John 10:24Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Christ did not say, "What do you want from Me? You have repeatedly called Me possessed, mad, and a Samaritan. You have considered Me an adversary of God and a deceiver."

Nor did He say, "Only recently you said, 'You bear witness of Yourself; Your witness is not true' (Jn 8:13). How then do you now ask and wish to learn from Me, when you reject My testimony?"

No, He said none of this, although He knew that the intention with which they asked was wicked.

It is true that, surrounding Him and saying, "How long do You keep us in suspense?" they seemed to show some zeal and desire to know. In reality, the thought with which they asked was evil and treacherous.

Since they could not slander and disparage His works, they tried to catch Him in His words. Therefore they constantly put questions to Him, not in order to know, but to stop His mouth by His own words.

Since they could find nothing with which to disparage His works, they tried to find some pretext in His speech.

Therefore they said, "Tell us," although He had already said it many times. Thus He said to the Samaritan woman, "I who speak to you am He" (Jn 4:26), and to the blind man, "You have both seen Him, and He speaks with you" (Jn 9:37).

He also said it to them, though not in the same words, but in other words.

If they had possessed understanding and truly wished to know, they could already have recognized Him from those words. For He had proved it many times by His deeds.

Yet see their corruption and stubbornness. When He preached and taught in words, they said, "What sign will You give?" (Jn 6:30).

But when He presented proofs in deeds, they said to Him, "If You are the Christ, tell us plainly."

Thus, when the works cry out, they seek words. When the words teach, they run to deeds, always insisting on the opposite.

The outcome showed that they were not asking in order to know.

Indeed, toward the very One whom they deemed so trustworthy that they accepted His testimony even about Himself, they immediately began to throw stones as soon as He uttered a few words.

Thus both their surrounding Him and their insistent questioning were done with malice.

That they always questioned Him with this purpose, not to learn but to catch Him in His words, is clear not only from this passage but also from many others.

So also when they approached and asked, "Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not?" (Mt 22:17), and when they spoke about divorce, and when they asked about the woman said to have had seven husbands.

They were convicted of asking questions not from a desire to know, but with an evil intention.

In those cases He rebukes them, saying, "Why do you tempt Me, hypocrites?" (Mt 22:18). By this He shows that He knows their secret intentions.

Here, however, He says nothing of the kind. He teaches us not always to rebuke slanderers, but to endure many things with meekness and freedom from malice.

The Savior always tormented the Jews by His silence. Malice, when it is not satisfied, is tormented even more.

They often questioned Him, and He did not answer. The Jews tested Him, and He did not confirm their claims.

He so tormented their souls that once the Jews said to Him, "How long will You keep us in suspense? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly." Yet He did not answer.

Instead He said, "I have often told you, and you do not listen. Why do you again wish to listen?"

See how they revealed the torment of their soul: "How long will You keep our soul?"

Did You not say, "Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you" (Mt 7:7)?

You read Scripture, but did not understand what it says: "The wicked will seek me, and will not find me" (Prov 1:28).

To know that the same trait belongs both to Him Who spoke in the Gospel and to Him Who spoke through the prophets, observe this.

Here, when questioned by the Jews, He did not answer, but bound them with questions in return. So also in the Old Testament God says to Ezekiel: "Son of man! The sons of the people are coming to Me to ask a word. As I live, I will not answer them" (Ezek 14:3).

Do you see the same trait? See how many torments, how many questions, how many attempts to inquire, and He did not answer.

But when He finds a simple and believing soul, filled with light and simplicity, He not only satisfies the question by answering, but teaches even without being asked.

The very form of the question revealed great ill will in them. "Tell us plainly," they say, "if You are the Christ."

Although He was always present at the feasts and spoke everything plainly, and said nothing in secret, they still addressed Him with flattering words.

They said, "How long will You keep us in suspense?" so that, by provoking Him, they might again find some occasion for accusation.

By naming Himself in this way, He indicates that He is the Christ. Scripture customarily crowns the Christ with such dignities.

Although the Jews demanded that He say it directly, the simple sound of the words "I am the Christ" would most likely have been difficult to receive, unless works followed the words as proof.

Through these works it was natural to believe that He is the Christ.

It was incomparably better that they should know He is the Christ not from His words, but from the properties belonging to Him.

They should also know it from what the divine Scriptures reveal about Him and testify concerning His appearance.

Failing to understand this, the Jews, being very foolish, say, "How long do You hold our soul?" Such speech is common to the negligent.

The prophets foretold the Christ. Yet some heretics do not perceive the divinity of Christ either in the prophets or in the Gospel itself. Much less did the Jews perceive it when the veil lay upon their heart (cf. 2 Cor 3:15).

Finally, in one place the Lord Jesus knew that they thought of the Christ as man and not as God. They considered what He was as man, not what He remained as God after becoming man.

He said to them, "What do you think of the Christ? Whose son is He?" (Mt 22:42). They answered according to their understanding: "David's."

Thus they read, and this alone they had grasped. Although they had read about His divinity, they did not understand.

Therefore the Lord, to raise them to seek His divinity, whose weakness they despised, answered them: "How then does David, by the Spirit, call Him Lord, saying, 'The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at My right hand, until I put Your enemies beneath Your feet'?

If David calls Him Lord, how is He his son?" (Mt 22:43-45). He did not deny it, but asked.

Let no one, hearing this, think that the Lord Jesus denied that He is the Son of David.

