Messiah

March 19 Messiah John 10:22-42

“In short our salvation is certain because it is in the hand of God. Our faith is weak, and we are given to wavering; but God has taken us in His hand and is powerful enough to scatter with a breath all the efforts of our enemies. It is very important for us to look at this, so that fear of temptations may not dismay us. For Christ also meant to show how the sheep live quietly in the midst of wolves.” John Calvin “Commentary on John” Vol. 4:273

Back in Jerusalem, at the Feast of Dedication, the tension was ratcheted up even more. Jesus identified Himself as the Messiah, the Son of God, making claims to divinity that infuriate the crowd. Nevertheless, many believed in Him. The Feast of Dedication became a time of division. God’s sheep were being separated and the Good Shepherd was moving closer to Calvary.

We know the Feast of Dedication as Hanukkah or the festival of lights. It was not one of the great feasts instituted by the Law of Moses; its origins are to be found in the inter-testamental period, between the Old and New Testaments. In 167 B.C. the Syrian-Greek invader, Antiochus Epiphanes had desecrated the Temple in Jerusalem by replacing the altar with a pagan substitute on which a pig was sacrificed to Jupiter. This was an attempt to stamp out the Hebrew religion and to replace it with Hellenistic or Greek concepts. Judas Maccabeus, a Jewish resistance leader, managed to overthrow the Syrians. In 164 B.C. he led the purification and rededication of the Temple. This was commemorated in later years as Hanukkah. Held in the winter months, the festival was, and is, a symbol of hope. To those who heard Him speak, it was a potent reminder of Jesus’ claim to be the Light of the World.

Some people came to Jesus, as He taught in Solomon’s colonnade, out of the chill winter winds, whether or not He was the Messiah. In response, Jesus directed them to His works. His miracles proved that He was fulfilling His Father’s will. The reason they did not believe was that they were not His sheep. This does not excuse their unbelief, but it does explain it. Since they did not believe they could not have been His sheep. If they had been His sheep, they would have believed. In this way, divine sovereignty and human responsibility are balanced.

There is a comforting word of eternal security in these verses. Since our membership in the flock of God is not determined by our birth or by the Law, but by Christ, we cannot be stolen from the fold. No one can snatch the sheep from the Shepherd’s hand. There is even a double negative in the Greek. This does not make it a positive, as it would in English, it merely emphasizes, even more strongly, that no thief or robber or wolf will ever be able to steal God’s sheep. We are not guaranteed safety from earthly disasters, but we are guaranteed that we will be safe eternally, no matter what disasters may befall us.

Jesus does not claim to be of one essence with the Father in these verses, though there are other places where that claim is made. Instead, Jesus says that He is in perfect union with the Father because He perfectly fulfills His Father’s will. The distinction was lost on those who heard Him; they still attempted to seize Him and kill Him. That He was able to escape their grasp demonstrates that His hour had not yet come. He slipped away, over the Jordan, to Perea, where the Jewish authorities could not pursue Him. But He would return, and when He did, they would be ready.

For further reading: Psalm 108