¹⁰ “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works.”

Yes, there was enough evidence linking Jesus to God, as Jesus indicated in verse 9. Ignorance was not the problem, faith was. For us present day readers, we may miss the claim to deity here. Even though Jesus used the term “Father” and not “God, ” it was very clear that He was referring to God. In verse 1, He says, “Believe in God, believe also in me,” and then immediately follows that with, “In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places” (vs. 2), equating the “Father” with “God.” Beginning in John 1:14, we are set up to see Jesus as the Son and the God of Israel as the Father.

The Lord frequently referred to the God of Israel as “my Father” (e.g. John 2:16, 5:17, etc.). In fact, to the Jewish leaders such language was amounting to blasphemy: “For this reason therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God” (John 5:18). They caught the nuance of uniqueness in His words.

Yes, the disciples must have understood the same thing, that Jesus was not referring to God in the same way as all other observing Jews. But they couldn’t bring their monotheistic minds to fully go where the evidence led. The implications of it would shake their belief system at the roots. There is one and only one God! Deuteronomy 6:4 was branded in the minds of all Jews, “Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one!” And Isaiah, “You are My witnesses … Before Me there was no God formed, and there will be none after Me. I, even I, am the Lord, and there is no savior besides Me” (Is 43:10–11). “I am the first and I am the last, and there is no God besides Me” (Is 44:6).

There was no refuting this. Fundamental to all Jewish belief is a hard-core monotheism, there is one and only one God. Yet here was Jesus making overtures that even the Pharisees did not miss. If their assessment was wrong, Jesus had plenty of opportunity to correct them. But here in the Upper Room, the disciples see their Master, the One to whom they had pledged undying loyalty, affirming the implications of His words: “I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me.” Their allegiance to this One whom even the winds and sea obeyed, this One who forgives sin, trumped all their fears of the implications of His words about the Father. Yet it was difficult to accept the logical conclusion.

Lord, like the disciples in the Upper Room, sometimes I do not understand Your ways and Your mind. But I am devoted to You above all else.