NOTES for Joh 10:22-42
Those who demand a direct answer from Jesus about whether He is the Christ are not asking because they are truly interested in where the truth is. They have already answered the question for themselves and rejected Jesus, and now they need His positive answer only as a pretext for doing away with Him. At that moment, His direct answer is no longer needed in order to accept Christ; His earlier words are enough to draw the necessary conclusions. And once again we see how, in response to Christ's words, an attempt is made to do away with Him.
This time He leaves His ill-wishers; the time for an unjust execution has not yet come. It is hard for us, and perhaps impossible, to understand fully why His sufferings had to happen under other circumstances. In any case, those who justify Judas by saying that he was carrying out the Teacher's instruction to betray Him should remember that Christ could have been seized even without Judas's help.
And the evangelist has also preserved for us an important testimony: although John the Baptist performed no miracle, this can deny neither the truth of his words nor his holiness. Demanding obligatory miracles from saints has become customary and traditional, but we should not regard them as the only necessary proof of faithfulness to God. The Lord gives the ability to work miracles, but not every miracle is from God; the powers of darkness know how to counterfeit miracles. But a life transformed by union with God cannot be imitated.