Jesus Said What?
In John chapter 10 Jesus does something a little unusual. Uh yeah, you might say, when is Jesus not doing something unusual? Well certainly we could do a whole series of blogs on “Unusual things Jesus does and says,” maybe we will, but for today I want to focus on just one, and it’s found in John 10.
Jesus is in the temple as our narrative unfolds. It is during the festival of the Dedication and Jesus, as he is so want to do, gets into a theological disagreement with some Jews. They want to know if he is the Messiah (after all, they have been waiting several centuries for Messiah to come – if he has arrived it would be nice to know) and as Jesus responds, he ups the ante. Way up. He equates himself with God! “The Father and I are one.” (John 10:30b) Whoa Jesus, you can’t say that! God is one. The Bible says that, “Hear O Israel the LORD your God is one,” (Deuteronomy 6:4). If you’re going to be using “one” language about yourself AND God, you’d better be able to back it up. And so the Jews respond appropriately. They pick up stones and take aim to execute this blasphemer on the spot. Because at this point, there are two options; either Jesus is God, or he isn’t.
What Jesus does next is odd, though not as odd as things are about to get, indeed I’m still just setting the table for the main course! Jesus calmly looks around at his would be executioners and asks for a sentence. “Why are you going to stone me?” Now I know we can say here that Jesus is in fact God, that he does know he isn’t really going to be stoned, in fact he’s known that since the beginning of time. Before even he created the stones gripped in those 1st century Jewish hands. But tell me that human Jesus’ blood pressure isn’t through the roof at this particular moment and you will have a very difficult time convincing me! And so the crowd explains, “No sorry Jesus, you have misunderstood. We are not going to kill you for any of the good works you have done, we are going to kill you because you are blaspheming. You are calling yourself God.” And then things get really strange. Because what Jesus is going to do next (v. 34ff) is to appeal to the Bible in (can I be blunt?) a very uncomfortable way.
“Jesus answered, ‘Is it not written in your law, ‘I said you are gods’? If those to whom the word of God came were called ‘gods’-and the scripture cannot be annulled-can you say that the one whom the Father has sanctified and sent into the world is blaspheming because I said, ‘I am God’s Son’?” (John 10:34-36). What in the world is Jesus saying here? What is his argument? Well, let’s break it down some and see if we can find some sense.
First of all, the answer to Jesus’ question is yes. It is written (notice how Jesus calls it your law – he wants the Jews to take ownership of it) in the Bible, “I said you are gods.” Psalm 82:6 to be exact. And what we find in Psalm 82 is a judgment pronounced against unjust judges or rulers of the land whose wickedness has found them out. Perhaps they are demonically oppressed, perhaps they are just wicked individuals, but in any case they have acted wickedly and thus God says they will be removed from their lofty estates. “You are gods,” God speaks to them in V. 6 – in other words you held high positions of authority – and yet you will fall. God is not inferring any divinity on these judges here, and no one thought that he was. It was and is clear that God was using the term “gods” simply to refer to ones who held a special position of (very human) authority.
So back to John 10, Jesus brings up Psalm 82 as if to say to the Jews, “Listen, there is precedent in the Bible for people to be called gods, so why are you freaking out if I refer to myself that way?” And this is what is so odd! Because Jesus is not saying that he is merely a judge or ruler of the land! He’s not suggesting that he holds merely earthly authority – he is saying so much more than that, and the claim that he is making really has nothing to do with Psalm 82! Really I think the closest link we can form between Psalm 82 and Jesus would be something along the line of, “Something much greater than the gods of Psalm 82 is here,” (think Matthew 12:41; 42). It’s an odd argument that Jesus makes, and it doesn’t even work! Notice that at this point we don’t read that the crowd says, “Oh we understand now Jesus, no harm no foul.” No! They try to arrest him!
Ultimately then, I’m really not sure why Jesus makes the argument that he does. It doesn’t strike me as particularly powerful or effective, and honestly it’s not exactly good Old Testament exegesis either! All of this then brings us back to the one decision we have to make; either Jesus is God, or he isn’t.