Tuesday in the Fourth Week of Easter, May 2, 2023

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 celebrated the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem after the Jewish rebels defeated the Greeks in 164 B.C.  A rededication was necessary because the Greeks had defiled the Temple with a statue of their god Zeus.  Today this celebration is known as Hanukkah.

At the beginning of today’s Gospel Reading, the Lord Jesus is walking about in the Portico of Solomon.  Two months have passed since he spoke of himself as the Shepherd of his flock and as the Gate through which they passed to the pasture, as recorded in the Gospel Reading for this past Sunday’s Mass.  Now, it is December and the weather is rainy and cool, getting down to 40 degrees F. during the day.  The Portico, which is a cloister formed by three rows of stone columns on the eastern side of the Temple courtyard, would have provided some shelter from the chill.  

“How long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” St. John says that “the Jews” asked this question, by which he usually means the Pharisees and the elders.  To this point, the Lord has identified himself in many ways: as the Bread of Life that has come down from heaven, as the Son of Man of whom the Prophet Daniel wrote, as the Light of the world, and as the Son of God.  He has not, however, used the word “messiah” in regards to himself.  He has not done this because the people are solidly wedded to the notion of the messiah as the leader who would overthrow the Romans and restore the kingdom of Israel.  The Jews demand that he answer them now: is he this leader or not?  The Lord truly is the Messiah but not in their very primitive sense.  He has shown himself by his works, none of which could be contrived as preparatory for war.

“I told you and you do not believe. The works I do in my Father’s name testify to me.”  It seems to me that the first sentence in this verse should be read this way: I told you who I am and you do not believe me (or, believe in me).  He has spoken to them in words and in his works to show them that he is the truly Anointed of God, the Savior of the world.  He has made no move or spoken any word to indicate that he wanted to make war on the Romans.  Indeed, he has taught that the Jews could pay the tax to Caesar, healed the slave of a centurion, and hid himself when a crowd tried to make him king.  His works are those of peace and signify the forgiveness of sin for the salvation of the world.

“But you do not believe, because you are not among my sheep.”  They are not his sheep because they are looking for a different kind of shepherd.  “My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me.”  The Lord asserts that though they do not believe in him, there are those who did, and who did not insist that he conform himself to their expectations. “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish.”  He does not give his followers a kingdom here, but one in heaven where they shall live forever.

“No one can take them out of my hand.”  Using this turn of phrase, the Lord indicates that he is a ruler — but one who protects, not dominates.  He is an invincible ruler who will grant the graces necessary for his subjects to persevere in their loyalty to him.

“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 Son’s Father has himself “given” them to him: drawing them through grace, he sets those who respond in the hand of his Son.

“The Father and I are one.”  The Lord Jesus is teaching that he and the Father possess a unity, an equality in majesty and power.  This is an astounding claim to make, and it would have been blasphemy if anyone said this who could not demonstrate that it was true.  And the Son did this through his miracles.  But we do not have to imagine the Jews hearing this Galilean carpenter saying that he and the Father were one.  St. John tells us: “The Jews then took up stones to stone him” (John 10, 31).  But he had answered their question:  he was the Messiah, and far more than that.