May 12, 2019

Gospel Lesson: John 10:22–30 Then came the Feast of Dedication at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was in the temple area walking in Solomon’s Colonnade. The Jews gathered around him, saying, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” Jesus answered, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The miracles I do in my Father’s name speak for me, but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”

Let’s start with background for the Feast of Dedication. It remembers the rededication of the Temple by the Maccabees. At the time of Moses, God told Moses to make a portable Tabernacle tent that could be moved as the Israelites traveled for 40 years in the wilderness. Inside the tent were the Ark of the Covenant and the Altar of Incense and the Twelve Loaves of Bread. About 400 later King David brought the tent to Jerusalem and his son, King Solomon built a beautiful temple building. When the Babylonians conquered Jerusalem and led the people into Exile, they pulled down the city walls and destroyed the temple and carried the temple furnishings to Babylon. (About 587 BC.) Seventy years later the Jews were allowed to return to their homeland and were given permission to rebuild the temple. This is recorded in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, about 500 BC. There was peace until the Syrian, King Antiochus Epiphanes, in 168 BC sought to stamp out the Hebrew religion. He robbed the temple and desecrated it by setting up a statue of Zeus and sacrificing pigs on the altar. This led to the Macabean revolt. In 165 BC the Jews, led by the Macabee family, recaptured, cleansed and rededicated the temple (1 Maccabees 4). The story of the rededication of the temple and the miraculous supply of oil for the lamps is perpetuated in the Jewish festival known by the Hebrew name of Hanukkah. King Herod the Great rebuilt the temple, starting about 20 BC, but the Romans completely destroyed it in the year AD 70. Today there is only one section of the wall remaining.

Hannukkah is celebrated in December, and so our Gospel reading says, “Then came the Feast of Dedication at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was in the temple area walking in Solomon’s Colonnade.”

For the Jews, the temple is a symbol of their nation. The Feast of Dedication for the Temple is a time when the Jews would remember how God had delivered them in the past and would pray that God would deliver them once again, this time from the occupation by Rome. They were looking for a political and military leader to fight for them. That person would be the Christ, also called the Messiah. The Jews had heard Jesus speak and they saw the miracles he had done. Could he do the big miracle of ousting the Romans? Would he bring back the glorious days of King David and King Solomon? And so the Jews gathered around Jesus, saying, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.”

Jesus answered, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The miracles I do in my Father’s name speak for me, but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”

If you are follower of Jesus, then you believe. If you do not follow Jesus, that is, if you do not believe in Jesus, then you will not believe his speeches nor the miracles and signs that point to Jesus as the Savior. In other words, you have to be a believer in order to believe.

Then Jesus starts talking about believers as being his precious sheep. Jesus gives salvation that is greater than a temple building. It is eternal life. Temple buildings and city walls can be destroyed, but nothing can snatch the sheep out of the hand of Jesus. Our salvation is sure.

This was not the kind of Messiah that the Jews expected. And so they could not accept Jesus as the Messiah. Therefore, they were not seeking, the real Kingdom of God. And so they could not or would not enter the flock of Jesus. This is really the modern problem also. People are looking for some sort of salvation or relief or rescue, but they do not see Jesus as the one who can help them. They do not see Jesus as the answer because they do not know what the real problem is. They only see surface problems and symptoms and other enemies, but do not see the real problem which is sin and unbelief.

Jesus is the true Messiah who comes to defeat the enemies of God, which are also the enemies of people. The enemies are not simply visible political and physical things, but spiritual and hidden in the heart. The enemies are sin, death, and the devil. These enemies can be defeated only by the death and resurrection of Jesus. Those hands that were pierced by nails are so safe that nothing can snatch us from the hand of God.

Today we do not celebrate the dedication of the Jerusalem Temple as the dwelling place of God. We celebrate that Christ dwells in our hearts.

Amen.

Michael Nearhood, Pastor
Okinawa Lutheran Church

Sermon Index