Shepherd King

Reassurance comes when the one promising hope is the real deal, and when the person listening believes the promise. In a relationship of trust, one person can give an assurance, and the other can hear it and choose to believe it. We crave a sense of security. None of us like uncertainty and vulnerability, but that comes with the territory of being human. Much of our drive to seek God is our hope to connect with and to rely upon the ultimate good, the power beyond us that can guard and keep us.

The stories of the Gospels reveal of course that different people have different responses to Jesus. His trusting followers are filled with hope in his promises. They see him as the Son of God, backed by the power and security of his heavenly Father. Others are skeptical and do not absorb what Jesus is telling them. They are either looking for something different than what they see in Jesus, having preconceived notions, or they are actively hunting ways to trip him up.

This Sunday we hear a story from John’s Gospel and Jesus is facing obstinate skeptics. Judeans meet up with him in a section of the Temple complex called Solomon’s Porch. Some of them have been saying that Jesus is demon-possessed. Some are saying, “He’s raving mad! Why listen to him?” Others are saying, “I don’t think so; a madman or a demon could not open the eyes of a blind man.” Again, the Judeans surround the Nazarene rabbi and pressure him, “How much longer are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, just say so out loud!” Jesus answers them in this way:

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. 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."  (John 10:25-30)

Three things about this interchange point to the identity and role of Jesus: the place, the occasion, and the message of Jesus. First, the place where they all stopped to challenge each other was the portico or colonnade of Solomon: a special porch. This spot should recall the building of the original Temple, a thousand years before Christ, by King David’s son, King Solomon. What David had hoped and planned for was a house for God, a Temple to the Lord. He could not get that done, but his successor did. The Davidic Kingship, under Solomon, produced a glorious house.

That temple was destroyed in 586 BC by the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar, who exiled many Jews to Babylon. The succeeding power, the Persian king, Cyrus, allowed the Jews to return and supplied materials for building a second temple which was completed in 515 BC. I suppose that the colonnade, Solomon’s portico, was constructed as a tribute to the original Temple. One of the building projects of Herod the Great in the first century BC was to renovate and expand the Temple, but the east wall with Solomon’s Portico was left because it would have been too expensive to re-do. This spot in the temple subtly and symbolically pointed to a long parade of powerful rulers.

Second, consider the occasion of the conversation between Jesus and these questioners recorded in John: the festival of the Dedication. This feast commemorates another historical drama of power. The second temple was attacked and defiled in 168 B.C. by Antiochus Epiphanes, the Greek Hellenistic king, the head of the Syrian Empire. That king’s forces later contended with a rebellion of the Maccabees. The hero of that resistance, Judas Maccabaeus, led a revolt, a remarkable act of courage and religious devotion. The Jewish observance of Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights recalls those events which resulted at the beginning of the Hasmonean Jewish kingdom.

The portico is loaded with symbolic allusions to the first temple, the reigns of David and Solomon, as well as many subsequent movements of power. The festival is a context calling to mind another struggle of God’s people. Finally, consider the message of Jesus himself in this story from John’s Gospel. The Judean questioners want to hear from Jesus plainly on whether he is the Messiah, whether he is the king anointed of God. He says that he has told them already. He answers further in metaphors of shepherd and sheep. The story of the Davidic kingship begins with the shepherd boy, David, the son of Jesse.

The Jerusalem Temple, made with human hands would never have the power to secure permanently the people of God. The Temple, however, which was the physical body of Jesus, that which was destroyed in the Crucifixion and rebuilt in three days as he was resurrected has that power. A relationship with Christ is what secures.

Jesus tells these inquisitors they are not comprehending what he says because only his sheep hear his voice and follow him. He clarifies that he knows his sheep, the ones he gives eternal life. He emphasizes no one will remove these followers out of his hand: The shepherd kingship, he clarifies, is rooted in his connection with the Father—they are one.  No sheep of his will be snatched out of His Father’s hand. This is why we choose to be within the flock of Jesus and to trust in him for security. Therefore, we attune our ears to hear his voice and follow him. The Shepherd who is one with the Father knows his sheep. To hear that voice is to be secure in God’s hands. Fear of being snatched away dissolves, so day by day, we follow.