Although many people today have great difficulty in understanding that Jesus was God in a human body, these verses remind us that the people listening to Him understood exactly what He was saying.  “I and the Father are one” was, to biblically literate Jewish ears, a clear claim to be God.  “One”, meant one in nature and one in authority.  The Nicene Creed of 325AD, which is still accepted as being biblical, expresses Christ’s divinity like this: ‘We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one being with the Father.’

The ‘oneness’ word also directed them back to the foundation statement in Deuteronomy 6:4, “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one”  where “one” meant the ‘only God’.  So, how could Jesus claim to be the only God?   Their conclusion was that He was blaspheming against the Name of the Only God.  That is why they picked up stones to throw at Him (the Old Testament method of capital punishment).  However, Jesus did not in any way correct them, for what they assumed was the truth.  His miracles were direct expressions of God's power and compassion, which pointed towards His saving grace.
 
Human logic has no experience of two or three people who can be one in character, desires and action; even identical twins or triplets who feel close to each other, are not totally the same as each other.  There will be differences in the things that they like and do as well as minor differences in their appearance.  But Jesus was totally one with the Father.  However, because He had a human body, His character could be physically seen in what He did and said (Luke 10:22).
 
This is the uniqueness of Jesus which every Christian should celebrate and advertise.  It marks Him out from every other religious figure - for no-one else has ever claimed to be God in the human body, and also demonstrated it in the things that they do.  Therefore, we do not just follow a Shepherd who is merely good, but a Saviour who is God.  The reason that He can take us to heaven is that He knows the way because He came from heaven (John 3:13).  What a message to share with a world that loves the best in life but hates the thought of death.  But the truth about His identity is locked up inside you until you open your mouth and share it!  What better news could your colleagues receive than to know that the God who made them was willing to suffer for their sins so that they might have eternal life with Him forever.