I remember when I signed my Social Security Card.
It was a big deal for me. Suddenly my signature was tied with one of the most significant identifiers of me in the United States.
When I opened a bank account for the first time, I signed documents to my agreement with their terms. When I signed a contract, my signature was my bond.
Signatures have power. It marks agreement. It signifies our identity as matching the name in the documents. Even our Driver’s Licenses have our signatures on them.
Signatures are powerful.
Our passage today is still connected to John 10:22-36.
Jesus is at a Hanukah celebration in Jerusalem and He is in the Temple courts. The Jewish people were pressing Him to tell them plainly if He was the Messiah. He reminded them He did tell them, but they chose to not believe Him. Jesus went on to tell them the reason they don’t believe Him is because they aren’t the sheep God the Father had given Him.
As you remember, they wanted to stone Him for this because He claimed equality with God the Father and declared Himself the Son of God. Jesus reminded them that Israel was called God’s Son so why would the claim to be God’s Son be enough to accuse Him of blasphemy?
Jesus wasn’t done answering them. He continues in John 10:37-39
Do not believe me unless I do the works of my Father. But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.” Again they tried to seize him, but he escaped their grasp.
John 10:37-39
New International Version
After refuting their faulty logic for killing Him, Jesus brazenly told them to examine the “works” He does. This is not just a synonym for “signs.” The Greek word used here that is translated as “works” is also translated as “miracles.”
What miracles is Jesus referring to? Most recently, giving sight to a man born blind (John 9), but it’s also referring to all the miracles or works Jesus has been doing thus far.
Cranking up the heat, Jesus adds in verse 38, “even though you do not believe me, believe the works….” He tells them, “You may not believe my words—fine. Believe the miracles I have performed. If your hearts are that hard, believe your eyes!”
If seeing is believing, then believe!
If His miracles were not what God would do, then they had reason to not believe Him. If they evaluated Jesus’ miracles honestly, then they would “know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father”(verse 38).
The Gospel, Jesus says, moves from works to words.
Look at the evidence in Jesus’ life. When you add up what He did, you see there is only one word escaping from your lips: “Lord.”
The integration between the mission of the Father and the Son was so tight that when Jesus signed His signature, it read “Yahweh”—God’s Covenant name.
To know Jesus was to know the Father. To know Jesus IS to know the Father.
But these stubborn people refused to believe the signature written clearly before them. They again reach for vigilante justice and pick up stones to kill Him—no trial, just shut Him up!
What do you do when you see the works of the Lord? When you see the evidence of Christ—when you see the miracles—do you recognize the truth of His claims, or do you just want to shut the source up and try to forget all about it?
Are you able to see the signature of God the Father in the works of Jesus?
Life Meets Theology 