GOSPEL REFLECTION, FRIDAY, 5TH WEEK OF LENT, 11 APRIL 2025

John 10:31-42.  Jesus’ words in today’s gospel reading must be taken carefully in context.  The Jewish authorities (this is what John calls the “Jews”) are once again ready to stone Jesus.  They charge him with blasphemy, saying that he  had ‘made himself equal with God;’ the prescribed punishment is death by stoning (Leviticus 24:16).  Jesus had been accused of blasphemy before (John 5:18, 8:53; Matthew 26:25).  He had managed to escape punishment at least twice before, but now the authorities had gathered the stones to carry out the punishment.  It has become dangerous for Jesus at this stage of his life, although opposition and conflict had followed him since the beginning of his ministry.  Jesus manages to escape punishment by stoning yet again.  As we approach Easter and the crucifixion we realise that Jesus’ opposition, conflict, and danger have been steadily increasing. 

On this occasion Jesus patiently debates with the authorities in words that we have to take carefully in context.    St Augustine in his commentary on John’s gospel notes that Jesus had not said ‘I am the Father,’ nor ‘I and the Father are one Person.’  He said that ‘I and the Father are one,’ meaning that they are in a very close and intimate relationship.’  But now Jesus said to the authorities ‘if you cannot yet accept my words, then pay attention to my deeds.’  He meant that his healings, feeding the hungry, consoling the sorrowful, raising the dead, all works of great goodness  were signs that he and the Father were close.  In the prophets such deeds were signs of the Messiah.  The authorities replied that it was not for his deeds that he was to be stoned, but for his words and his claim to be so intimate with the Father. 

In his words Jesus had claimed that he had been consecrated and set aside by God, for a special mission.  He claimed that God had sent him into the world.  The Greek word used here meant ‘sent as an ambassador, or messenger to bring Good News to humanity.’  Clearly Jesus thought of himself not just as ‘coming into the world but as having been sent’ to carry out his mission.  Jesus bases his claims on what he DOES as signs of the Messiah.  Now we understand that it is Jesus Messiah that was threatened with stoning and ultimately crucified.  Do we accept his deeds as his signs of Jesus being Messiah?  It makes a difference to how we understand Easter.