THE ULTIMATE TEST OF GENUINE FAITH

John 10:31-42

We are almost at the end of the Lenten period and the gospel text we are reading these days stress the dramatic tension between Jesus who is the revelation of the mystery of the Father which fills him completely, and Jews who refuse to believe in Jesus and become more closed to receiving the message of Jesus. The tragic aspect of this closing up of the Jews is that they claim it is in fidelity to God. They refuse Jesus claiming that this is their belief in God.

They charged Jesus with blasphemy because he claimed to be the Son of God and he made himself equal with God. As they were picking up stones Jesus questioned their attack with two arguments. First, Jesus defended his right to call himself the Son of God with a quote from Psalm 82:6 ("I say, "You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you"). In other words, Jesus is saying: if scripture can speak like that of humans, why should I not speak of himself like that? Jesus added that He was consecrated by the Father to a special task and he was sent into the world to carry out his Father's mission. Jesus made himself a sin-offering for us, to ransom us from condemnation and slavery to sin.  He spoke of his Father consecrating him for this mission of salvation. Second, Jesus challenged his opponents to accept his works if they could not accept his words. The many good works that he did demonstrated that he obviously came from God.

Jesus was not trying to show off his miracle-working power nor wanting to claim any glory for himself. He just wanted them to see the Father's love and give glory to him.

Jesus is the perfect teacher in that he does not base his claims on what he says but on what he does. He shows us the way to walk the path of truth and holiness. He underlines the importance of good works for His mission as the revealer of the Father. “If I do not perform my Father’s works, do not believe me; but if I perform them, even if you do not believe in me, believe the works.

In the same way, our faith and love for Jesus must make us strive to let others see our good deeds, our words and acts of love, hope, forgiveness and reconciliation, so that seeing them, they too may give glory to our Father in heaven. The ultimate test of genuine faith is plain good works and not speeches.