Jesus asked to make them face what they were doing. He had done "many good works" before their eyes, and they were about to kill Him. Barnes explains these good works were miracles of kindness, "as they tended to promote the happiness of men." By asking which one deserved stoning, Jesus showed that His life gave them no cause. The question pushes them to say what their real charge is, and they do.

The Jews answered, "For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God" (John 10:33). Barnes says, "This shows how they understood what he had said." Jesus then replied with Scripture, asking, "Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?" (John 10:34), and urged them to believe the works (John 10:37-38).

Stoning was the law's penalty for blasphemy: "he that blasphemeth the name of the LORD, he shall surely be put to death, and all the congregation shall certainly stone him" (Leviticus 24:16). Barnes notes on John 10:31, "Stoning was the punishment of a blasphemer." This was not the first attempt; John 10:31 says they "took up stones again" (see John 8:59).

This question sets the goodness of Jesus' works beside the hostility of His hearers. His miracles came "from my Father" (John 10:32) and showed the Father's heart. Matthew Henry writes that "Christ's works of power and mercy proclaim him to be over all, God blessed for evermore."

The answer the Jews gave was, in a sense, correct about His claim. They understood that He was making Himself equal with God (John 10:33; John 5:18). Their error was in calling the truth blasphemy. Jesus pointed them again to the works so that they might "know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him" (John 10:38).