Is it not written in your law, "I said, 'You are gods'?"

Then the Jews took up stones again to stone Him. Jesus answered them, "Many good works I have shown you from My Father. For which of those works do you stone Me?" The Jews answered Him, saying, "For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy, and because You, being a Man, make Yourself God." Jesus answered them, "Is it not written in your law, 'I said, "You are gods"?' If He called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken), do you say of Him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, 'You are blaspheming,' because I said, 'I am the Son of God'? If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; but if I do, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him." Therefore they sought again to seize Him, but He escaped out of their hand.

And He went away again beyond the Jordan to the place where John was baptizing at first, and there He stayed. Then many came to Him and said, "John performed no sign, but all the things that John spoke about this Man were true." And many believed in Him there.

- John 10:31-42

In yesterday's reading, we continued to read about the disputes in Jerusalem, between Jesus and the temple leadership. The leadership is divided about Jesus. Recent readings have been taking place at the autumn festival of the Feast of Tabernacles. Now the scene shifts three months ahead, to winter. It is the time of the Feast of Dedication, or Hannukah, the festival of lights. This is the commemoration of the rededication of the temple to the God of Israel, my study bible says, "after the Seleucid king, Antiochus Epiphanes, desecrated the temple in 167 B.C. The leaders of Israel's past are commemorated, many of whom were literal shepherds." Jesus has just given the illustration of Himself as the Good Shepherd. In yesterday's reading, He continued. At the Feast of Dedication, the leadership asks Him, "How long do You keep us in doubt? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly." He again referred to Himself as the Shepherd, and the sheep who are of His flock know Him. They know His voice. His works bear witness of Him, but they do not believe Him, because they are not of His flock. He said, "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand. I and My Father are one."

Then the Jews took up stones again to stone Him. Jesus answered them, "Many good works I have shown you from My Father. For which of those works do you stone Me?" As He is condemned by the leadership for His teaching that "I and My Father are one," Jesus refers back to the "witness" to His identity, the good works or signs He has done. The emphasis on witnessing is important to understand in terms of the theology that Jesus teaches. It is as if He is saying to us that we are responsible for understanding the revelation of God in our midst, the signs of God or of God's grace and presence. The leadership fails to discern this; it is a kind of rejection of grace, of the evidence of the presence or shining forth of God in our world.

The Jews answered Him, saying, "For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy, and because You, being a Man, make Yourself God." Jesus answered them, "Is it not written in your law, 'I said, "You are gods"?' If He called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken), do you say of Him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, 'You are blaspheming,' because I said, 'I am the Son of God'?" Jesus refers to the Scripture which tells of becoming "sons of God." In some sense, that is a sonship given by adoption, by the word of God. Jesus is referring to Psalm 82, verse 6, in which the Lord says, "I have said, 'You are gods; and all of you are children of the most High.'" Ironically, the psalm tells of the failure of the holy assembly of the God of Israel (those to whom the God's word has been given) to recognize this fact about themselves, to live up to it in righteousness and good judgment, and the resulting outcome -- that they will die like mere men, they will fall like any other ruler. Jesus compares the "gods" of the psalm to Himself, and to the witness of His good works to His Sonship. The Scripture calls them gods -- why is He therefore blaspheming?

"If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; but if I do, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him." Therefore they sought again to seize Him, but He escaped out of their hand. Again, Jesus refers to the "testimony" of His works, the signs of the Gospel. These good works are witness to the Father's presence with Him in all He does. But the time has come when the leadership wish to condemn Him. Jesus escapes.

And He went away again beyond the Jordan to the place where John was baptizing at first, and there He stayed. Then many came to Him and said, "John performed no sign, but all the things that John spoke about this Man were true." And many believed in Him there. Though the leadership condemns Him for blasphemy, Jesus continues to find many believers among the Jewish people. Here, those who were followers of John the Baptist now follow Jesus. This is another testimony offered in the Gospel, that of John the Baptist, whose testimony, it tells us, is true.

There is a lot in today's reading about witnessing and testimony. We also come to understand concepts of God's "showing forth" -- the presence of God the Father manifest in Jesus' good works. This is also testimony, a kind of witnessing to God's presence. John the Baptist also was a witness, a true witness in spirit, who came as a holy man, testifying to the One who was to come, and identifying Jesus as that one. When we think of witnessing and testimony, can we come to terms with what this means in our own lives in a spiritual sense? What "bears witness" in your life to the work of God, the work of the Spirit in the world -- the Gift for which Christ was sent into the world and which He left with us? Do you bear witness to that gift in your own life? Do you recognize that witness or showing of the presence of God? I would invite each reader to think about this today. If the presence of the word of God conveyed sonship on those in the assembly, what does its presence do in your life? How do you witness to that? What signs have been in your life (no doubt less spectacular than those of Jesus!) that bear witness to God's presence, to the grace we have been given? Faith itself can be a sign of grace, a depth of prayer, an extraordinary gift of understanding. How do you receive testimony of sonship? Jesus has also taught, "By their fruits you shall know them." His signs are the fruits of who He is, His identity. By what fruits do you recognize the work of the Spirit in your life? What testifies to sonship?