Tell Us Please, Are You the Messiah? —Lectionary Reflection for Easter 3C (John 10:22-30)

 

John 10:22-30 New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

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 My Father, in regard to what he has given me, is greater than all, and no one can snatch them out of the Father’s hand. ³⁰ The Father and I are one.”

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                The Fourth Sunday of Easter is traditionally known as Good Shepherd Sunday. It’s a good Sunday to tap into all the shepherding hymns. Of course, one must also take note of Psalm 23. The imagery is powerful because it speaks of God’s oversight and concern for creation, for “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want…” The Gospel reading for the day, as designated by the Revised Common Lectionary, takes us back to Jesus’ pre-Easter ministry. The message here is that he is a shepherd and his sheep know his voice. In other words, they won’t heed other voices, such as those of his opponents.

                The focus of this reading is on questions raised by the religious leaders (“the Jews”) about his call to ministry. Contextually, Jesus is visiting Jerusalem for the Feast of Dedication or Hanukkah.  This visit to Jerusalem serves as a reminder that Jesus visits Jerusalem more often in John than in the Synoptics, such that our traditional vision of Jesus having a three-year ministry is based on John’s portrait of Jesus’ visits to Jerusalem.

The reading begins with Jesus walking in the Temple, and more specifically, Solomon’s Portico. As he is strolling through the Temple precincts, “the Jews” surround him. I have designated “the Jews” here as the religious leaders, but there are questions about who this group is. It is always important when reading John’s Gospel to take note of his depiction of “the Jews.”

                The phrase “the Jews” (hoi Ioudaioi) is found seventy-one times in the Gospel of John. It is not used in the same way in every case, but there are enough passages where the phrase creates problems that we need to take note of them, since John doesn’t speak of Jesus’ opponents being the Sadducees, Pharisees, and Herodians, like with the Synoptics, but “the Jews.”  In this passage, “the Jews” refers to Jesus’ opponents. For a full discussion of John’s usage of “the Jews,” I suggest taking a look at Marianne Meye Thompson’s commentary on the Gospel of John, “Excursus 7.” In summation, she writes:

The use of “the Jews” in the Gospel of John suggests a time and situation removed from that of Jesus himself. John’s Gospel stresses that which has come to fullness in Jesus and does so by relating him and his followers to his Jewish identity. If Jesus’ followers are no longer called hoi Ioudaioi, they are nevertheless connected to them because they are connected to Jesus, a Jew (4: 9) and King of the Jews (19: 21). Jesus is the pivot on which the narrative turns: those among “his own” (1: 11), hoi Ioudaioi, may be ushered into the hour of fullness through Jesus; those who do not come from among hoi Ioudaioi are nevertheless connected to Israel’s heritage through Jesus.  [Thompson, Marianne Meye. John (New Testament Library) (Kindle p. 204). WJK Books. 

Whoever John envisions this group of  “Jews” to be, in this case, they seek a clear word from Jesus as to his messianic pretensions.

                This group of inquirers asks him how long Jesus will keep them in suspense. So, “if you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.” Jesus answered: “I have told you, and you do not believe.” In other words, why do you keep asking when I’ve already told you who I am? Now, we need to add here that Jesus, at least in John’s Gospel, hadn’t publicly revealed himself to be the Messiah, but surely “the works that I do in my Father’s name testify to me.” Which of his works has testified to his messianic status? The most likely candidate is the healing of the man born blind, which was described in the previous chapter (Jn. 9:1-12). But even here, there was nothing in Jewish thought that envisioned the Messiah being a miracle worker. So, perhaps the key element in this answer on Jesus’ part is his message about not being numbered among his sheep. They do not believe because they are not part of his flock. After all, if they were part of his flock, they would understand.

                Jesus tells his interlocutors that “My sheep hear my voice. I know them and they follow me” (Jn. 10:27). This is the reference that the Lectionary creators used to designate this passage for Good Shepherd Sunday. In all, over a three-year period, the readings for Good Shepherd Sunday (the Fourth Sunday of Easter) come from John 10, the chapter in which Jesus reveals himself to be the Good Shepherd. In the reading for Year B (John 10:11-18),  Jesus continues his answer to those questioning his healing of the man born blind. In this passage, Jesus declares that he is the Good Shepherd. Therefore, “I know my own, and my own know me,  just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep.” (Jn. 10:14-15). Thus, what Jesus reveals here is rooted in this earlier revelation. Jesus’ sheep know his voice and follow him.

                Jesus continues his response by letting the questioners know what the benefits of being part of his flock include. The benefit he points to is the gift of eternal life. Members of his flock, the ones under his protection, the ones he will die for, will not die. In fact, no one will snatch his sheep from his hand because they are the gift of God to him, and what God has given to him is greater than everything else. Obviously, his questioners are not part of the flock. Therefore, they will not receive this gift. At least that’s the implication. When it comes to this promise Jesus makes with the sheep, N.T. Wright has a helpful word:

Christian confidence about the future beyond death, in other words, is not a matter of wishful thinking, a vague general hope, or a temperamental inclination to assume things will turn out all right. It is built firmly on nothing less than the union of Jesus with the father—one of the main themes of this whole gospel. It is interesting to observe that where, in Christian thinking, people have become unclear on Jesus’ close relation to the father, they have often become unclear also on the certainty of Christian hope, and vice versa. [Wright, N. T.. New Testament for Everyone Complete Eighteen-Volume Set (Kindle p. 1377). WJK Books].

The promise of eternal life is rooted in the union that exists between Father and Son.

                This promise leads us to this revealing word that has driven theological conversation for millennia. John’s Jesus declares, “The Father and I are one.” So, what does that mean? Are we talking in Trinitarian terms, such that the Father and Son share the same essence (homoousious)? Or, are we talking about the unity of purpose between God and God’s agent? While the latter is more likely, the former speaks to later Christological developments. Sergius Bulgakov, affirming the Trinitarian dimensions of this statement, writes:

The Son’s divine consciousness is therefore mediated by the knowledge of the Father being revealed in Him, that is, by divine knowledge. That is the most fundamental fact presented to us by the Fourth Gospel. Having become flesh, having humiliated Himself, the Logos acquires His Divinity only in union with the Father. For Him, the Divine Sonhood is the act of consciousness of self that determines all and triumphs over all. All human beings are sons of God, but no human being can be conscious of his divine sonhood in such a manner as to say: “I and my Father are one” (John 10:30). [Bulgakov, The Lamb of God (Kindle p. 279). Eerdmans].

We are all sons (children) of God, but only Jesus can say, “I and my Father are one.” There is a major distinction between Jesus and us in this situation. Of all the Gospels, even the New Testament itself, the Gospel of John is the most revealing when it comes to equating Jesus with God, something Thomas affirmed in John 20. It is also the message of the prologue, where we are told that the Word (Logos), who is God, became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:1-14).