“I have shown you many good works from my Father. For which of these are you trying to stone me?” (John 10:32). This is the response of Jesus to the raised hands with clenched fists holding rocks to stone Him. Is the crowd stoning Him because He gave sight to the blind, fed the multitude, healed the lame, or gave hearing to the deaf? If so, this would be ingratitude or perhaps something deeper like envy or jealousy. The motive, however, lies much deeper.
The angry crowd does not leave us to wonder. Their response to Jesus is this: “We are not stoning you for a good work but for blasphemy. You, a man, are making yourself God” (John 10:33). It is a question of faith. Miracles that were intended to strengthen faith in the One sent by the Father have here become an occasion of offense. This is the tragedy.
Everything our Lord says and everything He does have only one motive: to bring us to faith. He explains to those who are trying to stone him, “If I do not perform my Father’s works, do not believe me; but if I perform them, even if you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may realize [and understand] that the Father is in me and I am in the Father” (John 10:37-38). And why is this faith so important?
Faith leads to Redemption. Faith opens the door to the mysteries that will unfold for us in Jesus Christ, climaxing in His life-saving Passion, Death, and Resurrection.