And many believed in Him there

 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

At the Feast of Tabernacles, after Jesus healed a man blind from birth (the sixth of seven signs in John's Gospel), and was disputing with the leadership, there was a division again among them because of His sayings. And many of them said, "He has a demon and is mad.  Why do you listen to Him?"  Others said, "These are not the words of one who has a demon.  Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?"  Now it was the Feast of Dedication in Jerusalem, and it was winter.  And Jesus walked in the temple, in Solomon's porch.  Then the Jews surrounded Him and said to Him, "How long do You keep us in doubt?  If You are the Christ, tell us plainly."  Jesus answered them, "I told you, and you do not believe.  The works that I do in My Father's name, they bear witness of Me.  But you do not believe, because you are not of My sheep, as I said to you.  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?"  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."   The religious leaders are responding to Jesus' words in yesterday's reading, above:  "I and My Father are one."  They recognize His claim of divinity, and therefore accuse Him of blasphemy.

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."   My study bible comments on Jesus' quotation (from Psalm 82:6), "You are gods."   It says that people who receive God's grace in faith will partake of God's divine nature (2 Peter 1:4), and therefore can rightly be called gods.  St. John Chrysostom is quoted as paraphrasing Christ in the following:  "If those who have received this honor by grace are not guilty by calling themselves gods, how can He who has this by nature deserve to be rebuked?"  Jesus once again appeals to their conventional understanding of justice, by citing a witness to His claim:  the works that He has done.

Therefore they sought again to seize Him, but He escaped out of their hand.  My study bible notes here that as Christ is going to His Passion voluntarily and according to His own will (verses 17-18), His accusers cannot arrest Him until He is ready (7:30; 8:20; see also Luke 4:28-30).

 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.  Interesting to note that there are repeated places in which John observes that there were many who believed in Jesus.  In yesterday's reading, above, it was also noted that among the leaders, there are those who dispute the claim that Christ had a demon, saying, "These are not the words of one who has a demon.  Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?"  All along, John has made it clear that, especially among the people, and even among the religious leaders, there is division of opinion about Jesus.

The array of public opinion that is split and divided over Jesus is quite interesting to read included in John's Gospel.  John gives us a picture of people who are "like sheep not having a shepherd" (Mark 6:34).  Frequently throughout the Gospel we are given a picture of the common people who collectively speak of Jesus and yet have no common answer about Him.  In chapter 7, when Jesus goes up to Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles, we read that the leaders are seeking Him to seize Him, while the people disagree about Him.  The Gospel tells us that there was much complaining among the people concerning Him.  Some said, "He is good"; others said, "No, on the contrary, He deceives the people."  But also that no one spoke openly of Him for fear of the religious leaders.  (See this reading.)   There have also been indications that the leaders themselves are divided about Jesus, such as in yesterday's reading (above) in which there was a dispute about whether or not such a person who has performed the works that Jesus has could have a demon.  Earlier Nicodemus, a Pharisee, questioned his fellow Pharisees who wanted to immediately condemn Jesus:  "Does our law judge a man before it hears him and knows what he is doing?" (7:51).  In today's reading, John tells us that in the region east of the Jordan, away from Jerusalem, many believed in Him there.   In the foreground of the Gospel is this great drama, a conflict between Jesus  and the religious leaders.  We read of their open disputes at the festivals.  But this is the foreground, and it is set against a backdrop of a type of Greek chorus, the people, who are scattered and wary and bewildered.  They expect a Messiah, someone who will deliver them from the Romans and restore to Israel its former glory, yet they do not know if Jesus is the one.  Some say He is, and others simply do not know.  Some follow for a time and fall away at His "hard sayings" (see this reading).  Others witness His great works, and Jesus chastises them for doing so, and yet failing to believe (we read His words in Matthew and Luke), and neither do His own brothers (extended family) believe (see this reading).   And those who have witnessed His miracles -- the ones fed in the wilderness -- seek to make Him king, and miss the point of His ministry entirely, which He tries to correct in His subsequent preaching (see this reading).  All in all, the people who make up this Gospel story of Christ are people like you and me, and all those who surround us.  They find themselves midst a sea of opinions, fears, desires, expectations, curiosity, and bewilderment.  They lack really true and good leadership.  Jesus goes so far as to teach them regarding the things that make for good leadership (see Wednesday's reading), as opposed to the "hirelings" who will simply mislead in order to exploit the sheep for their own ends, caring little or nothing for them.  We live in a world beset with opinions and false aims, those who will mislead for their own good, everybody with a different agenda, and far too few who are truly concerned with how to love, how to be like the Father, to whom Jesus is constantly pointing.  In yesterday's reading, and those recent readings preceding it in which Jesus spoke of Himself in the temple, we were assured that the number one consideration of a good leader is love, and that through and beyond and above all things, it is God the Father's love for us that drives any true and good leadership.  Of this we can be certain, because Jesus' assurances are emphatic.  Therefore, if we are to know good leadership and who to follow or to put our trust in, we must consider our own need to put the love of God first in our hearts.  It is in this way that Christ says we will be able to know a true prophet from a false, a good shepherd from one who leads astray.  And that is because to know love is to recognize it; to be familiar with God's love for us is to be able to hear the voice of the Shepherd.  The Gospel, with all its myriad opinions and bewildering conflicts and changes and betrayal, gives us a picture of a changing world in which we can be sure of very little.  It shows us that with a particular perspective of self-righteousness, we can delude ourselves into disbelieving even what is right in front of us.  It warns us that this will indeed continue to happen around us, and even among those to whom it is entrusted to lead.  The one thing of which we are assured is God's love, first and foremost, and the memory of the voluntary sacrifice of the Son, made also in that same love.  We start there, and root ourselves there.  Through our prayer and faith, we may come to know this love, hold fast to it, and learn to recognize it, share it, and live it.  We may also come to know, thereby, where it is missing.  It is love, after all else, that teaches us discernment.  It little matters where we come from and what we know from the world; we can always start with God who loves us so that no one is turned away.  Let us remember what He is here for, the message of love He brings, His great sacrifice which teaches us how much we are loved, and this communion of love into which He invites us always.