22 It was winter, and the Festival of the Dedication of the Temple was being celebrated in Jerusalem. 23 Jesus was walking in Solomon’s Porch in the Temple, 24 when the people gathered around him and asked,
How long are you going to keep us in suspense? Tell us the plain truth: are you the Messiah?
25 Jesus answered,
I have already told you, but you would not believe me. The deeds I do by my Father’s authority speak on my behalf; 26 but you will not believe, for you are not my sheep. 27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never die. No one can snatch them away from me. 29 What my Father has given me is greater than everything, and no one can snatch them away from the Father’s care. 30 The Father and I are one.
31 Then the people again picked up stones to throw at him. 32 Jesus said to them,
I have done many good deeds in your presence which the Father gave me to do; for which one of these do you want to stone me?
33 They answered,
We do not want to stone you because of any good deeds, but because of your blasphemy! You are only a man, but you are trying to make yourself God!
34 Jesus answered,
It is written in your own Law that God said,
You are gods. 35 We know that what the scripture says is true forever; and God called those people gods, the people to whom his message was given. 36 As for me, the Father chose me and sent me into the world. How, then, can you say that I blaspheme because I said that I am the Son of God? 37 Do not believe me, then, if I am not doing the things my Father wants me to do. 38 But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, you should at least believe my deeds, in order that you may know once and for all that the Father is in me and that I am in the Father.
39 Once more they tried to seize Jesus, but he slipped out of their hands.
40 Jesus then went back again across the Jordan River to the place where John had been baptizing, and he stayed there. 41 Many people came to him.
John performed no miracles, they said,
but everything he said about this man was true. 42 And many people there believed in him.
Read John 10:22-42 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!
Have you ever received something you needed, but it was not what you expected?
If so, you may have something in common with the crowd at the opening of this passage. While Jesus is walking in the temple, the crowd asks Him, “Tell us the plain truth: are you the Messiah?” (v.24)
Instead of answering them “plainly”, Jesus tells them that He already told them, and then goes on describing how He is the One who God the Father sent. Jesus is trying to expand their minds about what the Messiah’s role is, and that it is not at all what their culture was expecting. In His response, Jesus makes a clear distinction between those who truly hear His voice, and those who are listening through a filter – and hearing only what they want to hear.
This makes me wonder in my own life, how many times do I truly keep my ears (and/or eyes) open to God? Am I someone who listens through a filter, or do I allow all of God’s messages through?
In this passage, most of those in the crowd were listening through a filter. Their filter said that the Messiah was political, that God was distant, and that those who claimed to be God should be stoned.
These filters kept them from seeing or hearing Jesus’ message that God elevates us to higher than we can imagine when we acknowledge Him as our Father, Lord, and Savior.
I believe that God is currently active in the creation process, creating things all around us. This makes it easy for me to call Him Father. However, even if He decided to take a vacation, it still would be easy for me to call Him Father because He started it all.
Jesus was not the Messiah the Jews expected. Jesus came to fulfill the promise given to Adam and Eve when they were thrown out of the garden. This promise said that one of Adam and Eve’s offspring would crush the serpent’s head. Satan was the serpent deceiver, and before Jesus, no one was able to truly fulfill this promise. Jesus came as a Messiah to all of humanity who has ever sinned, not to one specific nation or race.
Jesus was not the Messiah the crowd, the Jews, or the world expected; but He was the Messiah that the world needed.
This thought was inspired by studying the Walking With Jesus “Reflective Bible Study” package. To discover insights like this in your own study time, click here and give Reflective Bible Study a try today!
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