By Pr. Edward Markquart, Seattle, WA

Gospel: John 10:22-39

- It was the feast of the Dedication in Jerusalem. It was winter and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the portico of Solomon.

Previously, in John 7:2, we knew that Jesus was in Jerusalem at the Feast of the Tabernacles. That meant it was autumn because the Feast of Tabernacles was also a Feast of Ingathering similar to our autumn feast of Thanksgiving. In the scenes in John, chapters 7-9, Jesus continued to teach in the temple in late autumn.

But in this passage from John 10:22, two-three months have passed and it was winter or wintry weather as in the month of December. It was the Feast of Dedication, the Feast of Hanukkah. Hanukkah commemorates Judas Maccabeus and the Maccabeans driving out the Syrians, building a new altar, and rededicating the temple with a new altar. This Maccabean war was from 167-164 BCE. Near the phrase, "feast of the Dedication," write the word, "Hanukkah," Near the word, "winter," write the word, "December. Two months later."

This Bible verse gives a definite picture of the setting in the Temple, in the portico of Solomon.

Raymond Brown has an insightful paragraph:

"The outermost court of the Temple was surrounded by magnificent covered colonnades or cloisters on all four sides. Those porticoes were open on the inside facing the temple, but closed on the outside. The oldest portico, the one on the east side, was popularly associated with Solomon, the builder of the first temple."

"There is one detail of local color that is very accurate. At this winter season, when the cold winds sweep in from the east across the great desert, we find Jesus in the east portico of the Temple, the only one of the porticoes whose closed side would protect it from the east wind."

(Brown, JOHN, V. 1. P. 402, 405)

In the diagram below, locate the porticoes which were hallways with columns.

See the model of the porticoes.
This model is from the Jerusalem Hotel.

- The Jews said to him, "How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly."

The Jewish leaders wanted to know if Jesus Christ was really the Messiah. To these Jewish leaders, Jesus' previous answers about his identity had been philosophically oblique and confusing. The Jewish leaders wanted a direct answer from him, so that they could build a legal case against him.

- You do not believe me because you do not belong to my sheep.

Once again, Jesus "hit the nail on the head." The Jewish leaders didn't believe in Jesus because they were not his followers, his disciples, or his sheep.

- My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me.

People who believe in Christ hear his voice, his teachings, his truths about God and the way to live and love. Such people follow Christ and are disciples of Christ. The Jewish leaders did none of these things. They hated Christ and wanted him killed. Why? Because Jesus was destroying their cushy, power hungry, wealthy way of life. But his disciples were like sheep who followed their shepherd. Focus on the word, "follow." The mood of the word, "follow," in like sheep following a shepherd, more so than a slave following an owner or a soldier following a captain. The word, "follow," in the gospels is connected with a shepherd, not soldiers nor slaves.

- And I give them eternal life and they shall never perish and no one shall snatch them out of my hand.

What promises Jesus was making to his followers, to his sheep who follow him! Eternal life. Eternal assurance. "No one shall be able to snatch them out of my hand. No one shall be able to snatch them out of the Father's hand."

That is precisely what the bad shepherd wants to do: snatch them out of the Father's hand. That is what the power of evil wants to do with our lives: snatch us out of the hand of Christ. The purpose of the power of evil is to snatch us from the hands of our loving Father. Jesus promises to us that such "snatching" will not occur in our lives.

- No one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand.

When we are in the grip of God's loving hands, nothing evil can snatch us away from a Father who holds us firmly in his love.

- I and the Father are one.

The Father and the Son are one, are unified, are of one mind, one purpose, one way of living. The Son repeats the attitudes and actions of the Father. The two think and act alike.

- The Jews took up stones again to stone him.

The Jewish leaders knew that Jesus had crossed the line and was identifying himself as none other than God. For this, Jesus could be stoned for blasphemy.

- The Jews answered him, 'It is not for a good work that we stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God."

This is the key. The Gospel of John makes the charges against Jesus crystal clear: "Blasphemy." This gospel defines what blasphemy is, "making yourself God." At the end of the Jesus Story during Holy Week in Matthew and Mark, Jesus will be accused of blasphemy but this is the only Bible verse that clearly defines what blasphemy is. What is blasphemy? "Making yourself God."

- Jesus answered them, "Is it not written in your own law, 'I said, You are gods? If he called them gods to whom the word of the Lord came (and Scripture cannot be broken), do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the word, 'You are blaspheming' because I said, 'I am the Son of God."

"In response to the charges of the Jews that he is making himself God, Jesus answers with reasoning drawn from the Old Testament. He cites from Psalm 82:6. Psalm 82:6 itself and the rest of the verse and the context of the verse are important in the argument. The whole verse reads, 'I say, 'You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you.' Jesus is interested not only in the term "gods," but also in the synonymous expression "sons of the Most High" for he refers to himself as the Son of God in verse 36." Brown, JOHN, V. 1, P. 409.

Above this quotation from the Old Testament, write: "Jesus quotes Psalm 82:6, 'You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you.'" Jesus again uses reasoning drawn from the Old Testament. In this situation, Jesus reasons that when he calls himself "the Son of God," the Old Testament also calls people, "sons of God."

Brown continues, "First, if there was a common practice in the Old Testament to refer men like the judges as 'gods,' and this was no blasphemy, why do the Jews object when this term is applied to Jesus. To a Western mind, this argument seems to be a deceptive fallacy. The Jews are not objecting that Jesus is raising himself to the level of a god in the sense in which the judges were gods. They are objecting that he is making himself God with a capital, 'G.'" Brown, JOHN, V. 1, P. 409.

- Even if you don't believe me, believe the works (that I do) that you may know and understand the Father is in me and I am in the Father.

Jesus wants us to know that he is in the Father and the Father is in Jesus. To see Jesus is to see the Father; to know Jesus is to know the Father; to love Jesus is to love the Father.

- Again they tried to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands.