Jesus’s Actions Reveal His Identity

Most people are familiar with the old idiom Actions Speak Louder Than Words. This famous phrase originates from Saint Anthony of Padua from a sermon delivered in the 1200s. The words Jesus spoke are the most important words ever spoken, yet without his actions, these words may never have been heard. His actions were louder: they were heard first. So also, is it with us. We can share the Gospel until we are blue in the face, but if we don’t live the Gospel, then all that sharing will be for naught.

John 10:31-42 - Jesus’s Actions Reveal His Identity

The Jews took up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of these do you stone me?” The Jews answered him, “We stone you for no good work but for blasphemy; because you, being a man, make yourself God.” Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, you are gods’? If he called them gods to whom the word of God came (and scripture cannot be broken), do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’? If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” Again they tried to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands.

He went away again across the Jordan to the place where John at first baptized, and there he remained. And many came to him; and they said, “John did no sign, but everything that John said about this man was true.” And many believed in him there.

Scriptural Analysis

In the verse immediately processing today’s reading, Jesus makes a bold claim, “I and the Father are one.” (John 10:30) This is viewed by the Jewish religious leaders as a blasphemous statement. The Levitical law makes quite clear that the punishment for blasphemy is death, “He who blasphemes the name of the Lord shall be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him; the sojourner as well as the native, when he blasphemes the Name, shall be put to death.” (Leviticus 24:16). Jesus claims identity and equality with God, and thus, there is another attempt to stone Jesus.

However, before being stoned, Jesus challenges the people to explain why they want to stone him. He asks them to tell him out of all of the good work of his Father that he has done, “ for which of these do you stone me.” (John 10:32) The people make their motive clear. The claims of Jesus in verse 30, that he and the Father are one, is an act of blasphemy. They clarify further what he is doing, “You, being a man, make yourself God.” Of course, if Jesus was only a man, then the people would be correct: Jesus would have committed an act of blasphemy according to Jewish law.

Jesus answers their objections by first appealing to scripture, specifically Psalm 82:6, “I say, “You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you.” Jesus uses a common technique to defend himself whereby he makes an argument from the lesser to the greater. In Psalm 82, God refers to a group who fails to judge an act in a holy way as God. On account of their corruption, however, they will die. If scripture can call this lesser group Gods, how much more fitting that Jesus, consecrated and sent by God into the world, is called the Son of God.

In his defense, Jesus makes two claims about himself. First, the word for “to consecrate” is hagiazein, the verb from which the adjective hagios, holy, is derived. This word implies rendering a person, place, or thing different and set aside for a special purpose or task. For example, in Leviticus, we see how the altar was set aside and rendered holy for the people, “And he shall sprinkle some of the blood upon it with his finger seven times, and cleanse it and hallow it from the uncleannesses of the people of Israel.” (16:9) The mention of consecration also has an additional implication. It connects Jesus to the Feast of Dedication, which commemorates the reconstruction of the temple. The reconstruction made earthly worship possible again. Jesus is the one the Father consecrated and makes possible worship in spirit and truth.

Jesus did not only mention that he was consecrated but also that he was sent. The word used here for sent is the same word that would have been used when sending a messenger, ambassador, or army. Jesus did not come into the world so much as he was sent into the world by God with a specific task to do.

Jesus’s opponents are intrigued by his works, which they seem to acknowledge as good even though they do not believe his words. He encourages them to believe these works and to see how they give witness to his identity. If understood properly, through his works people can begin to believe in him. He closes this exchange with another astounding statement, “the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” This again elicits a desire to arrest him, but he is able to escape.

Jesus journeys east across the Jordan River, an area known as the Transjordan, where John the Baptist first baptized. He remained with the people there, allowing them to come to understand who he was. The people there realized that everything John had said about Jesus was indeed true. While many of his own people in Judea reject him, the people of the Transjordan, just as the people of Samaria, begin to believe in Jesus.

Daily Application

In this Gospel, we see the Jewish leaders ready to stone Jesus. In all likelihood, if all he did was preach, then he would have been stoned. His words were seen as blasphemous. Words are something that man can argue about. However, actions are much more concrete and, in many ways, beyond argument. Jesus challenges the Jewish leaders to judge his claims based not on what he says but on what he does. Jesus’s actions reveal his identity.

This is the perfect model for us today. Preaching the Gospel is a very easy thing to do. It is easy to tell people how they need to repent of their sins, how they need to forgive others, how they need to love their enemies. Yet, it is much harder to live this out. It is much harder to go to confession and repent fully of all of our sins, not holding onto anything. It is challenging to forgive those who have harmed us. It is difficult to love that person who always seems to have it in for us. Yet that is precisely what we have to do if we want people to hear our words. If we want people to hear the Gospel message, they need to see the Gospel message reflected in the way we live our lives. Otherwise, our words ring hollow. We must make our actions speak louder than our words.