I and My Father are One

Jesus professed, “I and My Father are One.” [1]

The word “One” is a key word used in the Shema. The Shema is a prayer that religious Jews pray in the morning and evening. Shema is the first Hebrew word of the prayer. Shema means to “hear.” Below is the first line of the Shema prayer:

שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ יְהוָה אֶחָֽד
She-ma yisrael, YHWH eloheinu, YHWH echad
Hear O’ Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One [2]

After Jesus professed that He and His Father are One, the Jewish religious leaders took up stones to stone Him. [3] They understood what He was claiming.

Jesus asked these leaders, “Do you say of Him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’?” [4]

He urged them, “If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; but if I do, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him.” [5]

Thankfully, the story of Jesus in John’s Gospel chapter ten does not end with Jesus being stoned. It ends with these words, “And many believed in Him there.” [6] And many people continue to come to faith in JESUS every day all over the world.

The second line of the Shema is:

בָּרוּךְ שֵׁם כְּבוֹד מַלְכוּתוֹ לְעוֹלָם וָעֶד
Baruch shem kavod malchuto l’olam va-ed
Blessed is the name of His glorious kingdom for ever and ever.

And third line is:

וְאָ֣הַבְתָּ֔ אֵ֖ת יְהוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֶ֑יךָ בְּכָל־לְבָבְךָ֥ וּבְכָל־נַפְשְׁךָ֖ וּבְכָל־מְאֹדֶֽך
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.” [7]

May this third petition be true of each of us.

[1] John 10:30
[2] Deuteronomy 6:4
[3] John 10:31
[4] John 10:36
[5] John 10:37-38
[6] John 10:42
[7] Deuteronomy 6:5