Belief and works are a big deal in John. It’s interesting because none of us reading today have access to the works that Jesus did when he was walking on earth and yet I’m presuming that most of those reading believe at least something about Jesus. John will later acknowledge the distance between the reader and Jesus’ works, but in the meantime, there’s a lot of presumption about belief coming as a result of them.
Faith is an interesting. In the end, faith is a choice. Despite common understandings that assume a particular feeling or some kind of inner magical intuition, one chooses to believe or not. And part of what Jesus is saying here is that works are related to the choice.
What is also interesting is that many did not believe even in the very presence of Jesus. One might think that just being in the presence of Christ would be enough to make anyone believe (have you ever just begged Jesus to show up right in front of you?). But the witness of the gospels does not confirm this notion. Many saw Jesus, were present for his miraculous signs, and saw his compassion at work and yet did not believe.
Faith is a choice, a choice not simply in an ideal, but in how things would be if that ideal were applied from situation to situation. To believe in something is to seek to reflect it.
John 10:22-42
The time came for the Festival of Dedication in Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was in the temple, walking in the covered porch named for Solomon. The Jewish opposition circled around him and asked, “How long will you test our patience? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.”
Jesus answered, “I have told you, but you don’t believe. The works I do in my Father’s name testify about me, but you don’t believe because you don’t belong to my sheep. My sheep listen to my voice. I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life. They will never die, and no one will snatch them from my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them from my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”
Again the Jewish opposition picked up stones in order to stone him. Jesus responded, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of those works do you stone me?”
The Jewish opposition answered, “We don’t stone you for a good work but for insulting God. You are human, yet you make yourself out to be God.”
Jesus replied, “Isn’t it written in your Law, I have said, you are gods? Scripture calls those to whom God’s word came gods, and scripture can’t be abolished. So how can you say that the one whom the Father has made holy and sent into the world insults God because he said, ‘I am God’s Son’? If I don’t do the works of my Father, don’t believe me. But if I do them, and you don’t believe me, believe the works so that you can know and recognize that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” Again, they wanted to arrest him, but he escaped from them.
Jesus went back across the Jordan to the place where John had baptized at first, and he stayed there. Many people came to him. “John didn’t do any miraculous signs,” they said, “but everything John said about this man was true.” Many believed in Jesus there.
Prayer
God,
Help me to both understand and to execute the notion that my faith shows forth in the actions of my life.
By your spirit & in Christ,
Amen.
“To believe in something is to seek to reflect it.” Amen.