Acts 9:36-43 | Psalm 23 | Revelation 7:9-end | John 10:22-30
John 10:22-30
22 At that time the festival of the Dedication took place in Jerusalem. It was winter, 23 and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the portico of Solomon. 24 So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, ‘How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.’ 25 Jesus answered, ‘I have told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name testify to me; 26 but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep. 27 My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 What my Father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father’s hand. 30 The Father and I are one.’
Introduction
Antiochus IV was a Greek king of the Seleucid Empire about 200 years before Jesus. He was an audacious king. He was so confident of his own prowess, in fact, he took the name Antiochus Epiphanes—God made manifest—and had it inscribed on the currency. One of his most significant characteristics, however, was his hatred of the Jews, waging war on them with a particular vindictiveness. One ancient historical document describes the massacre of forty thousand Jews and the enslavement of another forty thousand, including women and children—all in the space of three days.[1] For those who survived, he made being a Jewish priest grounds for the death penalty. Owning a Bible: the death penalty. Performing sacrifices: the death penalty. Gentiles were allowed to sacrifice unclean animals, like pigs, on the altar in the Temple. Prostitutes were allowed to sell their services in the Temple. Circumcision was made illegal. Everyone was required, as a matter of law, to worship Zeus. And those who were bold enough to continue traditional Jewish worship to God, in secret, were burned alive.[2]
Now, put yourself in the place of those Jewish people for a moment. Your religion has basically been banned. Your holiest site, the Temple has been polluted. This violent, horrific persecution threatens your very existence and challenges your faith that God will continue to protect his people. It causes you to question at the deepest level: ‘Will God preserve us?’
But then, a Jewish priest named Mattathias took a stand, refusing to worship the Greek gods. He and his family fled to the wilderness. And when he died about a year later, his fifth son, also a priest, began to lead a rebellion. That son, Judah—who has the best nickname in the world, Judah the hammer… and how I wish somebody would give me a nickname that amazing… eventually prevailed. The Hebrew word hammer sounds like Macabee—and so this priest, Yehuda HaMakabi, Judas Maccabeus, led a revolt and became a kind of savior of God’s people. The Temple was rescued and, eventually, rededicated with an eight-day celebration still practiced today, known to us as Hanukkah.
Now you might be wondering: ‘Kinney, why have you given us such a long introduction on a Jewish holiday that was like five months ago?’ And that’s a fair question. But I begin here because this is where our Gospel reading began. Jesus walked into the Temple grounds, during the Feast of the Dedication—Hanukkah—and was confronted with an important question: ‘Are you the Messiah?’ You see, it turns out that Judas Maccabeus was not the Messiah. His victory was temporary. The Jewish people of Jesus’s day were still under Roman occupation. They were still waiting, and wondering: ‘Will God preserve us? Will he send his Messiah to save us?’ And Jesus answers the question with two simple points: ‘First, if you follow me, you have followed God’s Messiah. And second, God will preserve his people. To put it more simply, and here is what I am arguing this morning: God preserves his people, those who follow his Son, Jesus Christ. Let’s take a deeper look at these two ideas.
1. Following the Son
In the first few verses of Jesus’s response, Jesus indicates that if they were to have any hope at all, they would need to believe in and follow him. Verses 25-27:
Jesus answered, ‘I have told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name testify to me; but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep. My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me.
Jesus answers the question like this: ‘Of course I am the Messiah. You want me to say it plainly? I have been doing miraculous works that demonstrate exactly who I am—the Son of God. Your problem is not that I haven’t said that I’m the Messiah. Your problem is that you don’t believe.’ They are startling words, aren’t they? The first, necessary characteristic of God’s people are that they believe. They have faith. Jesus then draws on a metaphor of sheep and shepherding to uncover two more characteristics, referring back to something he said earlier in the same chapter: “I am the good shepherd.”[3] His followers know his voice and they follow him. It leaves no room equivocation. God’s people have faith in Jesus Christ, they know his voice, and they follow him.
