Theological Commentary: Click Here
In John 10,
Jesus gives pastoral analogy after pastoral analogy. Jesus is the Good Shepherd. His people are His flock. They know His voice and He knows them. The one who enters by the gate is the Good
Shepherd, but the one who slips in does so in order to steal and destroy. We should be familiar with all these images.
In the midst
of each of these teachings, the religious leaders are there to question and
judge. I know what it feels like to have
every action and every word scrutinized both publicly and behind my back. It’s not fun.
I can only imagine what Jesus endured as He simply tried to teach and
bring hope to people. The religious
leaders bring such a downer upon the ministry that Jesus is trying to do.
What is it
that Jesus teaches under the intense scrutiny of the religious leaders? I love the message. He says, “Which of my good works cause you to
accuse me?” In other words, Jesus is
reminding us to let one’s works speak loudly about one’s character. Want to know who a person is? Look at what they do. Look at the effects of their life. Look at the things for which they strive.
This leads
us to the crux of the issue. It isn’t
that the Jewish leaders have an issue with Jesus’ works at all. They don’t mind the healings and the
feedings. What they don’t care for is
the teaching. They don’t like the fact
that Jesus is calling Himself the Son of God.
Be honest
with yourself for a second. If you met
someone wandering through the street who called Himself the Son of God, I’m
willing to bet you would be skeptical, if not outright doubtful. This brings us back to Jesus’ point. Some of Jesus’ teachings are quite challenging. How do we know that He can be trusted to be
the Son of God? His works testify to His
claim. He makes challenging statements,
but He does incredible things. Who else
but the Son of God can walk on water, feed a multitude, heal the sick, and
raise the dead?
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