Friday in the Fifth Week of Lent, April 8, 2022

John 10:31-42

The Jews picked up rocks to stone Jesus.  Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from my Father. For which of these are you trying to stone me?” The Jews answered him, “We are not stoning you for a good work but for blasphemy. You, a man, are making yourself God.” Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, You are gods’?” it calls them gods to whom the word of God came, and Scripture cannot be set aside, can you say that the one whom the Father has consecrated and sent into the world blasphemes because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’? If I do not perform my Father’s works, do not believe me; but if I perform them, even if you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may realize and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” Then they tried again to arrest him; but he escaped from their power. He went back across the Jordan to the place where John first baptized, and there he remained. Many came to him and said, “John performed no sign, but everything John said about this man was true.” And many there began to believe in him.

While I was reading the Gospel at Mass for the Thursday in the Fifth Week of Lent, a new thought occurred to me.  Jesus tells the Jews, at the end of the reading, “Before Abraham came to be, I AM.”  Now, that “I AM” would outrage the Jews only if they understood that he was speaking the Name of God, which only the high priest was permitted to do.  Since “I AM” does not signify God’s Name in Aramaic, the common language of that time and place, the Lord must have spoken it in Hebrew.  But the St. John wrote his Gospel in the Greek language.  “I AM” in Greek is not the Name of God anymore than in Aramaic.  How, then, could John expect his Greek readers to understand what Jesus had done, and what the Jews tried to do in response?  It seems the only solution is that John was writing primarily for a Jewish readership who could read Greek, and would recognize the Hebrew Name of God in the Greek words John used.  This, coupled with the detailed descriptions of settings within Jerusalem, provides evidence that John wrote his Gospel for Jewish Christians living in Jerusalem.  But the long-standing tradition from the time of the Fathers informs us that John wrote his Gospel in Ephesus.  It may be that John’s original readership consisted of the Jewish Christians of Ephesus, who would have known something of the layout of Jerusalem from pilgrimages there.  That a sizable Jewish community existed in Ephesus during John’s lifetime is clear from the Acts of the Apostles, and that a number of the Jews there converted to Christianity is also clear from that book.  The Letter to the Ephesians seems to suppose that much of the Church there consisted of Gentile Christians, so perhaps the Gospel was written earlier than Paul’s Letter, as the church in Ephesus became predominantly Gentile Christian over time.  I think understanding the history of the writing of the Gospels helps us to appreciate the historical reality of Jesus Christ, and bolsters our trust in the Gospels as authentic documents which tell us the truth about him.

In the Gospel reading for today’s Mass, St. John tells of another occasion on which the Lord Jesus was threatened with death.  We should note that Jesus is never in danger of death from Herod or Pilate during the course of his Public Life, until its end, but is regularly in danger from his own countrymen.  “I have shown you many good works from my Father. For which of these are you trying to stone me?”  The Lord is not appealing to his would-be killers to see ordinary good works, but miracles of great power.  He is both saying that he is a good man doing God’s will, and also that of he chose to, he could stop them from stoning him with further works of power.  “We are not stoning you for a good work but for blasphemy. You, a man, are making yourself God.”  They say that he is “making” himself God.  Instead, he has revealed himself as God by doing the works only God could do.  The Jews never deny the miracles or attempt to explain them away.  They simply ignore them when their reality inconveniences them.  We do something similar when we, knowing God and his commandments, choose to commit sin anyway.  “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, You are gods’?”  The Lord quotes Psalm 82, 6: “I said: You are gods and all of you the sons of the Most High.”  In the Psalm, Almighty God is speaking to the judges and rulers of the land of Israel.  He tells them that he has called them “gods”, that is, made them “gods”, as with the power of life and death over the people.  He reminds them of the power he has given them which they have misused and with which they render false judgments against the poor.  He says that he has named them “gods” but that “you like men shall die.”  The Lord’s point is that of Almighty God can name some people “gods”, he, Jesus, can claim the title for himself with greater right, since he has shown clear signs of God’s favor and of his power working through him: “Even if you do not believe me, believe the works so that you may realize and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.”  

“He went back across the Jordan to the place where John first baptized, and there he remained.”  A certain sadness underlines this verse.  The Lord is rejected by the very people who should have known and received him.  He then goes back to where he began his Public Life three years before in order to prepare himself for his Passion and Death.  At the same time, we should recognize that the Lord is not defeated.  He does not leave the Jews for another country.  He does not hide himself away.  He does not give up his work.  He prepares for the greatest of all works, his offering of himself to the Father for the forgiveness of sins.  He has not stopped loving the human race.  He yearns for its redemption more than ever.  His triumph is in his obedience to the Father and the continuation of his love for us, even for those who betrayed and killed him.

“John performed no sign, but everything John said about this man was true.” And many there began to believe in him.”  Out to the wild, rocky places beside the Jordan, people came to him as they had come out to John the Baptist, and they begin to realize the Lord’s greatness.  Perhaps a few of those who had picked up stones against him had a change of heart and began to understand.  But some have always had a stone in their hand against the Lord, ready to launch it when his Godhead and his commandments stand in the way of their wills.