I could take an hour to unpack each of those—but don’t worry, I won’t. I’ll simply put it to you like this: Do you believe in Christ Jesus? Do you believe that he is the Messiah that God sent to save his people? Do you really believe? | Do you know his voice? Are you committed to listening to his Word—how God has spoken to the Church throughout the ages? Do you recognize his voice, the work of his Spirit in his Word? And does it make a difference? | Are you following that voice? Or, when it comes down to it, are you going your own way? If I had time here, I’d tell you about my dog, Sheila, who very much knows my voice—but, about half of the time, does not follow when I call.
But, the second question remains. What if we do believe and follow? Will God preserve us?
2. Preserved by the Son
Jesus suggests that safety, the safety that matters most, is found in him. Listen to verses 28-30:
I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. What my Father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father’s hand. The Father and I are one.
Did you hear the repetition? “No one will snatch them out of my hand.” Jesus Christ gives eternal life to those who believe, know his voice, and follow. And nothing in this world, can tear them away from him—out of the hand of God the Father. How, you might be wondering? Well, it goes back up to that previous statement: “I am the good shepherd.” Listen to what follows: “The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”[4] Christ Jesus protects his people; he ensures they live through ultimate sacrifice—like a shepherd saving the lives of his flock by giving his own life. That, brothers and sisters, is thing in which to believe. And if you are here today, unsure of that most fundamental truth of the Christian faith, I invite you to believe. Jesus Christ died and rose again to give his people life abundant and life eternal. That is the thing that makes Jesus worthy to be followed.
And, to the point of this passage, it is an absolute certainty. Augustine called it donum perseverantiae. The later Reformers called it the perseverance of the saints. Now, to be abundantly clear, this is not a guarantee of a comfortable life. As we will see when we return to Luke’s Gospel during Ordinary Time, there is a great cost to following Jesus. It is following in the way of the cross. But the safety that matters—eternal safety, eternal life—is found in Christ Jesus alone. And this should encourage us. In a world where there is a social cost, a cost to reputation and credibility by being identified as a Christian, know that God does not abandon his people. In a world like what the Maccabees faced, like what Sri Lankan Christians faced not so long ago, in a world increasingly violent toward Christians, where being identified with Jesus may mean facing death, know that God gives eternal life. And when this world beats us down, through disease and disaster—when stupid decisions at a personal level or even at a national level feel like they threaten everything we know, everything we find comforting, when we are shaken at our very core—know that God preserves his people.
Conclusion
Let me conclude with a little more history. As many of you know, the last two things that occur in our liturgy are a blessing and a dismissal. That is, the presiding priest gives the final blessing. Then, typically another minister, says something like this: “Go in the peace of Christ.” And the people all respond: “Thanks be to God.” Many have hypothesized—including probably some of you—that we finish this way to thank God that the church service is over and we can finally leave. But this practice is actually quite old—as in almost as old as Christianity. In the first decades the Church, and for fear of violent persecution by Roman authorities, Christians would often hold their meetings in the catacombs. In fact, if you go to Rome, you can still see Christian graffiti in these underground chambers used in the second century. And when the church meeting was over, they ended in a particular way—dismissal first, then blessing. The Deacon would dismiss: ite, missa est (literally: “Go forth, the mass has ended.”) The response was Deo gratias (literally: “Thanks be to God.”). That is, the Deacon would watch and wait for the Roman patrols to pass, so that the Christians could be safely dismissed. And their response: “Thanks be to God.” And then, the presiding priest would give the blessing—sending the Christians into a hostile world, assured that God preserves his people. “The blessing of God Almighty, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, be amongst you, and remain with you always.” So as we go today, let these words be words of assurance to you who believe, know Christ’s voice, and follow him. And may your confidence be that of the first Christians: “Thanks be to God.”
Let me pray. Heavenly Father, give us the certainty that ‘neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from your love in Christ Jesus our Lord.’[5] In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen.
[1] See 2 Maccabees 5:11-14.
[2] See 2 Maccabees 6:1-11.
[3] John 10:11.
[4] John 10:11.
[5] Romans 8:38-39.