The gospel reading for today has a rather odd phrase: Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your law, I said, ‘You are gods’”? I think there is a tendency to be mystified and at the same simply think, “OK, Jesus said it…. That’s enough for me.” And then move on. But there is a lot going on in John 10, of which this gospel selection is just a portion. The whole of John 10 offers several questions, one being whether Jesus is the “good shepherd” promised in Ezekiel 34, but the one that concerns our reading today is whether Jesus is the unique Son of God, and conversely, whether God is in a very unique way his Father.
For the last several days, the gospel at Mass has raised the question of the authority and source of Jesus’ works. What more can he offer as proof than his works done through the Father? Works that are themselves the Father’s revealing words? But Jesus’ adversaries will not believe that Jesus and the Father are one: “The Father and I are one” (v. 30). The Jews’ reaction to this great assertion is the extreme one of trying to stone him. They regard Jesus’ words as blasphemy, and they proceeded to take the judgment (Lv 24:16) into their own hands
And then comes our strange verse: “Is it not written in your law, I said, ‘You are gods’ (v.34) Jesus is directing their attention to Scripture. Psalm 82:6 is the immediate reference: “Gods though you be, offspring of the Most High all of you…” The psalm is referring to the Judges of Israel (written about in the Book of Judges) and the expression “gods” is applied to them in the exercise of their high and God-given office. If Scripture itself refers to humans as “gods” Jesus is making the point why the Pharisee should object to the reference “Son of God?”
There are two ways to understand the reference: (1) if the Psalm speaks of men as gods, then Jesus can use the term of himself in common with others, or (2) if in any sense the Psalm may apply this term to men, then much more may it be applied to him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world. The latter is a “how much more” argument. Leon Morris points out that this is Jesus’ way of accepting the charge made against him. He does not deny the charge, but he denies that the Jews are right in their understanding of the situation. They thought he was making himself God. He held that he was not making himself anything. He was what he was: “the one whom the Father has consecrated and sent into the world.”
The gospel reminds us who Jesus is: the Son of the Living God. But we should not lose sight that it is a reminder of who we are called to be: people who exercise our high and God-given office – not as judges – but as evangelists who announce: “the one whom the Father has consecrated and sent into the world.”
Image credit: Jesus Christ Pantocrator | detail from the deesis mosaic in Hagia Sophia, Istanbul | PD-US
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