June 25, 2023
Unjustified Judgment
“The Jews picked up stones again to stone Him. Jesus answered them, ‘I showed you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you stoning Me?’” John 10:31-32 (NASB)
A long time ago I responded to a shooting while in law enforcement. The suspect was already in custody. When I arrived, I met with the victim. He was a frequent flyer (as we used to say) to the local jail. This time he was the victim. I noticed him walking to the ambulance. I later discovered he had been shot eight times. None appeared life-threatening. After taking his statement, he said he and his wife got into an argument when she picked up a gun and shot him multiple times. He was able to wrestle the gun away, but had suffered significant blood loss. The other officer took the wife to jail. I went to the hospital after processing the crime scene. The victim told me this was the first time he had gotten what he didn’t deserve. He said, “I guess it finally caught up with me.”
When Jesus declared Himself One with the Father, “The Jews picked up stones again to stone Him.” These actions were the same steps the Jews took before in John 8:58-59, “Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.’ Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple.” In the Old Testament stoning was the means of punishment for many crimes, including witchcraft, sacrificing children, serving other gods, immorality, Sabbath breaking, and blasphemy. In any event, the Jews were not interested in fairness with Jesus. They were picking up stones from the construction site near Solomon’s Porch. Borchert says, “Throughout the Festival Cycle stoning was undoubtedly the way Jesus’ opponents were planning to kill him (10:31 and 8:59; and probably 5:18) ... Mobs could thus forgo the customary need for procedure and quickly dispatch their Jewish troublers without a regular trial.”[1] If the Jews could incite a riot of mob, they might have the opportunity to kill Jesus without Roman intervention. It might even get overlooked due to the amount of other responsibilities the Romans had each day. If it was discovered by the Romans, they might give a stern warning to the religious leaders not to do it again. Then the act was swept under the rug. Once again though Jesus appealed to their knowledge of God, “I showed you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you stoning Me?” He asked them, “How can anyone stone the works of God?” He had shown them the signs of His Father’s work, and by these He was the making of the Father Himself. He asked them, “Does any work that I have shown you contradict my assertion that I and the Father are one, so that this assertion of mine must be ranked as blasphemy deserving the penalty of stoning? The question is directly to the point.”[2]
The victim in the story above is real. He didn’t deserve it that day, but he certainly wasn’t always innocent. He was still a victim. Now, imagine being completely innocent, and still there are some who seek to kill you. Then wanting to kill you for works that can only be attributed to as God’s! The Messiah came to share His salvation and would be treated worse than a common criminal doomed to judgment. The gunshot victim wasn’t without sin in his life, Jesus is.
[1] Borchert, G. L. (1996). John 1–11 (Vol. 25A, p. 342). Broadman & Holman Publishers.
[2] Lenski, R. C. H. (1961). The interpretation of St. John’s gospel (p. 762). Augsburg Publishing House.