John 10:30-42. Division or Decision
Jesus has finished teaching on a clear note,
“I and the Father are one.”
He is claiming to be God’s Messiah, the Son of God who has entered this world. He says he is the only faithful leader. He alone can give people admission into God’s presence, he alone can fully lead God’s people in the present, he alone can protect them and he alone can give them eternal life. The religious leaders of Israel offered none of these, let alone being able to achieve them.
Jesus is not presenting himself as a sentimental Good Shepherd but as the sovereign ruler. He claims that under his rule man flourishes and without that rule we are destroyed.
This passage begins with an argument between Jesus and the Jewish authorities seen in verses 31-39. This is followed by an epilogue that takes place across the Jordan where many people come to him and believe in him.
John is clearly a skilful writer who has clear aims. Here his aim is to show that evidence leads to faith and that faith leads to eternal life. This is how he summarises his book,
“Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” John 20:30-31
John’s aim is to persuade people to become believers as they face up to the claims, promises and powers of Jesus. As John builds up to the climax of his book, the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, he begins to give us the distinction between unbelief and belief, some turn away from him, some turn to him. In chapter 9 John contrasts the religious leaders, who rejected Jesus, with the healed man who had been born blind. This section concludes with a statement and an action,
“‘Lord, I believe,’ and he worshipped him.” John 9:38
In the next chapter Jesus says to Martha,
“‘I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?’
‘Yes, Lord,” she told him, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God who was to come into the world.’” John 11:25-27
In spite of the scepticism of the religious leaders, John emphasises that a significant minority did believe and commit themselves to Jesus. John describes how many responded in his day and implies that this is the response God wants today. The contrast between the two groups is put starkly, it is like black and white. In our passage verses 31 to 39 are all about unbelief and 40 to 42 and all about belief.
John presents this section in terms of a law court where evidence is presented, a judgment made and a verdict delivered.
1. Evidence is given
In verses 31 to 39 John repeatedly says that people have all the evidence they need to come to an honest verdict.
“ . . . Jesus said to them, ‘I have shown you many great miracles from the Father.’” John 10:32
“‘Do not believe me unless I do what my Father does.’” John 10:37
“‘. . . 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.’” John 10:38
The Greek of verse 32 can also be translated ‘many good works’ which could conjure up a picture of soup kitchens, and charity sales but this translation, ‘many great miracles’, makes it clear that Jesus is talking about his supernatural acts as well as his teaching. As we have seen, these are linked. When he opens the eyes of the blind he is saying that he wants to help us all to see the eternal truths he has brought from God. When he feeds the hungry, he is saying that he wants to deeply satisfy the hearts of people. When he gives water to the thirsty, he is saying that he wants to slake our thirst for reality and for God.
Jesus had performed these great miracles and yet many would not believe because what he said opposed their position.
Unfortunately it is not that uncommon for people today to make decisions against the evidence. The judge of a criminal case was highly critical of the jury who had let off a robber although he was clearly guilty. Perhaps this will become more common as people think of truth as something belonging to them alone and consequently ethics have become ‘relative ethics’ with no absolute dimension.
Contrast the way the religious leaders thought with that of the people on the east side of the Jordan when Jesus visited them.
“Here he stayed and many people came to him. They said, ‘though John never performed a miraculous sign, all that John said about this man was true. And in that place many believed in him.” John 10:40-42
John is asking us, his readers, to think. The country people were content with the ministry and teaching of John the Baptist. What he taught had resonated with them and they turned back to God in a personal way. The prime purpose of John the Baptist was to point his listeners to Jesus. This must still be the prime purpose of the church today. The Baptist had spoken about Jesus in no uncertain terms,
“Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” John 1:29
“This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’” John 1:30
“. . . the reason I came baptising with water was that he might be revealed to Israel.” John 1:31
“Then John gave this testimony: ‘I saw the Spirit come down form heaven as a dove and remain on him.” John 1:32
“ . . . the one who sent me to baptise with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is he who will baptise with the Holy Spirit.’” John 1:33
“I have seen and I testify that this is the Son of God.” John 1:34
These people had followed John’s teaching even though he had never performed any miracles. The contrast is astounding. Jesus had performed all these miracles in Jerusalem yet they would not believe in him. The country people heard a similar message yet without the miracles and they did believe.
This comparison is surely alluding to something that is always true. It is not miraculous evidence in the end that convinces people to change the direction of their lives. The old saying is true,
“Convince a man against his will. he’s of the same opinion still.”
Jesus told a parable about a rich man who died and found himself in hell, which he hated. He was told by Abraham,
“ . . . between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.” Luke 16:26
On hearing this the man had real concerns for his five brothers whom he realised would receive the same fate as himself. What a desperate state our society and even our churches have become when we have little real concern for the lost around us who, according to Jesus, are also heading for hell.
“Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father’s house for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will also not come to this place of torment.” Luke 16:27-28
Sending Lazarus, who had been a pauper begging outside his luxury house, back to speak to his brothers would necessitate a resurrection.
Abraham replied that they already have the teaching of God given in his Word.
“They have Moses and the prophets; let them listen to them.” Luke 16:29
The rich man replied,
“‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’” Luke 16:30
Then comes this withering response,
“If they do not listen to to Moses and the prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.” Luke 16:30
The Old Testament alone, apart from the New Testament, has so much to say about Jesus, God’s Messiah who was to come into his world. It also speaks to people’s hearts. You would think that, if miracles were clearly performed in front of people, they would change the way they think. People however are not like that, as Jesus showed many times.
When crowds gathered hoping to witness some miracles Jesus said,
“This is a wicked generation. It asks for a miraculous sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah.” Luke 11:29
The sign of Jonah is the message of Scripture. Jonah was called by God to share the message of salvation with the people of Nineveh but was thrown overboard when he tried to flee by ship away from this responsibility. Jonah was in the stomach of a great fish for three days but after this was raised and went on to Nineveh to complete his task. Jesus also came to share the message of salvation with us and he also, after three days in a tomb was raised from the dead. It is striking that the sign of Jonah can also be that in Nineveh those who were not God’s people repented and turned to God, whereas those who had a knowledge of God’s word rejected God. We can see this today when non-Christian societies are turning back to God whereas in the so-called Christian west we largely refuse to return to God and his Son.
In Matthew chapter 11 Jesus criticised the towns and cities where he had performed many marvellous and mighty works. In these places the sick were healed, lepers cleansed, demons exorcised, the dead raised. Whilst he did these he was preaching the word of God. But these cities, on the whole, did not turn around, repent and follow the truth. They were amazed at what Jesus had done, because of the spectacle of the miracles, but they rejected the message and the person that God required them to respond to. To them it was more like a show than a confirmation of the true Gospel of God and a call to change their lives.
“Then Jesus began to denounce the cities in which most of the miracles had been performed, because they did not repent.” Matthew 11:20
It would be wonderful if God was readily performing real miracles in Britain today but the evidence is that this is not widely occurring, in spite of the showmanship of certain church leaders who claim the opposite. We mustn’t despair that a lack of signs and wonders is the problem, no, basically our problem is a lack of willingness to face the evidence that God has already given us.
Bertrand Russell giving a public lecture defending his atheism when a woman stood up and asked:
“Lord Russell, what will you say when you stand in front of the throne of God on judgment day?”
“I will say: ‘I’m terribly sorry, but you didn’t give us enough evidence.’ ”
Jesus has little time for such lame excuses. God has nothing to apologise for. He understands the problems we face, with hard jobs and dead local churches, but he still asks us to face up to the evidence we all have, external objective evidence we can study and internal subjective evidence that we feel about God and his values.
The religious leaders wanted to do away with Jesus, they hated what he was saying,
“We are not stoning you for any of these (the great miracles) but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.” John 10:33
When I was a youngster at school I remember our RE teacher saying that Jesus never claimed to be God. He cannot have read John’s gospel. There is no doubt that that is precisely what Jesus was saying. They certainly understood that when Jesus called himself ‘God’s Son’ and described God as his Father, he was claiming divine status.
2. Judgments are made
Jesus continues to use the analogy of the law court and reminds them of an Old Testament passage, taken from Psalm 82.
“Jesus answered them, ‘Is it not written in your Law, ‘I have said you are gods?’” John 10:34
In this Psalm God is addressing the judges of Israel who were given, as all judges have, the quasi divine authority to judge and punish. The Bible warns us all that we should be very careful about judging others because we may not have understood a situation properly, but magistrates and judges must make decisions for the good of society, just as God will make judgments for the sake of his kingdom. In this Psalm the judges are being told that they are doing the work of God when they make judgements, so they must judge justly in his name. The problem was that those judges did not fear God and they were reprimanded for a repeated failure to bring right verdicts. Those men were ‘called gods’ because they were exercising divine authority in following God’s law.
Jesus picks up on this idea and says to the religious leaders that they were content for judges to be called ‘gods’, startling though that was. Yet now the Father has set apart his very own Son and sent him into the world, not to bring judgment this time but a warning and the gospel of hope. He had come not to condemn but to save. There, standing before them, was the unique son of God, the Good Shepherd, who is about to lay down his life for his sheep. He alone has been given the authority and power to save the whole world.
Jesus is saying to these religious leaders,
“If you are happy to give that title, ‘gods’, to those judges, is it too much to give this title to another man, the one who entered this world to save it for all eternity and save it from God’s final condemnation.”
Jesus is being very clever here. He expected them to know Psalm 82 which starts,
“God presides in the great assembly; he gives judgment among the ‘gods’: ‘How long will you defend the unjust and show partiality to the wicked?’ Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed.” Psalm 82:1-3
Jesus added one very important phrase here,
“. . . and the Scripture cannot be broken.” John 10:35
This is the message that is repeated through the Bible which claims to be ‘the very words of God’ (1 Peter 4:11). It claims that ‘All Scripture is inspired by God . . .’ (2 Timothy 3:16). It teaches that ‘the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any two edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit . . . it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.’ Those who reject the authority of Scripture disregard what God has said to us, are the most stupid of all people.
Jesus is really saying to the religious rulers of his day, ‘You are the judges of Israel, yet your verdict is false. You are acting as false shepherds.’
Jesus says that he has come to do the works of God publicly and he asks for an honest verdict about himself based on all the evidence.
“. . . what about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world?” John 10:36
Their reaction is almost unbelievable, it was both illegal and immoral. When he asks these men, who had been trained in the word of God, for a decision they took up stones to stone him calling him a blasphemer. However it was not yet God’s time to give up his Son so he ‘escaped their grasp’.
Contrast the judgment the people in Jerusalem have made on Jesus, and therefore on themselves, with that made by the people west of the Jordan. There, many came to Jesus and believed in him. Their decision was contrary to that of the authorities.
In many communist countries the leadership is also opposed to Jesus and has caused great problems for Christians, their wives and children. Many obstacles are put in their way for any who are out and out Christians. Churches are told they must register but often, when they try to do so registration is delayed. The authorities then arrest the leaders for having a church without authority.
The lesson is clear. Every person must make a decision about Jesus for themselves, we cannot give the responsibility for this to others who have authority. There have always been and will always be social, political and even ecclesiastical forces around us. The tragedy is when leaders in society will not stand up for Jesus and what he teaches. This is especially true of Christian leaders who can often be as timid as rabbits.
Young people today find it so hard to stand up for Jesus at school and amongst their friends. Even adult Christians find it hard to openly acknowledge their allegiance to Christ. A survey of members of Redeemer Church in New York, that is recognised as a leading Bible teaching church where Tim Keller is the pastor, revealed that only six percent are open about their commitment to Jesus at work.
Verdicts are given
How people’s verdicts are contrasted in this passage, The authorities are positively antagonistic,
“Again the Jews picked up stones to stone him,” John 10:31
“Again they tried to seize him . . .” John 10:39
Some scholars insist that these Jews had no right to do this as they were living under Roman rule and the Romans had a high view of justice.
The opposite reaction comes in the second section of this passage,
“And in that place many believed in him.” John 10:42
This reaction to Jesus comes repeatedly in this gospel. It is the response that God wants all people to have.
“Even as he spoke, many put their faith in him.” John 8:30
“Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, put their faith in him.” John 11:45
John wants us to understand that in spite of all the official opposition, a significant minority did come to believe in Jesus. The contrast in reactions between the believers and the non-believers is striking, some worshipped and others wanted to kill him. The perverse fact is that when we make a verdict about Jesus, the sovereign ruler of the universe, we are at the same time making a verdict on our own destiny, on whether we will join him in heaven or be rejected to hell.
Application
There is no third way. In the United Kingdom there is an enormous middle group who try to sit on the fence about Jesus. To such people Jesus is clear,
“He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters.” Luke 11:23
We all need to ask ourselves these questions:
‘Am I wholeheartedly with Jesus?’:
‘Am I with Jesus in his desire to draw others into his kingdom in my vicinity?’:
‘Am I with Jesus in his desire to teach my family his truth?”:
‘Is his heart’s desire my hearts desire?’
If we are not with him we are against him.
There can be little doubt that most of those who rejected Jesus were not outwardly wicked people. The way we tend to show our antagonism to Jesus is usually by apathy or ignoring him. In this passage in John’s gospel Jesus enters his opponents world and there he compels them to make a decision about him.
Some may say that in their society or friends people don’t talk about politics or religion and especially not Jesus. Shouldn’t Christians we wary of any groups where such thinking pervades. They may have the quasi-semblance of religion but if Jesus is rejected these are not places where Christians should belong. Jesus doesn’t say, “I am a poor candidate in a state of darkness.”
He says instead,
“I am the light of the world.” John 9:5
He then says to each of his followers,
“You are the light of the world.” Matthew 5:14
How can any Christian be active in a group or lodge that is neutral or cold towards Jesus our Lord? If Jesus invaded such groups it is probable that hackles would rise and he would again be rejected forcefully.
There is no lack of evidence, it is the fact that he is Lord that people find so hard. Yet it is a decision that we all make, either actively or by deliberate neglect.
BVP
