EXPLANATORY AND CRITICAL NOTES
John 10:22-38. Our Lord’s utterances at the feast of dedication on His oneness with the Father, etc.—This feast (τὰ ἐγκαίνια—the Encænia) was post-exilic in its origin. It commemorated the re-dedication of the temple and the renewing of the altar by Judas Maccabæus after their profanation by Antiochus Epiphanes. It was also called τὰ φῶτα, “Lights,” from a later custom of illuminating the city and temple (vide Jos., Ant.; Smith, Dictionary of the Bible, etc.). It lasted eight days, and was accompanied by great festivities (2Ma. 10:6-8)—from the 25th Chisleu (December 20th), i.e. about the middle of the Syrian winter or rainy season. It is somewhat uncertain whether we are to understand that our Lord was absent from Jerusalem between the feast of tabernacles, during which the discourse 1–22 was spoken, and this feast. Godet thinks that perhaps during that period we may include the events recorded in Luke 10:1-37.
John 10:22-23. It was winter, etc.—Vide above. These are clearly the words of an eye-witness. Solomon’s porch.—Or the portico of Solomon (vide also Acts 3:11; Acts 5:12). “That which was really Solomon’s work, and which was preserved until that time, and remains even to the present day, is to be found in the substructures under the Aska; the subterranean passage, especially, which led from the city of David into the sanctuary; the corridor with the double gate. This we regard as the portico of Solomon: there Jesus walked in winter; because the cold did not penetrate into this crypt, which must naturally have been a frequented place of resort during the winter season” (Caspari).
John 10:24. How long dost Thou keep our minds in a state of suspense (or doubt)?—(αἴρειν τὴν φυχήν, to excite the mind with expectation of hope or fear.) This question shows how wide-spread was the interest among the Jerusalem Jews as to our Lord’s person and mission. The leading Jews were evidently anxious that they and the people should arrive at some definite understanding concerning Christ. “Here the ruling powers of the Jews in Jerusalem seem to be making their last attempt to discover whether from this man, marked as in any case He seemed to be by characteristics of great power, there might not be gained another phase of character and turn of mind than He had hitherto presented. The meaning of the festival might have perhaps especially disposed their minds to do this. For hardly could they celebrate an Encænia without sighing in their secret hearts, and murmuring to one another, Would that a new Judas Maccabæus (Hammerer) would arise and hammer away the Romans.… And as often as they thought on the possibility, even yet, that the mighty Jesus might undertake this part, their bitter distaste to the trend of His character could not fail for the moment to recede into the background.… This was the frame of mind that prompted this question.… It was only under His further explanation in what sense He allowed Himself to be their Christ, that their old exasperation broke out afresh” (Lange, Life of Christ).
John 10:25. I told you, etc.—He had done so frequently (John 5:19; John 8:12; John 8:36, etc.), and had shown by His works and symbolical actions what He was (John 2:13 seq.). A direct claim merely might be made by any impostor; but Jesus pointed to the proofs which supported the declarations He had already openly made of His divine Sonship.
John 10:26. As I said, etc. (καθὼς εἷπον ὑμῖν).—This clause is omitted in the Revised Version. Alford considers “the difficulty of the clause a considerable warrant for its genuineness,” and that it refers “more to the whole allegory than to any explicit saying.” The phrase might also include a reference to John 8:37-44.
John 10:27-38. Here the subject of discourse of two months previously is again taken up. The Saviour’s utterances have had time to sink into the hearts of His hearers, and now He takes up the theme and carries it to its lofty conclusion in John 10:30. The Saviour was seeking to win men; therefore He brings the truth to their minds gradually (Isaiah 28:10).
John 10:29. My Father … is greater than all.—i.e. than all those powers of evil which seek to destroy My flock. ἐκ τῆς χειρὸς τοῦ πατρός μου.—Winer well remarks that these words are “not pleonastic.” They give, as they were intended to do, the most unmistakable definiteness to the statement.
John 10:31. ἐβάστασαν.—Perhaps the meaning is “lifted up and poised in their hands ready to cast at Him.” Again (John 8:59).—This, however, was a more bitter and determined attack.
