John 10:22 It was the Feast of the Hanukkah at Jerusalem. 23 It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in Solomon’s porch. 24 The Jews therefore came around him and said to him, “How long will you hold us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.”
25 Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you don’t believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name, these testify about me. 26 But you don’t believe, because you are not of my sheep, as I told you. 27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give eternal life to them. They will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father who has given them to me is greater than all. No one is able to snatch them out of my Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.”
31 Therefore the Jews took up stones again to stone him. 32 Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from my Father. For which of those works do you stone me?”33 The Jews answered him, “We don’t stone you for a good work, but for blasphemy: because you, being a man, make yourself God.”
In the winter during the celebration of Hanukkah (which incidentally is the same time of year as Christmas, when the Christians would later celebrate Christ’s birth) the Jewish leaders again came to Jesus with a question. “How long will you hold us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” Jesus had already answered them plainly in four ways. To review:
First, Jesus had identified himself as I Am, John 8:58, the name God used in identifying himself to Moses.
Second, Jesus had said: “I have come from heaven…to do the will of my Father.” John 6:38
Third, Jesus asked them to consider all the works, John 10:25, the miracles that he had done. Even the people recognized that these miracles could only be done by God and came to accept Jesus as God in the flesh.
Fourth, and finally, because Jesus had come from the Father, John 8:42, Jesus told them, (listen closely), “I and the Father are one.” John 10:30
As the Nicene Creed would later summarize:
I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made. Nicene Creed, 325
But you still refuse to believe. Why? “You are not of my sheep, as I told you. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” Although Jesus had answered the Jewish leaders plainly, they didn’t really want an answer. They were hirelings who had no love for the sheep. They were concerned about their own glory. They were not concerned with bringing glory to God the Father as Jesus was. For all of their pious posturing, they were, as Jude 1:12 warned, … shepherds who only feed themselves.
Just like Jesus had not feared their false accusations, Jesus had no fear of the stones that they picked up to throw at him. Instead of running away, he stood his ground defending himself against the blasphemy charge by challenging them with a theological question.
John 10:34 Jesus answered them, “Isn’t it written in your law, ‘I said, you are gods?’ Psalm 82:6 35 If he called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture can’t be broken), 36 do you say of him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ‘You blaspheme,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God?’ 37 If I don’t do the works of my Father, don’t believe me. 38 But if I do them, though you don’t believe me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.”
Jesus asked the Pharisees, if in Psalm 82 God had referred to the members of his divine heavenly counsel as gods because they were greater than mortal men, why do the Pharisees consider Jesus, whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, calling himself the Son of God, blasphemous? Jesus continued by explaining that, in fact, he was and is the divine God who presides over the heavenly council because… “the Father is in me, and I in the Father.” And even if you don’t believe me, at least believe the works that I do. The miraculous works show beyond any doubt “the Father is in me, and I am in the Father.”
The only answer the Pharisees had to Jesus’ theological question was to physically assault him.
John 10:39 They sought again to seize him, and he went out of their hand. 40 He went away again beyond the Jordan into the place where John was baptizing at first, and he stayed there. 41 Many came to him. They said, “John indeed did no sign, but everything that John said about this man is true.” 42 Many believed in him there.
With that Jesus left Jerusalem. The Pharisees in Jerusalem had always trying to trap Jesus, but now they wanted to murder him, so he returned to where his ministry began, the Jordan where John had baptized. When Jesus returned to the Jordan the people, comparing John the Baptist to Jesus, recognized that everything that John said about this man is true.” 42 Many believed in him there.
What had John the Baptist taught about Jesus that was true?
And the glory of the Lord will be revealed,
and all people will see it together.
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” Isaiah 40:5
The people were seeing the glory of the Lord … revealed in the miraculous works that he performed. And unlike the Pharisees they believed.