was just a man, but He is no ordinary man--He is the Son of Man, and the Son of God.  He is Emmanuel, God With Us!

Jesus then takes them to the Scriptures to a place that probably had diverse interpretations among the Pharisees, because it's a text that still has a lot of discussion among biblical scholars today.  I'll unpack this one when we get to the book of Psalms which is on my "short list" of books of the Bible to tackle next.  The main word that Jesus is focusing in on is the word "Elohim" which is a plural of the word "El" which is the generic word "god" in Hebrew.  Elohim could mean multiple gods, or it is sometimes used of the one true God because of His supremacy and majesty that He is spoken of in a plural form even though He is One God.  In this Psalm though, it is clear that God is speaking to some creatures that are not human (I assume they are demons because of verses 6-7 that speak of these creatures falling like men and dying like them).  In any case, Jesus points to this word to say that if these creatures can be called "gods" in the Scripture, then they should have no issue with Jesus identifying Himself as The Son of God if He is truly the One who has been sent by the Father from heaven to bring the Father's words and works here to earth.

Jesus then once again says that they should not simply take His word for it, but should look at the works (the signs) that He has performed and let them speak for themselves.  No one should be able to do these things without the blessing of God, and it doesn't make any sense that God would bless someone in this way who was claiming to be the Son of God and was lying to people.  Therefore, they should see the works and then believe the words that the Father and the Son are One--even though that is hard to comprehend.  I am not going to pretend that this is an easy passage, but it is one that we must believe by faith.

The Jews though still sought to arrest Jesus even after He said these things, though it appears they put down their stones and stopped trying to stone him for now.  After these events, Jesus went back across the Jordan River to the area on the east side of the Jordan that was out of the jurisdiction of the Jews as this was Gentile territory and He will remain there with His disciples until it is time for Him to return to Jerusalem for what we know will be His crucifixion and Resurrection.  There will lots of other events that happen leading up to that though as we still have nearly half of the book of John to go and only roughly a week of Jesus' life left to cover.