(REFLECTIONS ON John 10:22-42)

24 The Jews then gathered around Him, and were saying to Him, “How long will You keep us in suspense? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.”

The Jews, likely referring to the Jewish leaders that are questioning Jesus about His works, want to know from Jesus Himself, if He is the Christ. Interestingly though, when Jesus tells them, “I and the Father are one,” these same individuals picked up stones again to stone Him.

On one hand, they want to know if Jesus is the Christ, yet on the other hand, when Jesus said that He and the Father are one, they cannot accept it and accuse Jesus of blasphemy. This shows that the Jewish leaders didn’t equate the Christ, the Messiah, being one with God.

What Christ were they expecting then? A prophet? A priest? A teacher? Yes, Jesus is all those things, but He is even more. And it is that Jesus is even more that the Jewish leaders accused Him of blasphemy against God. They wanted to know if Jesus was the Christ, but their response again shows that they don’t understand even what they were anticipating and waiting for.

They are indeed, as Jesus accused them of in the John 9, blind. Although they could not understand, because they are not His sheep, Jesus said to them, and thus for us to hear today as well,

37 “If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; 38 but if I do them, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father.”

Jesus did the works of His Father, amongst them were the “signs” or what we traditionally think of as “miracles” that we read about in the Gospel of John. These “signs” pointed to His relationship with God, and it is these works that they may know and understand that the Father is in Him, and He in the Father.

Yet, rather than see, the Jewish leaders showed that they were blind. Brothers and sisters, today’s Scripture reminds us as well, that we should not be spiritually blind and misunderstand God, His Son, Jesus Christ, the work of the Holy Spirit, and what believing in Him means for us individually and for the church, which is Christ’s body.

We too should believe the works, and through our study of the Bible, combined with our own experience corporately and individually in the Spirit, know and understand that Jesus is the Christ. In addition to knowing and understanding that Jesus is the Christ, we need to continue to learn what it means that Jesus is the Christ.

He is more than just a prophet, a priest, a teacher, but He is the Son of God, was with God, and was God in the beginning (Ref. John 1:1, 14). Christ is more than a spirit that gives us what we want or helps us to have a better life on earth. He and the Father are one, meaning we are brought into relationship with the Father, the Creator, through Him.

It is in this relationship that we, if we hear His voice, and know His voice, are His sheep, and as His sheep, Jesus said, “I give eternal life to them.” Let us not tell Jesus who He is, or believe Jesus to be what we want Him to be, but believe the works, believe His words, that we may let Jesus tell us who He is, and believe in Him.

Pastor Michael Lu
Enduring Word Bible Commentary: John 10