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 

 

Yesterday we read that, after His encounters with the religious leaders in Jerusalem at the Feast of Tabernacles, there was a division again among them because of Christ's 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, or Hanukkah, 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 leadership (those hostile to Jesus among the leaders, designated by the term the Jews in John's Gospel, and not the people) take up stones because of Jesus' statement from yesterday's reading, above, "I and My Father are one."  This is unequivocally a statement of equality with God the Father, which they consider to be blasphemy.   Jesus was responding to their question in verse 24 in yesterday's reading, above,  "How long do You keep us in doubt? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly."   My study Bible comments that He reveals Himself to be fully God:  One means one in nature or essence.  It says that He is God before all ages, and He remains God after the Incarnation and for all eternity.  The plural verb are indicates two distinct Persons, while confirming a continuous unity.  These religious leaders clearly recognize Christ's claim of divinity ("You, being a Man, make Yourself God"), and therefore they 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."   Jesus quotes from Psalm 82:6.  My study Bible comments on this quotation by Jesus that people who receive God's grace in faith will partake of His divine nature (2 Peter 1:4) and can rightly be called gods.  According to commentary by St. John Chrysostom, Christ is effectively saying, "If those who have received this honor by grace are not guilty for calling themselves gods, how can He who has this by nature deserve to be rebuked?"

 

 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.  My study Bible notes that because Christ is going to His Passion voluntarily and according to His own will (see verses 17-18 from yesterday's reading, above) His accusers cannot arrest Him until He is ready (John 7:30, 8:20; see also Luke 4:28-30).  Note the contrast between the people and the religious leaders; many who followed John  the Baptist, who was an extraordinarily revered figure, also believed in Christ.

 

  "Many good works I have shown you from My Father.  For which of those works do you stone Me?"  In today's reading, Jesus returns to the good works that He has done, as evidence of His tie to the Father.  Those good works testify to His identity, as He says, "they are from My Father."  That is, the seven signs given in John's Gospel (we have read six of them so far) are those which are manifestations of God the Father's will through Jesus; they are testimony to Christ's identity as Son.  In His own defense, He tells these religious leaders to "believe the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him."   As He said, in yesterday's reading (above), "The works that I do in My Father's name, they bear witness of Me."  It reminds us of Jesus' teaching in Matthew's Gospel, "By their fruits you shall know them" (see Matthew 17:15-20).   In that teaching, He was warning of false prophets, whom He called "ravenous wolves" in "sheep's clothing."  He makes clear connections between the actual things people do and the reality of their inner disposition, as opposed to their appearance and words.  This passage therefore points to something profound within our faith, and that is the work of grace and the transformation possible through participation in the life of Christ, to which my study Bible points.  For the Eastern Orthodox this process is called theosis or divinization.  This is a sense in which the fruits of a life of faith include an ontological internal change; that is, we bear fruit of the Spirit.  St. Paul named these as "love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control" (see Galatians 5:22-23).   Relevant to the context of today's reading, St. Paul adds, "Against such there is no law."  He is speaking of the power of grace working through us, for which all ascetic practice throughout the ages has emphasized first humility, so that we may be like Christ, and seek to do the Father's will.  Jesus explained it quite explicitly in our recent readings (from Saturday), when He said, " I do not seek My own glory; there is One who seeks and judges," and "If I honor Myself, My honor is nothing.  It is My Father who honors Me, of whom you say that He is your God."  Earlier in chapter 10, He taught, "When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and that I do nothing of Myself; but as My Father taught Me, I speak these things.  And He who sent Me is with Me.  The Father has not left Me alone, for I always do those things that please Him."  Repeatedly Jesus has emphasized His own humility to the Father, and that it is the Father's glory that He seeks in all that He does.  So, we are encouraged to do the same, to live the same kind of life as does the human Jesus.  As He indicates here, He is the Son, but we are all called to be "gods."  That is, to fulfill the image and likeness in which we were created (Genesis 1:26) through our practices of worship, and the humility it takes to truly bear fruits of repentance and grace.  We become children of God by adoption, and in the sense that Jesus has used the word "father" in recent readings, we come to understand what this means.  When the leaders who oppose Him claimed to have Abraham as their father, He replies, "If you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham."  Because murder is in their hearts, He later told them, "You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do" (see John 8:37-47).  Through our faith practices, through worship and the Eucharist, through prayer and humility, and in particular, through grace and the work of the Holy Spirit, we may also become like our adoptive Father; we may follow Christ and the gifts He offers to us.  He is looking for those who hear His voice (John 10:27), and who can also bear His light into the world (Matthew 5:14-16, John 12:46, 2 Corinthians 4:6).  In this way, we do "the works of our Father," we can be "like Christ."  This is what He teaches them, and what He teaches us.