Here comes the Judge

 

The Jews answered him, "We have a law, and according to our law He ought to die, because made Himself the Son of God.  --John 19:7

One of the hardest and most stressful jobs in the world has to be that of a judge.  You must be a master of the law.  You must be committed to justice.  You need wisdom--wisdom to know when to apply the law strictly, and when to show mercy.

A judge must also have a thick skin.  Some will accuse him of favoritism of one side over another.  Some will accuse him of perverting justice.  Some may accuse him of not knowing the law, or of improperly applying it.  And some may accuse the judge of "playing God."

In the United States, a party to a dispute may have the right to an appeal.  If they disagree with one judge's verdict, they very often can take their case to a higher authority, even to the Supreme Court.  Imagine, though, if you were appointed a judge of a Supreme Law, given by a Supreme Being.  The judges of ancient Israel, from Moses on down to the Sanhedrin of Jesus's day, were called to mete out justice according to God's law.  Their only appeal was to God Himself.

In fact, when judges are mentioned in Exodus 21:6 and 22:8-9, the word translated "judges" is the Hebrew word elohim.  If this term seems familiar to you, it is because it is a word used for God.  The first words in Genesis 1:1 are, "In the beginning, God."  Beresit Elohim.

Now clearly there is a distinction between God on the one hand and the human judges on the other.  One was a Lawgiver.  The others were law interpreters and enforcers.  This does not negate the fact that the term that the Bible uses to describe them could be translated as "gods."  And it was in this context that the psalmist Asaph wrote Psalm 82.

God stands in the congregation of the mighty; He judges among the gods.  How long will you judge unjustly, and show partiality to the wicked?  ...They do not know, nor do they understand; they walk about in darkness; all the foundations of the earth are unstable.  I said, "You are gods, and all of you are children of the Most High.  But you shall die like men and fall like one of the princes."  Arise, O God, judge the earth; for You shall inherit all nations.  --Psalm 82:1-2, 5-8

The judges in Asaph's day were standing in the place of God but were not defending the poor and fatherless.  They were not doing justice to the afflicted.  They were not delivering the needy, nor freeing them from the hand of the wicked.  Therefore God demoted them.  No longer would they be known as gods or judges; no longer would they be called children of the Most High God.  Understanding this background passage is key to understanding Jesus's words in John 10.

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 the Scripture cannot be broken), do you say of Him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, 'You are blaspheming,' because I said, 'I am the Son of God'?  If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; but if I do, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him."  Therefore they sought again to seize Him, but He escaped out of their hand.  --John 10:34-39

Let's unpack this passage a little bit, because I can almost guarantee that your pastor has never preached on these verses.   It's layered.  It's nuanced.  And frankly, it's confusing.

First, let's remind ourselves what got us here.  Jesus healed a man born blind, but he did it on the Sabbath.  This caused a division among the Jews: some said He was from God because no one could open the eyes of the blind except he be sent from God.  Others said no, if He was from God, He would honor the Sabbath and do no work.

The Jews confronted Jesus when He came to the Temple, asking, "Are You the One, or not?  Tell us plainly."  Jesus answered by saying that He was the Good Shepherd, sent by the Father to shepherd the lost sheep of Israel.  This was blatantly calling Himself the Son of God and equating Himself and His ministry with God.  The Jews were ready to stone Him to death right then and there, picking up stones to throw at Him.  Jesus asked them which good work were they stoning Him for?  They said not for doing the works, but for blasphemy, equating Yourself with God by calling Yourself His Son.

Jesus quotes Psalm 82 to show them that calling yourself a child of God was nothing new; Jews had been doing it for centuries.  In fact, in this Psalm, God had called the judges of Israel elohim, little "g" gods.  How was this any different than Jesus calling Himself the Son of God?  Was this really blasphemy?  So on the one hand, reading what Jesus said at a surface level, Jesus was presenting a pretty solid defense against their accusations that He was guilty of blasphemy.

On a deeper level, we see that Jesus was turning the tables on the Pharisees, accusing them of failing in their jobs as judges over Israel and defenders of the Jewish faith.  Let me explain.  

Many times, Jesus would quote a portion of Old Testament Scripture that was meant to remind the Jewish listener of the larger Old Testament passage.  One example would be when Jesus first began His ministry.  In Luke 4 we see that He sat down in the synagogue and read the scroll from Isaiah.  The passage He read was Isaiah 61:1-2.  However, it could be inferred that the entire chapter was speaking of the Messiah.  Jesus didn't have to read verse 10, which says, "He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness."  The reason Jesus didn't have to cite that verse was that the Jews knew the passage by heart, and by just reading the first couple of verses, He would bring to their mind the entire passage.

Another example was when Jesus was on the cross.  One of the things He said as He hung dying there was, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?"  All of the Jews (and Gentiles familiar with the Old Testament teaching) would immediately think of Psalm 22.  You can read the entire chapter for yourself; when you do, you will see that many of the things that David said in that Psalm came to pass at the crucifixion of Jesus.  Some people actually said, "He (Jesus) trusted in the Lord; let Him (God) rescue Him (Jesus)."  This was written in verse 8 centuries before Jesus came and died.  You'll also remember that the soldiers at the crucifixion cast lots for Jesus's clothes.  Psalm 22:18 says that very thing: "They divide My garments among them, and cast lots for My clothing."  How would David know this would happen?  Yet when Jesus said these words from the cross, it was not just despairing of life; it was also a reminder that it was He that David had written about so many years before.

So in our passage in John 10, when Jesus quotes from Psalm 82, He was essentially accusing them of not judging correctly, of not taking into account the poor and needy.  Like the poor man who had been born blind.  That man didn't need scorn, which the Pharisees had given him.  That man didn't need alms, which other, less "religious" Jews might have given him.  That man needed healing.  He needed his sight restored.  In a way, so did the Pharisees.  They, too, were blind in their sins, and could not see the Light.

Now before I conclude, I want to point out that many critics of the Gospel today say that Jesus never claimed to be the Son of God.  They point out that Jesus referred to Himself as "the Son of Man."  As such, they (like the Pharisees and Jewish leaders ready to throw stones at Jesus) deny the deity of Christ.  To those people, I want to point to John 10:36 in our text.  Here Jesus specifically states, "I said, 'I am the Son of God.' "  He does not deny saying it, and He certainly does not deny being the Son of God.

So what can we take from this passage, now that we know the context?  First, we see that God is the true Judge, and that anyone who is given the responsibility of being a judge must judge righteously and fairly.  Next, we see that we who are called children of God must walk in the light, not in darkness.  We who bear His name are not merely "playing god," but are tasked with doing the works of God here on this earth.  Finally, we must watch out for false teachers who deny the deity of Christ.  Not only must we not follow them, but we must rebuke them and convince others not to follow their false teaching.