31The Jews picked up stones again to stone him. 32 Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?” 33The Jews answered him, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.”34 Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I said, you are gods’? 35 If he called them gods to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be broken— 36 do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’? 37 If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; 38 but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” 39 Again they sought to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands.

40 He went away again across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing at first, and there he remained. 41And many came to him. And they said, “John did no sign, but everything that John said about this man was true.” 42And many believed in him there.

Reflection Questions

John 10:31-42 Ÿ
• Jesus’ “many good works” were met with acceptance, while his claim to “make [himself] God” elicited a violent response. In what ways does this parallel people’s responses to Jesus today? Ÿ

• Contrast the people’s response in vs. 41-42 to the response of the Jews. Ÿ

• What is behind this desire to separate Jesus’ good works and his claims about who he is? Ÿ

• How clear am I that the most important thing about Jesus is who he claims to be? Ÿ

• Are there some ways that I, too, want to separate aspects of Jesus that are widely accepted (his kindness, high ethics, etc.) from his claims to divinity?