10:22 thru 10:42 (Mar 11)

The dictionary defines blasphemy as: (a) an act of cursing or reviling God; (b) In theology, the crime of assuming to oneself the rights or qualities of God. The crowd could not understand that Jesus was guilty of neither because they were not looking for God incarnate. They were not looking for a Savior from their sins. They were looking for a military-political Messiah to "save" them from Rome. The feast of dedication was a commemoration of the last great political deliverance of the Jews by Judas Maccabeus. Celebrating this, the crowd comes to Jesus looking for the same kind of deliverance.

Jesus corrects their thinking. He points the crowd to the true mission of the first coming of the Messiah. Jesus simply tells the truth and, in doing so, was doing God's will: "The Father set [Jesus] apart as his very own and sent [him] into the world". Being faithful to God's will is the opposite of cursing or reviling God. Jesus points out that his miracles were a testimony to the fact that he was doing God's will (v32, v38).

The second definition is true of Jesus. He did assume to himself the rights and qualities of God. "I and the Father are one", he says. The charge of blasphemy would have been valid against anyone who said this - unless they truly were one with the Father. But the political crowd could not see it this way because, tragically, it was not what they wanted. They were not looking for God incarnate and were not open to the truth.