John 10:32. These words would cause the Jews to reflect before carrying out their intentions. Notice the calmness of the Saviour in the face of this outburst, and the wisdom of His reply.
John 10:33, Blasphemy was punishable with stoning (Leviticus 24:11). But, unless they had been led away with rage, could they connect blasphemy with One who did so many good works? Their action, and the reason they gave, form a clear proof that they understood Jesus to claim the divine Sonship and oneness with God.
John 10:34. The law (νόμος), signifies here the Old Testament generally—the elder revelation as a whole. Our Lord did not wish to drive these men into open antagonism; He tried to lead them, by reasoning from the less to the greater, to recognise how far His claim was from blasphemy. In your law—the law by which you consider yourselves bound—those are called gods to whom the word of God came (Psalms 82:6). And if even tyrannical judges, etc., were called gods, how much more may the eternal Son whom the Father hath sanctified, etc., assume the title Son of God? “The word which gives the name of gods to the lowest judges and prophets in Israel, in the well-understood sense of their being bearers and executors of individual utterances of God, whether judicial or prophetic—this, as a word of Scripture, they were constrained to hold inviolable; while in His case, who is essentially God’s consecrated One and God’s Messenger, the Mediator of His perfected revelation, to whom the Father has Himself given consecration and office in its most essential form—in His case they will count it as blasphemy that He calls Himself the Son of God” (Lange, Life of Christ). “To stand in close relation with the theocracy was to be covered with its glory.… Judaism and rabbinism had widened the chasm between God and man. Christ came to fill up the chasm; nay more, to show the divine and human in living, indissoluble union” (Reynolds).
John 10:39. Again, etc., points to John 7:30. See also Luke 4:30. There was, one may believe, a kingly dignity and power about the Saviour which restrained these infuriated men not only from stoning Him, but from laying hands on Him.
John 10:40. Beyond Jordan.—Peræa. To the place, etc.—i.e. to Bethania in the ancient Gaulonitis, now Jaulan (vide John 1:28). See Mark 10:1: “He cometh into the borders of Judæa and beyond the Jordan.” St. Mark, in this succinct notice, comprises the two journeys—that to Jerusalem at the feast of dedication, and this to Peræa. Matthew mentions the latter of these only (John 19:1). But even in these minute references we see that the two Synoptists and St. John are practically in agreement.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— John 10:22-41
John 10:22-39. The power of prejudice in blinding men to the truth.—The feast of dedication (vide Notes) was not of divine appointment. Attendance at Jerusalem was not demanded; it could be held elsewhere. Still, it was a festival that appealed to patriotic hearts. A feast of joy it was; marks of sorrow were to be banished; the city was illuminated, etc. Its celebration could not fail to awaken in the hearts of the people a desire for freedom from the Roman yoke. Jesus seized the opportunity to meet the leaders of His people and again assert His claims. They, it seemed, were equally anxious to have those claims decided. Notice,
1. The eager inquiry;
2. The clear answer;
3. The malignant charge begotten of prejudice and disappointment;
4. The calm refutation.
I. The eager inquiry.—
1. Among the crowds at the feast Jesus walked intent on His mission. It was never forgotten. It was winter not only in the outer world, but even at this festival time in the hearts of the Jews—a winter of despair of deliverance. Would a springtide of freedom ever bloom again for the nation?
2. Would this claimant to the Messiahship bring such a blessed period? They had been meditating on Christ’s words. All men indeed had been “musing in their hearts” concerning Him. Could He be the messenger predicted by the ancient prophetic words in passages read during the festival? (Zechariah 2:10; Zechariah 3:8, etc.). “Tell us plainly,” they cried, we may imagine, in despairing tone. “We would fully understand the meaning displayed, yet hidden, under Thy parables. Art Thou the Messiah?”
II. The clear answer.—
1. In His reply Jesus pointed them to the fact that He had often told them (see Notes). And again, in patient love, He pointed to His teaching, which they had heard, as it was delivered openly; and to His works, mighty and beneficent, in proof of His claim to be the good Shepherd of His people, the divine Son sent by the Father.
