Feast of the Dedication

Today's Reflections 
 
                                       

Feast of the Dedication 

http://graceandspace.org

Jn 10:31-42

³¹The Jews again picked up rocks to stone [Jesus]. ³²Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from my Father. For which of these are you trying to stone me?” ³³The Jews answered him, “We are not stoning you for a good work but for blasphemy. You, a man, are making yourself God.” ³⁴Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, “You are gods” ’? ³⁵If it calls them gods to whom the word of God came, and scripture cannot be set aside, ³⁶can 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’? ³⁷If I do not perform my Father’s works, do not believe me; ³⁸but 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.” ³⁹[Then] they tried again to arrest him; but he escaped from their power.

⁴⁰He went back across the Jordan to the place where John first baptized, and there he remained. ⁴¹Many came to him and said, “John performed no sign, but everything John said about this man was true.” ⁴²And many there began to believe in him.

For blasphemy. The Jews make themselves very clear—they reject Jesus’ claim that God is his Father and therefore he is himself God.

Jesus wastes no time in exposing their inconsistency. First, Jesus argues that they do not complain when the scriptures call the judges “gods” even though they are mere humans (cf Ps 82:6), but they violently protest when he who is “consecrated” and “sent” by the Father says he is the Son of God.

Secondly, being pious Jews, they acknowledge good works as God’s works. But here, they accept the works but reject the “worker” (Jesus). Obviously, they are not really seeking God or the truth. They just want to destroy. Or maybe they seek God, but they are not open to God’s ways. They themselves have decided where God could and should be found. In effect, they do not want to obey God. They want God to obey them instead.

“The Lord is with me, like a mighty champion:

my persecutors will stumble, they will not triumph”

(Jer 20:11).

Do not be afraid of rejection and persecution.