Conclusion Of Further Attempts To Kill Jesus

"We are stoning you, not for a fine work," they answer, "but for blasphemy, even because you, although being a man, make yourself a god." Since Jesus never claimed to be a god, why do the Jews say this? Evidently it is because Jesus attributes to himself powers that they belong exclusively to God. For example, he just said of the "sheep," "I give them everlasting life," which is something no human can do. The Jews, however, overlook that fact that Jesus acknowledges receiving authority from his Father.

That Jesus claims to be less than god, he next shows by asking: "Is it not written in your Law [at Psalms 82:6], 'I said: "You are gods?" If he called 'gods' those against whom the word of God came, . . . do you say to me whom the Father sanctified and dispatched into the world, 'You blaspheme,' because I said, I am God's Son?"

Since the Scriptures call even unjust human judges "gods," what fault can these Jews find with Jesus for saying, "I am God's Son?" Jesus adds: "If I am not doing the works of my Father, do not believe me, believe the works, in order that you may come to know and may continue knowing that the Father is in union with me and I am in union with the Father."

When Jesus says this, the Jews try to seize him. But he escapes, as he did earlier at the Festival of Tabernacles. He leaves Jerusalem and travels across the Jordan River to where John began baptizing near four years earlier. This location apparently is not far from the southern shore of the Sea of Galilee, a two-day journey or so from Jerusalem.

Many people come to Jesus at this place and begin to say: "John, indeed, did not perform a single sign, but as many things as John said about this man were all true." Thus many put faith in Jesus here. John 10:22-42; 4:26: 8:23, 58; Matthew 16:20.

Next time: Jesus Again Heads For Jerusalem

The Greatest Man Who Ever Lived, 1991