2. And then He showed them that it was because their inner spirit had no true affinity with Him and with the Father that they lingered still outside His fold. It was because of this that they could not, would not, enter into the blessedness of His flock—eternal life and eternal safety.
3. His flock, who follow Him, know and rejoice in this blessedness; for their ground of confidence is in the Eternal. They realise that the good Shepherd is one in love and power with the Father. And to leave those Jews in no doubt as to His claim and position He added the sublime words, “I and My Father are one.”
III. The malignant charge begotten of prejudice and disappointment.—
1. We can in a measure understand the effect such words would have on those Jews who had listened to them, biassed by the training of rabbinical traditionalism and blinded by prejudice. This the Messiah they dreamed of, longed for! Away the thought! Their law, the prophetic word, Christ’s own heavenly teaching and mighty works, all went for nothing, the memory of them was clean blotted out, as prejudice and hate rose within them. These blinded their eyes to the truth. And it was not that this prejudice and hate arose from ignorance. In such a case they are in part excusable. Here they arose from spiritual pride and obstinate self-will. “Ye will not come to Me,” etc. (John 5:40). This was their condemnation.
2. And their action is a warning for all time. How often do intellectual or religious prejudices keep men from truth, and lead to acts of sinful violence? Thus the Jews, led away by their prejudices and prepossessions into rage and madness, seized the stones scattered around—there were building operations proceeding on the yet unfinished temple—and were ready to stone our Lord, putting forward as their excuse His alleged blasphemy. They clearly understood, it is evident, the nature and extent of His claim. They would even have been inclined to so far admit that it had been proved; but its loftiness, unworldliness, and spirituality opposed and defeated their temporal expectations, and their answer to Christ’s claims were hatred, rage, and stones uplifted ready to be cast at Him. This has always been the reply of traditionalism baffled by the clear presentation of truth, e.g. the Inquisition and the Reformation, the Vatican and Galileo, Savonarola, etc.
IV. The calm refutation.—
1. Calmly and unmoved the Saviour repelled their charge, and convinced them for the moment of the folly of their action. He referred them to their sacred Scriptures, which they believed “could not be made void,” in which even unjust and tyrannical judges are called gods (vide Notes, John 10:34-36). “If you find no blasphemy in those words of the Scriptures you revere, how can you charge Me with such a crime, when by word and work I have testified to you the justice of My claim?”
2. They were silent, but not convinced. It was their heart that needed to be changed and converted. They would fain have seized Him; but conscience, and a moral power emanating from the Saviour’s person, making itself felt (vide Notes, John 10:39), paralysed them, and so “He passed out of their hand.”
John 10:28-30. The eternal safety of Christ’s people.—Believers stand firmly on the promises of God in Christ. When men believe in Him, they find all the promises, so far as they refer to this life, to be yea and amen. This is surely an earnest that the promises for the future will also be fulfilled. Believers know how the power of the risen life works within them; and as they know from experience that Jesus is the same yesterday and to-day, so they are assured He will be for ever. His promises do not and will never fail.
I. Christ is the giver of eternal life.—
1. That spiritual and undying life begins here. It is felt pulsating through all the avenues of being. The believer is “a new creation: old things are passed away; behold, they have become new.”
2. But it is an earnest of the eternal life to come. The most of men believe in an immortality of some sort. Even the longing for it in our hearts is in some sort an evidence; for this desire was not implanted in vain, surely. The incompleteness around seems to demand a state where the imperfect will be fully rounded.
3. The world’s greatest uninspired thinkers have not, however, been able to rise to the conception of eternal life given us in the gospel. They could not pronounce definitely on the question of personality. But our Lord revealed this truth. It is no mere vague, unconscious existence He gives. It is eternal life,—life pulsating, vigorous as that of the little child raised at His word, Talitha cumi; or that of Lazarus sitting with his Lord at the supper table at Bethany (John 12:2); or higher still, that of His own glorified person, as He appeared to His disciples after His resurrection.
4. And this personal, individual, eternal existence comes through living union with the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls. Our Shepherd’s hands will hold us with invulnerable might when we are thus united with Him.
