Tuesday in the Fourth Week of Easter, May 10, 2022

John 10, 22-30

The feast of the Dedication was taking place in Jerusalem. It was winter. And Jesus walked about in the temple area on the Portico of Solomon. So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” Jesus answered them, “I told you and you do not believe. The works I do in my Father’s name testify to me. But you do not believe, because you are not among my sheep. My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one can take them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can take them out of the Father’s hand. The Father and I are one.”

The Feast of the Dedication of the Temple, also known as Hanukkah, usually occurs in early December, but in 2024 will begin on December 25 so that its eight days will run into January.  This is because the Jewish holy days depend on the lunar year.  Our celebration of Easter is determined from the Jewish holy day of Passover, which explains why the date for Easter changes every year.  The Apostle John notes in this reading from his Gospel that the Lord Jesus came to Jerusalem on the Feast of the Dedication.  The other three Evangelists tell us mostly what the Lord did in Galilee.  The Gospel of Mark takes place entirely in Galilee until the last week of the Lord’s life.  John makes it clear that Jesus spent considerable time in the Holy City as well — not merely the three Passovers during his ministry but for other holy days as well.  In fact, most of John’s Gospel takes place in and around Jerusalem.  This might indicate that John was writing for the early Church of Judean Christians.  John might also show in this way that the New Covenant of Jesus had superseded the Old of Moses.  

“And Jesus walked about in the temple area on the Portico of Solomon.”  This was a double-columned porch on the east side of the Temple. It was 23 feet wide and the columns were 40 feet tall.  It was so-called, according to Josephus, because Solomon had built up the ground there since the plateau on which he built the Temple was not large enough for it and the ground around it was uneven.  Because it provided some shelter, it was often used by teachers and their disciples.  Later, St. Peter will teach there (cf. Acts 3, 11-12).

“How long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.”  The Jews are asking Jesus if he is the Messiah promised by the Pharisees — the military leader.  The Lord, for his part was careful in using this term, preferring to call himself “the Son of Man”, of whom Daniel wrote, instead.  But the Lord indeed is the Messiah, “the anointed one”, for he was “anointed” with the Holy Spirit at the time he was baptized by John the Baptist, so he does not reject the title altogether.  “I told you and you do not believe.”  He told them of his true identity, that the Messiah was the Son of God who came to give eternal life to the righteous.  But the Jews had rejected this assertion as either blasphemous or beside the point.  The Lord answers their charge that what he had said of himself was blasphemous: “The works I do in my Father’s name testify to me.”  The miraculous works prove that he speaks by God’s authority.  Then he answers their charge that his coming for the forgiveness of sins was beside the point: “But you do not believe, because you are not among my sheep.”  That is, they have refused God’s grace that they might believe in his Son.  They refuse to be his “sheep”.  If they did accept the grace and believe, they would know that he had not come to free Jerusalem but to save the human race: “My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me.”  

“I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish.”  For the Jews, this statement was, on the one hand, preposterous, and on the other hand, not an answer to their question: Would he fight the Romans or not?  The Lord Jesus continues to speak of his care for his flock: “No one can take them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can take them out of the Father’s hand.”  No one can seize his sheep from him.  The crowd does not want to hear of sheep, which do not fight.  What Jesus says to them makes no sense.  He is speaking a different language than they were prepared for.  And then he says, “The Father and I are one.”  For them, this is blasphemy, and yet they had not heard anything that he had said.

So often the Lord seeks to speak to us with nudges and signs that could only come from him.  When the matter is of great importance, he makes us so uncomfortable within ourselves that we feel we must take some action, even if it is to run in the opposite direction he would have us go.  We very often ignore these signs or explain them away, or delay until the opportunity to act has passed.  But we must accustom ourselves to listen for him so that, unlike the ancient Jews, we might understand what he wants from us and do his holy will.