One of the most common frustrations that I hear about from many Christians is that the Bible is so difficult to clearly understand, that it’s much more complex than simply reading and understanding. I get told quite often by folks that they want to read the Bible and gain a better understanding of what God commands of them, but it’s difficult to understand exactly what Scripture says. After all, as many point out, isn’t that the whole reason why preachers give sermons on Sundays? Isn’t the entire point of a sermon to take a hard to understand passage and make it “real” for us folks in the congregation? Well, that sounds like a great plan, except there’s one fatal flaw. You see, preachers are sometimes just as lost as everyone else when it comes to understanding the true meaning of a text. We have to have help too and rely upon the Holy Spirit to lead us and guide us along the right path. To be quite honest with you, I find myself in that particular situation many weeks as I prepare a sermon. No matter how many times I read certain texts, it takes help from other sources for me to truly see the meaning behind what is being said. Someone often times has to spell it out very plainly for me to fully grasp the substance of a particular text. After I have read something that helps me to clarify the text, then it all makes sense and a sermon just kind of naturally flows out from there.
Well, the Pharisees have heard Jesus speak on numerous occasions. They have heard him talk about being the door of the sheep, saying that he was sent from the Father, that before Abraham he was, that he was the light of the world, and numerous other sayings and titles that hinted around him saying that he was the Christ, pointing to him as the promised Messiah. You see, Jesus only specifically called himself the Messiah around those closest to him. Part of the reason for this was that the people of this day had an inaccurate view of what the Messiah was to look like. They thought that the Messiah was to be a warrior sent to conquer God’s enemies and promote His people to a position of prosperity. Well, finally the Pharisees can’t take it anymore and they ask of Jesus “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” In others, “Okay, no more fooling around, tell us yes or no are you the Christ? Are you the Messiah?”
Jesus answers the Pharisees, but gives them a gentle rebuke before telling them what they want to hear. He tells them that he has been giving them the answer all along, but that they are too blinded by their disbelief that they have not heard him. He points back to the analogy that we looked at last week and tells them that those who truly believe in him have heard him saying it all along and they know exactly who he is. It’s that old argument that hearing isn’t necessarily listening. I know that I can sympathize with the Pharisees, seeing as how I have been accused of such an action on occasion. Jesus says that he has each and every one of his sheep, his children by the hand and that he will never let them go. He says that nothing can remove them from Jesus himself, and that nothing can remove them from the Father. In our Reformed tradition, we refer to this as the perseverance of the saints. In other words, those who have truly received salvation from Jesus Christ will never lose it. Those who are truly saved will never fall away and be lost. If someone is to fall away, then we are to take that as a sign that they were never truly saved in the first place.
Finally, after going through all of this discourse, Jesus gives the Pharisees what they want. He tells them, “I and the Father are one.” These words that make up verse 30 are the clearest statement of Jesus’ divinity that he ever made. Jesus and the Father are not the same person, but they are one in essence and substance and nature. Thus Jesus is not merely a good teacher about God, he is God. There is no mistaking or being confused by what he is saying here. Jesus is point blank saying that he is God. Almost immediately after these words are spoken, we are told that the Pharisees begin to pick up rocks so they can stone him. They did this in order to fulfill the punishment required for blasphemy as it is laid out for us in Leviticus 24:16, “Whoever blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death. All the congregations shall stone him.” They were simply doing what they felt was commanded of them.
Jesus stops them before they have the chance to swing or throw any stones and points out the numerous good works and signs and miracles that he has done. If you remember, at the end of our texts the past few Sundays, we have seen a division amongst the Pharisees because some of them have begun to acknowledge that if Jesus were not God, or at the very least sent by Him, then he could not do the works that he has done. The Pharisees tell him that this attempted stoning is not to do with his works or anything else that he has done, but with what he has said. They must punish him because his words are such that he has seemingly “he made himself God.” This is really a pretty humorous and ironic statement when you think about it. After all, Jesus didn’t make himself God, he has always been God. In fact, if we think all the way back to the first chapter of this gospel, we see that God made himself man, taking the form of a servant, taking the form of the man known as Jesus. So you see the Pharisees had actually gotten it completely backwards.
In verses 34 through 38, we find Jesus making a defense for himself. At first, it almost seems that he is pointing back to Psalm 82:6, where the Israelite rulers and judges were called gods, as some sort of loophole. However, what he is saying to the Pharisees is that it isn’t blasphemy for him to call himself God. If he were just a man and made such a claim then yes, it would be right to punish him by stoning, but it isn’t blasphemy when God calls himself God. As the great Reformer John Calvin says of this text, “He clears himself of the crime charged against him, not by denying that he is the Son of God, but by maintaining that he had justly said so.” In other words, it’s not a lie or blasphemy if it’s the truth.
You see, there is a great difference between understanding and believing. The Pharisees understood exactly what implications the words “I and the Father are one” carried after hearing Jesus speak them. They understood that Jesus was claiming to be God, but they didn’t believe. That’s the whole crux of the matter here is that Jesus could have done or said anything to get the Pharisees to believe him to be the Son of Man, God himself, but some of them were just to blinded and their hearts too hardened. I’m certain that all of us can relate to this in some form or another. Now, I’m not trying to say that anyone in here is opinionated, but…well, yes I am. I certainly know that I am. There have been times in my life when I have made my mind up on a particular issue and there was nothing short of God himself that could make me change my mind; that is, until I was proven wrong. I’m sure that many of you have had times in your life when you made up your mind on a particular issue and refused to accept any evidence that didn’t support your decision. It’s a little ironic here once again because the Pharisees are being told by God himself that they are wrong, but still they do not see it.
We have spoken many times over the course of our study of John’s gospel that we cannot separate the Father and the Son. The words of Jesus, “I and the Father are one” lay at the heart of that fact. The Father and the Son cannot be separated because they are one, they are forever united in some sort of divine, holy, and eternal bond that is so intimate and so glorious that it is beyond anything that we could ever imagine. To try and separate them would be a violation here of the words that Jesus says, “Scripture cannot be broken.” When we look at this passage in the context where we find it, where Jesus is really beginning to rev up the talk about what his ministry here on earth is ultimately to accomplish, we gain a sense of what our Savior is really trying to convey to us with this message. It is especially appropriate during this season of Lent as we prepare our hearts for the celebration that is Easter Sunday when we celebrate with even greater intensity the empty tomb.
You see, I don’t think that we can state it in any simpler terms than this, “In order for Jesus’ death upon the cross to save us all, he had to be God.” It’s that simple. If Jesus were not God, had not obeyed completely the will of the Father, and lived the life to perfection, then we do not have any hope for salvation. But none of the what ifs or had he not’s matter, because he did. Jesus did pay the price that was owed for all of our sins. Jesus is trying to tell the Pharisees as plain as he can and yet they still refuse to even consider that he might be telling the truth. I want to encourage you to not fall into the same trap as the Pharisees. I want all of us to listen to God when He is speaking to us. He loves us, and He has paid the ultimate price and made the ultimate sacrifice for each and every one of us. Because the Father sent the Son, the one who is one with Him, into the world to give his life upon a tree, we have salvation and life eternal. Glory be to God; in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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