Again the Jews picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus said to them, "I have shown you many great miracles from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?""We are not stoning you for any of these," replied the Jews, "but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God."
Jesus answered them, "Is it not written in your Law, 'I have said you are gods'? If he called them 'gods,' to whom the word of God came—and the Scripture cannot be broken— what about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, 'I am God's Son'? Do not believe me unless I do what my Father does. But if I do it, even though you do not believe me, believe the miracles, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father." Again they tried to seize him, but he escaped their grasp. John 10:31-39
REFLECTION
Jesus walked through the temple area when the Feast of Dedication - the Feast of Lights (Hanukkah) - had arrived. It was winter. Again the Jewish leaders started questioning Jesus. Did He really claim to be the Christ, the promised Messiah? Again Jesus uses the metaphor of the shepherd and his sheep. And He gave the religious leaders the answer they were looking for: “I and the Father are one”. How more specific did they want Him to be? The Jews picked up stones because of this ‘blasphemous’ claim. But Jesus diffuses their anger with some intriguing questions. Keep in mind that these men knew the Hebrew Scriptures by heart and that Jesus supplied all the evidence they needed to convince them of the truth. How much light did they need to recognize their long awaited Messiah?
Jesus quotes Psalm 82:6 to silence his opponents. It is interesting to read this verse in combination with the preceding and following verses, because the Jewish scholars were trained to quote every piece of Scripture in the right context: "They know nothing, they understand nothing. They walk about in darkness; all the foundations of the earth are shaken. "I said, 'You are "gods"; you are all sons of the Most High.' But you will die like mere men; you will fall like every other ruler." (Psalm 82:5-7)
PRAYER
Dear Lord Jesus, you answered your opponents’ questions with superior counter questions. You clearly showed that they didn’t have any sensible reason to reject you as the Messiah, the Son of the Most High. You fulfilled the Scriptures in front of their eyes and nobody was able to refute your rightful claims. Yes, Jesus, Son of God, your bright heavenly light shone in the darkness of this lost world but some people still prefer to live in the shades of unbelief and doubt. But one day every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that You are Lord! Nobody is able to steal your glory! Thank You for giving us so much light and thank You for saving me from the darkness. Amen.
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5 comments:
This passage and the one you wrote about last week are strong arguments for Jesus’ spiritual authority. In both, Jesus identifies himself with prophecy, at the same time identifying the religious leaders as corrupt plunderers.
Psalm 82 is very complex. The word “gods” is actually the Hebrew elohim. This word is generally reserved for the One True God, the God of Israel. It was also sometimes used in other senses:
• The minor deities of the surrounding pagans;
• The magistrates and rulers of Israel.
We understand the God/god word relationship in English but we don’t get the magistrate overtones because they don’t exist in English. Just as God is the Supreme Ruler and Judge, his little ‘gods’ are his rulers and judges on earth.
In my opinion elohim as used here slides back and forth between both meanings, and reading the psalm in that sense is a delight. We understand when men in power “think they’re some kind of god” or “play God.” (Do these English phrases make any sense in Dutch?)
When Jesus refers to the religious leader as ‘little Gods’, he is invoking the whole judgment of Psalm 82 on them. The psalm indicts these rulers for their corruption at the expense of the poor and oppressed and consigns them to “die like mere men; … fall like every other ruler…”
This fits right in with the previous passage you quoted last week where Jesus said he was the Good Shepherd. There he referenced Ezekiel:
I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. Because you shove with flank and shoulder, butting all the weak sheep with your horns until you have driven them away, I will save my flock, and they will no longer be plundered. I will judge between one sheep and another. I will place over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he will tend them; he will tend them and be their shepherd. (Ezekiel 34:20-23)
I’ve been sucked into worldly pursuits these past few weeks and desperately needed re-centering. Thanks for giving me something important to think about to start my week.
Carol, your comments are often better than my postings. Thanks again!
Yes, this makes a lot of sense and in our language we could use similar expressions referring to the high and mighty powers of this world (so called 'gods').
But I think Jesus is playing with words against his oponents, it's like watching a professional chess game... The jewish leaders think that they have forced Jesus into a 'lost' position, but he strikes back with amazing ease and defeats them on their own field. Yes, Jesus is the MASTER!
I am just wondering - if you look at all the prophecies concerning the promised Messiah in the Old Testament - it must be so hard to find another perfect match like Jesus. And yet, the ortohodox Jews are still anticipating and waiting for their Messiah. I just don't get it! That's why I'm asking: How much light do you need?
http://www.godandscience.org/
apologetics/prophchr.html
cut and paste this in your URL
(I had to split it up to make it fit in this comments section, but of course it must be typed as one string)
Some of those prophecies are generic (predicting a coming Messiah) but the ones from Isaiah, Zechariah, Psalms and others which describe his death in detail are awesome. I wonder what those (Bible-literate) leaders must have thought in the days following Jesus’ crucifixion, especially as word began to spread of the Resurrection.
The Book of Ruth is a type* for Jesus and his church (Ruth herself representing Christendom in the family of faith) just as Jonah is a type for the Resurrection. The latter is a little more obvious since Jesus himself mentions it. (Matthew 12:39-41)
I see resistance to prophecy all the time as I evangelize. It’s helped along by Biblical illiteracy, because you can more easily deny the existence of what you don’t know. (Just as I can easily dismiss the Heisenberg uncertainty principle because I really have no clue what it says.)
Thanks for the compliment on my writing but it really is easy to jump in now and again with an incisive comment. The brilliant work is doing this week in, week out, and doing it so well—all in your non-native tongue. In that I struggle with the one language I (more or less) speak, that blows me away.
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*Don't know if you use a similar word this way in Dutch but “typology” is the English term for seeing the New Testament in the Old Testament. More broad than “prophecy.”
Yes, we also use the word typology in our language. Many OT characters and stories are foreshadowing God's plan of Salvation through his only Son.
For me it is important to recognize Jesus in the OT, because it is the only way I can digest the difficult parts of the Bible. But there must be good NT evidence to say with authority that an OT story / part of Scripture refers to the NT (and to Jesus in particular). If Jesus mentions it explicitly (like with the Jonah example), we can take His word for it.
"And the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me. You have never heard his voice nor seen his form, nor does his word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent. You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life." John 5:37-40
I have 2 books that I want to read in the next weeks. Both are written by Christopher J.H. Wright. Titles: Knowing Jesus through the Old Testament and Knowing the Holy Spirit through the Old Testament. There is also a title 'Knowing God the Father through the Old Testament', but I don't have a copy of that book. I will let you know what I've learned from these books. Very much looking forward to reading both books!
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