I Am a Child of God - John 10:30-42

The Jews that set Jesus up hoping that He would confess himself the Christ and be eligible for death see through His round about answers, and they are not pleased. They “took up stones again to stone him” I think it’s important to note here that these people are playing for keeps, they want Jesus dead and it’s just interesting to me that there are people out there who think “he might be more popular than me, let’s kill him” and want to physically see the blood coming out of his body. I’m not going to sit here and say that I’m perfect, I was in the army and went to Iraq after all, so I’m not a pacifist by any means, but holy crap! At what point do you think it’s ok to actually take someone’s life, take them away from their family because they irritate you, honestly, this has to be to the point of ridiculousness.

The concept of being stoned to death was really brought home to me in a scene from the newest Ben Hur, I haven’t seen the old one so I don’t know if it was in that one too. In the scene, there are some angry men, Jews just like the ones causing problems for Jesus, and they are chasing a guy that we don’t know into the public square and start throwing rocks at him. These aren’t irritating pebbles, they are large stones, and one of the rocks hits the guy in the head and he falls down bleeding. Jesus throws himself on top of the injured man blocking the rest of the rocks from hitting him, and is himself hit with stones and he begins bleeding too. But what was interesting to me was that Jesus was dismayed, laying there protecting this man and asking the people “what are you doing? This man is your brother! Only when doing good do we see that love is our true nature.”

It was a remarkably powerful scene for me because this guy was probably guilty of breaking some law that was punishable by death, but Jesus protected this guy with his own body, he was bludgeoned himself saving this man’s life and giving him another chance. His words were a shift in perspective, this man wasn’t an enemy, he was their brother, he was to be loved and guided. Most people are extremely lenient towards their own family when wrongs are committed, Jesus was asking them to consider this man their family because spiritually speaking, he was. But “love is our true nature,” was the kick in the face for me, because I didn’t believe that it was when I heard it. I had to think about it, my natural instinct is bitterness, defensiveness, and anger, but is that because I live in a fallen world? Hearing the Jesus in the movie utter that phrase changed the way that I looked at myself. When I was being kind to someone, or even myself, I felt like a truer me, if that makes sense. I started to pay attention to how I felt about myself when I acted negatively and when I acted positively. I watched this movie for the first time about a year ago, and ever since then I’ve done this little social experiment with myself and I have learned that love is my true nature, but it’s been hidden from me for quite some time. I realized that it’s going to take work to come full circle and actually naturally be the loving person that makes me happy, but it became clear to me that Jesus was right, love, not hate, is our true nature.

Jesus sees that they are going to literally bludgeon him to death with rocks and asks them which of his good works they want to stone him for? Which of the many miracles is worthy of death? They’re trapped, they answer “For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.” This statement here just proves my point from yesterday, the ancient Jewish culture makes it impossible for a Messiah to come to them in any other way that exactly how they expect it. Jesus answers, “Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?” I had no idea what this statement meant, but the IM clarifies saying that Jesus was quoting “Psalm 82:6, which reads, ‘I have said, ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High.’ As explained by Elder B.H. Roberts of the Presidency of the Seventy, the Savior then asked the Jews why they should accuse Him of blasphemy when He said He was the Son of God, given that the scriptures said that men could be gods: ‘Let it be observed that in the above conversation when Jesus was accused of making himself God, he did not deny the charge; but on the contrary, called their attention to the fact that god in the law he had given to Israel had said to some of them- ‘Ye are Gods, and all of you are children of the Most High.’ And further, Jesus argued, if those unto whom the word of God came were called Gods in the Jewish law, and the scripture wherein the fact was declared could not be broken, that is, the truth denied or gainsaid (declared untrue or invalid)- why should the Jews complain when he, too, who had been especially sanctified by God the Father, called himself the Son of God?”

It’s difficult to understand the ancient Jewish point of view because our focus today in church is so heavy on “I am a child of God.” It appears that that doctrine was known back in ancient times as well, but was not practiced as common knowledge. I look at the severity of Mosaic law and think why is it so different from ours if both come from the same God? I haven’t studied the Old Testament in depth yet, but I look forward to it, because I am anxious to have some perspective here. Why was it such a big deal for Jesus to declare himself to be the Messiah? Let’s look at other times when people have proclaimed themselves to be God, thinking of recent examples, David Koresch, with the Branch Davidian compound. He said that he was God, didn’t do anything that wasn’t completely selfish and still managed to have over 100 followers who followed him in to death. From what I do know about the Old Testament is that the Jewish leadership had the most difficult time convincing the people to not run out and worship other gods that surrounded them from other cultures. This was to the extent that people weren’t allowed to migrate in to the Jewish community for fear of them persuading the people to follow other gods. It was a different time, the Jewish people faced different circumstances, different obstacles to their faith, and apparently anyone claiming that they were God was enough of a threat to the stability of the community that it was necessary to make it illegal.

There is more to Jesus’ statement than just “I am a child of God.” The IM continues, “The Savior’s reply also invited those who heard Him to believe in their own divine potential, which He would help them realize if they would follow Him. President Joseph F. Smith taught: ‘Christ is the great example for all mankind, and I believe that mankind were as much foreordained to become like him, as that he was foreordained to be the Redeemer of man. … We are… in the form of God, physically, and may become like him spiritually, and like him in the possession of knowledge, intelligence, wisdom and power. The grand object of our coming to this earth is that we may become like Christ, for if we are not like him, we cannot became the sons of God, and be joint heirs with Christ.’” Furious, the people “sought again to take him: but he escaped out of their hands.” He couldn’t be killed, even though he was outnumbered, because it wasn’t his time yet.