Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Tuesday September 9, 2014 

John 10:22-42

The Gospel of John falls naturally into four major sections.  Chapters 1 – 6 might be titled Who is Jesus?  In this first section, Jesus travels around much of Palestine (Galilee, Samaria, and Judea), teaching many people, often in private conversation, sometimes in crowds, healing people and performing other miracles, and establishing that he is indeed the Christ, the Jewish Messiah.  Many of the people Jesus met initially believed in him, and by the end of Chapter 6 we find some of these disciples coming to deeper faith in him, but many of the others are turning away from him.

The second major section, Chapters 7 – 12, might be called Decision Time, as progressively people decide for or against Jesus.  Those who truly follow Christ grow in faith, knowledge, and obedience, and many others came to believe in him.  But, sadly, there were many people who rejected him, some of them more and more strongly.  At the start of Chapter 7, we first learn that the leaders in Judea were seeking to kill him.  By verse 32, the chief priests and Pharisees sent officers to arrest Jesus, but he escaped, perhaps because he was still popular with many or most of the people.  Indeed, this section contains two wonderful miracles (healing the man born blind and raising Lazarus from the dead), as well as several great “I am” sayings:  “I am the light of the world.” “Before Abraham was, I am.” “I am the good shepherd.”  “I am the resurrection and the life.” 

These teachings and their accompanying signs stir up much hatred from the leaders who reject Jesus ever more forcefully, and who repeatedly take up stones to stone him to death.  Jesus condemns these hate-filled leaders in equally strong language:  “You are from below; I am from above.”  “You are of your father, the devil.” “Because I tell the truth, you do not believe me.”  Yes, it is a time of decision for or against Christ.  He sums it up plainly in 9:39, speaking with his new disciple, the man healed from blindness.  Jesus says, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.”

Today’s reading (John 10:22-42) is the final forceful disagreement between Jesus and the Jewish leaders recorded for us in John’s Gospel, and mixed with its rejection and condemnation are some of the most reassuring promises Jesus gave his disciples.

It was winter (vv. 22-23).  It was Hanukkah (which means dedication), the great feast faithful Jews still celebrate every year to commemorate the rededication of the Temple to the worship of God after it had been horribly desecrated by the unspeakably evil pagan king Antiochus Epiphanes, who, knowing the Jews kept kosher, spilled the blood of pigs on God’s altar and spilled the blood of many martyrs who would not renounce the one true God they loved.  Judas Maccabeus had raised an army and defeated the evil king, and God showed his faithfulness by the miracle that a small amount of oil, only enough to light the lamps in the Temple for one night, instead lasted for eight nights.  And so Hanukkah is called the Festival of Lights.  All this must have been in Jesus’ thoughts as he walked in the Temple, in the Portico of Solomon.  Solomon, son of David, was the great king of Israel who built the first Temple in Jerusalem.  Perhaps Jesus was thinking of the whole history of the Temple, the first Temple the people had loved so much, how it was destroyed at the time of the Captivity, how the second Temple had such an uneven history, the very worst and best of which were remembered at Hanukkah.  Now Jesus knew that the time of the second Temple was almost over, that it would soon be destroyed.  But before that, he knew that his own death, coming at Passover in the spring, in only three or four months, would mark the real end of Temple worship.  He knew his own death was the ultimate sacrifice for sin, and it would end all other sacrifice  He would then take up his life again to be Saviour and Lord of all nations, not only Israel.  Just before our passage, Jesus had said (10:14-18)

“I am the good shepherd.  I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep.  I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold.  I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice.  So there will be one flock, one shepherd.  For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again.  No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.  I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again.  I have received this command from my Father.”

Now, there in the Temple, the Jewish leaders again try to snare Jesus by asking him again if he is the Messiah, and Jesus speaks of their unbelief, tying it to the Good Shepherd (10:26-30):

“You do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep.  My sheep hear my voice.  I know them, and they follow me.  I give them eternal life, and they will never perish.  No one will snatch them out of my hand.  What my Father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father’s hand.  The Father and I are one.”

At this, the leaders are scandalized, totally unbelieving, and again they take up stones to kill Jesus, calling him a blasphemer.  But Jesus escapes and leaves Jerusalem, going east of the Jordan River, where many people come to him and believe.

Yet, right with Jesus judging the leaders for their unbelief and the leaders calling Jesus a blasphemer who should be killed, Jesus makes a wonderful promise to his own sheep, the people who do hear his voice, who do follow him.  Jesus knows us, he says, he gives us eternal life, we will never perish, no one will snatch us out of Jesus’ hand, because the Father is greater than all else, and no one can snatch us out of the Father’s hand.  For this, we can be truly thankful.

It is because, as Jesus says, “The Father and I are one,” that we can, accepting his word, rely on Jesus’ promise with no doubt or worry.  Think of what a strong claim that is.  We sometimes tie ourselves in knots, but Jesus is God; all power and authority are his.  He loves us as the Good Shepherd, and no one can snatch us away.

And so Jesus goes on a little while longer in his ministry to people in need.  There is no more confrontation or judgment aimed at the leaders, but there is much love and mercy for Jesus’ friends and followers.  Next in John’s Gospel comes his last recorded miracle, raising Lazarus from the dead, with Jesus’ comforting teaching, “I am the resurrection and the life.  Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.”

After that comes the precious, tender report of Mary anointing Jesus with costly perfume, preparing for his burial, and then the triumphal entry into Jerusalem and related events.  After that, Jesus had no more public ministry.  The third major section of John’s Gospel, Chapters 13-17, is totally private, addressed only to the disciples who truly believe in Christ.  It might be called Until Christ returns, with deep and intimate teaching to comfort and strengthen his disciples, including us, until he comes back to this world to reign.  What great reassurance for the believer there is in 14:6, for example: “I am the way, the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”  Or 14:16-18: “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him… I will not leave you as orphans.”

The final section of John’s Gospel, Chapters 18 – 21, Suffering and Victory, presents the final events in the earthly life of Christ, his trial, crucifixion, death, his resurrection on the third day, and his appearances to his disciples.  The Gospel of John, as usual, takes a different perspective than the others.  John highlights the great confession from Thomas, “My Lord and my God!” (20:28), and it is clear that John wants us all to join in this confession.  Indeed, John next addresses us, his readers, and (in 20:31) he tells us exactly why he wrote the Gospel, which we need to take seriously.  The Gospel of John, he tells us, is “written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life through his name.”

- Robert Kruse