On Line Bible Study - For the Week July 9-15, 2012

Lesson 544

John 10:22-39

It's the classic stand-off between Jesus and religious leaders over the question: Who are you?  Are you God?  Are you the Messiah?

One post on Twitter describes Jesus this way: "a long-haired socialist hippie who condemned the rich and told people to pay taxes."  While that might suit some folk's political sensibilities, it's probably no more "right on" than any other characterization of Christ.  Jesus tells those who are ready to stone him:  ³⁷ Do not believe me unless I do the works of my Father.  ³⁸ But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.

"In the Father ... "  What does that mean?  What did it mean, and what does it mean now - for us?  It means a unity that is of "power and operation" (Raymond Brown).

I have had experiences in life which have inspired me to proclaim: I can't believe it!  That doesn't mean it didn't happen; it means that what happened is so contrary to anything I expected, planned for or imagined that one part of my brain rejected what another part of my brain knew to be true.

One of the compelling arguments for Jesus being 'in the Father' is the fact that Jesus isn't "for" anybody.  He doesn't let poor people off the hook any more than he does rich people - they, too, are told to 'go and sin no more'.  He dines with sinners and with the self-righteous.

Jesus is "for" everybody, but in a way that doesn't patronize us.  He is "for" us in ways that hold us accountable while assuring us we are loved.  In a sense we can believe in him or not; the key point is more in our assessment of what he did.  The Biblical witness to the works of Jesus of Nazareth present us with a person so completely unselfish as to inspire astonishment.

The fact that those with stones in hand pause long enough to ponder: Who is this man ... suggests both a loathing and a reverence in conflict with one another.  It is disbelief tethered to hope.  What Jesus had done could not be denied.

The text ends by saying they wanted to arrest him - what happened to the desire to stone him? - but he 'slipped out of their hands" - or escaped their grasp.  He got away.

This 'giver of sight to the blind' - can you see him now?  Can you believe what he's doing?