II. The ground of the believer’s safety.—
1. The Father gives the Son His believing people John 6:37; John 6:39), gives Him unlimited power “over all flesh,” so that He may give eternal life, etc. (John 17:2). And the Father dots not give the Son an inheritance which may be taken from Him. The wicked imagine it is possible (Psalms 2:2-3; Luke 20:14; Acts 4:29). But He that sits in heaven, who is over all, will paralyse every foe. So that even supposing it were possible, a mere supposition, that any could pluck Christ’s sheep out of His hand, still they would have to reckon with Him who is above all.
2. More than that; there is in reality no distinction between the power of Christ and the power of the Father here. The sublime utterance, “I and My Father are one,” dispels every fear. Believers are equally the care of Christ and the Father. There is unity of will, of power, of property, of nature between them. Therefore, as Jesus said, “All Mine are Thine,” etc. (John 17:10). The Father did not give them from His hand, as He gave them to the Son as chief Shepherd. In the Son’s hand they are also in the Father’s.
3. “Our salvation, therefore, rests on almighty power” (1 Peter 1:5). “He who holds in His right hand seven stars,” etc. (Revelation 1:16), is the Lord, the eternal Son. “If He is for us, who can be against us?”
III. The blessedness of this promise should be a motive to joyful enduring—
1. Believers should seek to rise to full trust in this promise. This will give them strength for duty and courage in temptation or trial.
2. The assured prospect that all things will “work together for good,” whether life or death, will give them joy and comfort in their course.
3. This trust also will give them more power for good in the world. The doubting, fearing, backsliding—these are the weakness of the Church. Those who go manfully forward, trusting on those divine promises, are the “lights in the world,” “the salt of the earth.”
HOMILETIC NOTES
John 10:41. Upon what kind of life did Jesus Christ set the seal of His blessing?—
1. He specially blessed the spirit and ministry of John the Baptist; and yet John did no miracle, (a) It is possible to be true, (b) courageous, (c) self-controlled, (d) illustrious, and yet to do no miracle.
2. That this approval was in no sense exceptional is made plain by other parts of Jesus Christ’s recognition of man’s life and work, (a) Seventy returned, (b) cup of cold water, (c) employment of talents. All this is made the clearer by a case on the other side, “In Thy name done many wonderful works,” etc. When did Jesus Christ ever set a man in high honour in His kingdom simply because the man was a worker of miracles? What, then, are the qualities which God most esteems in us? “A meek and quiet spirit, which in the sight,” etc. “The Lord loveth a cheerful giver,” etc. Nowhere is the brilliant man singled out, etc. “Many that are first,” etc.
1. A word to the poor;
2. women;
3. nobodies. What doth the Lord thy God require of thee? Miracles? “To do justly,” etc. Covet earnestly the best gifts, and yet charity above all!—Dr. Joseph Parker.
ILLUSTRATIONS
John 10:28. Certainty of salvation.—We are certain of our salvation, since we know it rests in the hand of Christ. Those, however, who seek it through the saints or by their own works, let them take heed as to what sort of assurance they have. The most part doubt, some despair.—Lyser U.S.
That Church which erects doubt as to the believer’s state of grace into a dogma leads one to assume that she wishes her faithful adherents to entertain a certain reserve or fear in reference to the reception of the witness of the Holy Ghost within them, lest that by the complete cessation of doubt a too great inner freedom and self-dependence should spring up in them. The Christian—it would almost seem as if they meant this—should never attain to full spiritual freedom, in case he should no longer feel the need of—should, indeed, feel independent of—the manifold and often repeated means of help provided by the Church.—Thiersch, in Besser’s “Bibelst.”
John 10:29. The Creator keeps His word with us.… Will you, with vast cost and pains, educate your children to be adepts in their several arts, and as soon as they are ready to produce a masterpiece call out a file of soldiers to shoot them down? We must infer our destiny from the preparation.—Emerson.
To me the eternal existence of my soul is proved from my idea of activity. If I work incessantly till my death, nature is bound to give me another state of existence when the present can no longer sustain my spirit.—Goethe.