Jesus answered them, "I have shown you many good works from my Father.
For which of these are you trying to stone me?"
Jesus demonstrated the truth of his words by the power of his works. He didn't stand or fall based on whether his spoken claims were persuasive. Here he asked if anything that he did was a blasphemous act, something consistent with the character of one who would also speak blasphemously. He told them previously that everything he did, he did to honor the Father. All of his works were works that the Father gave him to do. How, he challenged, could someone who acted thus also blaspheme? At times they tried to respond to this challenge by accusing him of working on the basis of the power of the devil. But since that accusation wasn't credible they had no choice but to ignore his works on zero in on the parts of what he said that they didn't like. They exercised a willful blindness, an unwillingness to look at the good, and at the work of God, in order to satisfy their own pride and preconceptions.
Jesus answered them,
"Is it not written in your law, 'I said, 'You are gods"'?
The point was not one of equivalency. Those referenced, who were meant to participate in God's own authority in a subordinate sense, would also die like men for their failure to live up their lofty calling. But still, even they demonstrated something. This was that, because man was made in the image of God, he was able to reflect something of the divine. It was therefore an indication, a hint that even God could express himself in human form. He was not so transcendent as to be unable to speak to his creation. He was not so exulted that he couldn't reveal himself in the person of Jesus Christ. Rather, it was precisely his exaltedness and transcendence that made it possible for him to enter the world. Creation could provide no obstacle to the one who himself sustained it. In fact, the only possible obstacle to his presence was that of the hardened human heart.
whom the Father has consecrated and sent into the world
blasphemes because I said, 'I am the Son of God'?
The temple was consecrated to reveal the presence of God. But Jesus was consecrated as the new and more perfect temple to manifest the presence of God in the world.¹ At the Feast of the Dedication, celebrating this consecration of the temple, Jesus attempted to demonstrate how all that had been before was preparation for his coming. The temple had once been filled with the cloud of glory that represented the presence of God. But Jesus was God with us, Emmanuel, truly present in our midst.
Jeremiah was an example of a prophet whose entire life pointed forward to Jesus himself. He was contradicted and opposed just as was Jesus. And he too trusted in God to deliver him. In these times in which we live, we are, in our own ways, surrounded by "Terror on every side". Let us trust, then, as Jeremiah trusted. Let us trust the Father with the unshakable trust of Jesus himself. It was, among other reasons, to give us this ability to trust, that Jesus was so insistent to reveal his connection to the Father. Because he did now we too can say:
Sing to the LORD,
praise the LORD,
For he has rescued the life of the poor
from the power of the wicked!
1) Martin, Francis; Wright, William M. IV. The Gospel of John (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture): (A Catholic Bible Commentary on the New Testament by Trusted Catholic Biblical Scholars - CCSS) (p. 199). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
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