If the Lord Christ had denied that He is the Son of David, He would not have enlightened the blind who addressed Him in that way.

Once He was passing by, and two blind men sitting by the road cried out, "Have mercy on us, Son of David!" (Mt 20:31).

When He heard this, He showed them mercy. He stopped, healed them, and opened the light, because He heard His name.

The apostle Paul also says, "Who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh" (Rom 1:3). And to Timothy: "Remember Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, raised from the dead, according to my gospel" (2 Tim 2:8).

The Virgin Mary had her origin from the seed of David. Therefore the Lord too is from the seed of David.

The Jews wanted this above all concerning Christ: if He called Himself Christ, according to what they understood by this name in connection with the seed of David, they would accuse Him of claiming royal power for Himself.

Yet now they again ask with feigned goodwill, as though wishing to hear why Jesus Christ had spoken about Himself in this way.

When a discussion begins on this matter, the Jews thought, Jesus Christ will again say something great about Himself. Then they will have an opportunity to seize Him, as was said above.

But though the Savior knew this design of theirs, even now He did not expose these tempters. He teaches us not to expose in every matter those who plot against us, but to endure much with magnanimity.

Nor did Jesus Christ say to the Jews, "How do you ask Me as a trustworthy witness when you rejected My testimony, saying, 'You bear witness of Yourself; Your testimony is not true'" (Jn 8:13)?

Nor did He say, "You called Me a transgressor of the law, an opponent of God, a deceiver, a sinner, a Samaritan, one possessed by a demon, mad, and many other names.

You throw stones at Me, persecute Me, and desire to kill Me."

Jesus Christ said none of this to them. He showed Himself free from remembrance of wrongs, thereby teaching us to forgive injuries previously inflicted.

Instead, He answers the question set before Him with great meekness.

Observe how evasive and contentious the Jews were. When Jesus Christ speaks to the people and teaches by word, they say, "What sign do You show us?" (Jn 2:18).

When He performs miracles and proves His words by deeds, they say, "If You are the Christ, tell us plainly."

When words teach, they demand works. When works cry out, they demand teaching. In their malice they always leap to the opposite.

But it is wholly unreasonable to demand verbal testimony when the works spoke so eloquently about Him.

Therefore see how Jesus Christ answers. On the one hand, He shows that the Jews do not ask Him in order to learn, since they do not believe.

On the other hand, He points out that His works speak about Him even more than His words.

Then the Jews approached Jesus with a decisive question. Among them were also hearers of Jesus Christ's discourse about Himself as the good shepherd; see verse 26.

"How long will You keep us in tense uncertainty and expectation? If You are the Christ, tell us this plainly."

The Jews' national feeling had now been revived at the Feast of Dedication by the memory of the glorious deeds of Judas Maccabeus, who had freed his people from the yoke of Antiochus Epiphanes.

They wanted Jesus to declare Himself as Messiah-King, Conqueror, and Victor over foreign rulers.

This image lived not only in the minds of the simple people, worn down by political humiliation, but also in their leaders. In them the true concept of the Messiah had long been darkened.

The matter had to be clarified at last, and the Pharisees tried to do this precisely at the present feast.

So they approached Him with a decisive question: "How long will You keep us in doubt? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly."

This was a significant question. It showed that at last even the Pharisees could no longer deny His extraordinary teaching and great works.

"How long will You keep us in doubt?" The Greek expression is stronger. It means to keep someone in tense perplexity, in anguished and tormenting uncertainty.

The object of this tense uncertainty was the question: Is He the Messiah? "If You truly are the Christ, tell us plainly."

The tension, decisiveness, and definiteness of the question seem to testify to the sincerity of those asking.

Perhaps this was the only time when they were not hypocritical with Him, and their icy soul melted somewhat, though not for long.

In their soul, it is evident, they felt that this was an extraordinary man. They resolved on a bold, almost desperate step.

If He voluntarily declared that He was ready to fulfill the Messiah's work in their sense, freeing the country from Roman rule as Judas Maccabeus had freed it from Syrian oppression, they were ready to proclaim Him their Messiah.

They were ready to do this precisely on this very significant feast. If not, then He had to declare directly that He was not the Messiah, so that everyone would know.

But when He presented proofs in works, then they say to Him, 'If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.'

When the works cry out, they seek words. When the words teach, they flee to works, always insisting on the opposite."

"I told you, and you do not believe." The Savior refers the Jews to His former preaching about Himself, which they had received so favorably (Jn 5:19; 6:32; 7:16; 8:14-16; 10:1).

You do not believe because I am not the one you expect for yourselves. I am not a false Messiah, who will bring you nothing except calamities and lies.

"The works that I do, they bear witness of Me." If you do not believe the teaching, why do you not believe the works, such as the healing of the blind man?

"You are not of My sheep, as I told you." This is why you do not believe.

When did Jesus say that the Jews were not among His sheep? When He spoke about the shepherd and the obedient sheep (Jn 10:14-15).

"My sheep hear My voice, and I give them eternal life." The Jews must understand that their corrupted will alone is the reason they do not understand who Jesus is.

They must also understand that their condition is pitiable, since they deprive themselves of eternal life prepared for sincere hearers of His teaching (Jn 3:16).

"And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish." Nothing destructive will remain in their souls (1 Jn 5:18; Jn 17:12).

"And no one will snatch them out of My hand." No external hostile power will take from them the salvation guarded by the Son of God.