Reader’s Guide: “The Word for Today” Friday, March 7, 2014 Read John 10:22-30 The scene now shifts to the festival of Dedication. Time has passed. But the location is still in Jerusalem. We have noted earlier that at least chapter 7 – chapter 10:21 are connected to the Feast of Booths. In fact, we might even go back to include the events in chapter 5 in this long sequence. The Feast of Booths happened in late October or early November. The Feast of Dedication happened in late December or early January. So, a few months have passed since Jesus arrived in Jerusalem. We need to remember that in John’s storyline Jesus will not leave the area of Jerusalem again. This is very different from the storyline that Mark has created in which Jesus makes only one visit to Jerusalem near the end of his life in the days just ahead of Passover which happened in the spring. John has created a much longer time of debate between Jesus and the religious leaders – several months long. The Feast of Dedication was one of the lesser feasts within Judaism. The feast went back to the time when Judas Maccabaeus and his brothers led a successful revolt against the powers of Antiochus Epiphanes who had desecrated the altar at the temple in Jerusalem by offering swine upon it and setting up a “desolating sacrilege” – likely a statue of Zeus. Antiochus was a very oppressive and cruel ruler who brought much anguish upon the Jewish people of that time – about 168 BC. We can read about the events of Antiochus and Judas Maccabaeus in the books of 1 and 2 Maccabees. Unfortunately those books are not included in our Bible. That means that we are unfamiliar with their story. In 165 BC Judas Maccabaeus and his followers had driven Antiochus’ army out of Jerusalem and built a new altar in place of the one that was desecrated. A festival of rededication of the altar took place in December 165 and henceforth the Feast of Dedication was observed each year. We cannot overestimate the importance of the events that unfolded in that time from 168-165 BC and thereafter. It was one of those watershed events like the bombing of Pearl Harbor or 9/11. Those events were the catalyst that led to the fracturing of Judaism into the various parties we hear about in the NT – the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Essenes, even the Zealots, find their roots in that climactic time. The “desolating sacrilege” we read about in Mark’s gospel finds its roots there too. The belief in the resurrection of the dead really begins to take root because of the events in 168-165 BC. It was a very important time. It is no wonder that the Jews decided to celebrate the Feast of Dedication. John, however, does not make much of the feast itself. The mention of the Feast of Dedication is only to mark time. But in our consideration of John’s storyline it is important that we notice the much longer timeframe for the Temple Controversy that John speaks of than that of the synoptic gospels. In John’s view Jesus arrived in Jerusalem in late October or early November and remained there until the next March or April debating with the religious leaders. The grist of this story is once again about just who Jesus is. The Jews confront Jesus and ask him to tell them plainly if he is the Messiah or not. For his part, Jesus tells them that he has already made his identity as the Messiah plainly true but they do not believe him. The identity of Jesus as the Messiah has not been hidden in John’s gospel. The problem is one of lack of belief and apparently there is nothing that can change that. Jesus refers to his works, knowing full well that his works have not convinced those who will not believe. While it is not possible to decide exactly when Jesus spoke his powerful words claiming that he is the good shepherd, the context places those words back at the time of the Feast of Booths (verses 19-21). But Jesus refers to the image of the shepherd here as well. This likely reflects the creativity of John as an author. He is not restricted to providing a day by day account. An image from earlier can flow into the present scene. The problem with those who confront Jesus is that they do not believe – hence they are not Jesus’ sheep. As we heard earlier, Jesus’ sheep hear his voice and follow him – they believe! Jesus makes a huge promise to those sheep – nothing will snatch them out of his hand. Once again we should likely hear this as much as a message to the readers of John’s gospel who lived well after the time of Jesus’ resurrection as to people of that day. John’s community lived under threat and Jesus’ words would have given them great comfort. Those words also promise comfort to us. Once again we should not miss that John understands Jesus to be the manifestation of the Father on earth – “the Word became flesh and lived among us.” Jesus and the Father are one. This claim would have caused great difficulty for the religious leaders who confronted Jesus. If the claim is true then they would need to follow Jesus. They reject Jesus’ claim and seek to kill him.