[Acts 9:36-43; Jn. 10:22-30]
Peace to all of you who are in Christ. Amen.
So, this is our scene:
It’s winter in Jerusalem, and it can get cold there, even snow a little in the hillside. It’s the period of the Festival of Dedication or Festival of Lights (khanukah), a Jewish celebration marking triumph over foreign invaders and occupiers centuries earlier.
Jesus is walking in the Portico of Solomon, on the eastern side of the Temple… He is walking in His Father’s house. And something very peculiar… Jesus seems to be on His own, there is no mention of His disciples.
Then ‘the Jews’ corner Him and surround Him.
--We should be careful with this notion of ‘the Jews’ in St John’s Gospel which by no means reflects on the Jewish nation as a whole, not then and not now--
Imagine, though, you’re walking home alone, one winter’s evening, when suddenly you’re being surrounded and questioned relentlessly, perhaps even verbally abused. What do you do? Certainly no try baffling them with subtle theology.
“How long”, Jesus’ assailants demand, “will you keep us in suspense?”; literally the Greek reads: ‘hold our soul’ (tèn phychèn hèmon). “Tell us the plain truth!”.
Jesus keeps his composure and repeats what he has said before, that he is the Good Shepherd.
Now, we could go on for days if not weeks about how interesting our Gospel passage is for theologians; about the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, about Jesus as both God and man; about the councils of the Early Church: Nicaea, Ephesus and Chalcedon; about the implications this text has in our relations with Judaism and Islam.
And of course our passage does reveal something for us about the nature of the relationship between the Father and the Son in the Godhead, but rather than emphasise the doctrinal or technical, we could explore a bit more the inherent ‘intimacy’ this text today seems to carry with it.
This very close relationship, this cooperation if you will, between the Father and the Son is summarised when Jesus states very plainly that he and the Father are one. “I and the Father are one.”, He concludes, or more literally in the Greek: “I and the Father, one we are.” (ego kai ho patros en esmen)
Now, this notion of such a proximity to the divine was unheard off to Jewish religious sensitivities and understandings of God, and had Jesus not escaped, they would have stoned Him to death.
To Jews the one-ness of God doesn’t allow for a ‘mere human’ to intrude on this: “Hear, o Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one.”
Jesus is including himself in that one-ness and some of those questioning him must have torn the hairs right out of their beards: such blasphemy!
To us as Christians however, this intense bond between the Father and the Son goes deeper than doctrinal statements of faith; they are a model for our own relations to God.
Jesus literally says that he knows us, just like he knows His Father! We are by no means strangers to God and neither should he be a stranger to us!
When we look at Jesus we see God the Creator of all, and when Jesus is looking at us, the divine is looking right back at us.
The result of this ‘intimacy’ can only be an eternal life in the Resurrection!
That’s why the story of the Book of Acts today ties in so wonderfully, because the story of Peter and Tabitha/Dorcas obviously mirrors the events of Jesus himself with Lazarus in John chapter 11, the passage following our text today, and that of Talitha kumi in Mark chapter 5: they’re Resurrection stories!
The promise of eternal life when we follow the risen Lord isn’t one of arrogance or of self-righteousness, but one of the plain truth that because the Father knows the Son
–intimately and closely- and the Son knows us –intimately and closely- we too may know the Father in the same way.
Jesus takes this task, this responsibility ‘greater than all these’ entrusted to him by the Father very seriously.
Jesus knows that the Father blesses and testifies to this mission and to the works; His opponents are just too stubborn to believe it.
How do we then respond to this amazing promise? How do we reply to this wonderful call to eternity, of an existence beyond time in the presence of the divine?
Often like bleating sheep, truth be told.
Treading along with the other masses, just like mindless sheep.
But what if we were to listen more carefully and listen out for that one calm voice amidst a screaming nervous crowd?
What if we were to look out for that one man, seemingly surrounded, and yet perfectly in control and powerful in his humble way?
What would happen if we were to say ‘yes’ to Jesus’ call to all his sheep, his children, his followers, and enter into that relationship offered to us, that same relationship the Father has with his beloved Son?
What if as followers of the Shepherd we are also called to witness to this ‘intimacy’, this closeness from and with God: in prayer, in worship, in fellowship with others.
If the Father testifies of the Son, we ourselves are called to testify of the Son in return.
Jesus is calling all us to be his sheep; not that that means we should be a bunch of mindless, submissive creatures, but that we should accept that as far as God is concerned we are all equal and equally important, and he is our Good Shepherd, we don’t shepherd ourselves.
Jesus is calling out to us, not screaming or commanding, but in an intimate, ‘knowing’, manner, calling out for us to believe and follow Him, through a life close to him and close to the Father, close to others, all the way to an eternal life of Resurrection.
May mercy, peace, and love be yours in abundance. Amen.