One with Christ

One with Christ
(John 10:22-30)

Introduction

It is still the Easter Season on the Church calendar, but this morning the recommended Scripture takes a leap backwards, back to December, back to the Festival of the Dedication, also called the Festival of Lights, a joyous time on the Jewish calendar. It’s still celebrated today in nearly every Jewish home. You know it as Hanukkah. Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights.

A little background that everyone in the first century knew and when we know helps our understanding of some of the more difficult passages in the Bible. We’ve mentioned it in passing before.

The first century world was immersed in a Greek culture and they had been for hundreds of years beginning with the conquests of Alexander the Great in about 330 bc. After the death of Alexander, the known world was controlled by three dynasties: One based in Macedonia that controlled much of the Northern Mediterranean; another based in Egypt that controlled northern Africa, and a third based in Syria that controlled the near east, Persia and Mesopotamia. In essence the Greek culture was spread from Italy to India and from Macedonia to Egypt. And of course that included Palestine.

Israel had fought hard for a thousand years to maintain its religion and culture in the face of Egyptian Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, and now Greek domination. Had they not succeeded, we would probably not be here. We might be worshiping Zeus until God came up with another plan.

In the second century bc, the Greeks had had enough. They were going to put an end to this upstart Jewish culture and religion once and for all. A very egocentric ruler Antiochus Epiphanes (Epiphanes means god manifest if that will give you an idea of his character), Antiochus Epiphanes came to power in 175 bc in Syria. It wasn’t enough that the culture was trickling into Palestine’s, Antiochus Epiphanes wanted to destroy and outlaw everything Jewish. In 170 bc Epiphanes invaded Jerusalem. Scrolls were destroyed, circumcision was outlawed. Mothers who had their babies circumcised were executed with their babies hanging around their necks for all to see. Gymnasiums and baths were built. These were to be center of culture rather than the Temple. As many as 80,000 were killed and persecutions were horrid.

But the crowning blow came in 167 bc when the Greeks entered the Temple, stripped it of gold and silver, made it a Temple to Zeus, and then on the 25^th day of the month of Chislev, essentially the month of December, they performed a desolating sacrilege (using the words of Jesus) by offering a swine, a pig on the altar of the Temple.

Now there was a Priest named Mattathias who had five sons, all heroes, the oldest named Judas Maccabeus fought back against great odds. It was an epic fight for freedom. Three and a half years from the time the Temple was violated, three years to the day that the desolating sacrilege, the offering of the swine had taken place, Judas Maccabeus had recaptured and cleansed the Temple, and re-lit the candles, the lights of the Temple, thus the Festival of Lights, and offered a sacrifice on a re-consecrated altar.

Three and a half years was a time told in the book of Daniel, and it appears in the book of the Revelation. How long will this last? When will I know? Is this persecution to last forever? The answer is a limited time, three and a half years and it is a message of hope. Suffering will not last. God will deliver us. Joy will come in the morning.

The Temple was cleansed, the lights re-lit and there was a joyous celebration, the apocryphal book, 1 Maccabees, says with songs, harps, lutes and cymbals for eight days. It was a time of great joy and Israel decided that it would be celebrated every year at this same time in perpetuity. And so it is. Suffering will never have the last word. Persecution will never last. God promises deliverance. God gives us hope. God promises joy. And we celebrate.

But during this Festival of Dedication, John tells us it was winter. I think John was telling us there was a chill in the air. There was pall over the celebration because the Jews were trying to destroy the Lord of Life. At the time of this Festival of lights, the Jews were trying to snuff out the Light of the World. The Jews. The Jews in the parlance of John were the Pharisees and others that opposed Jesus. It was they who were trying to extinguish the Light of Life.

Body

Our passage today is from John, chapter 10. In chapter 8, Jesus had said, “I am the Light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (8:12) But by the end of chapter 8, the Jews were trying to stone Jesus.

In chapter 9, Jesus restores sight to the man who had been blind from birth. When the Pharisees try to tell the man that Jesus is a sinner, he says, “I know not whether he is a sinner. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, but now I see.” (9:25) By restoring sight to the blind man, Jesus is giving him light. Jesus, the Light of the World. It should be a cause for celebration, but there is a chill in the air. It is winter, and Jesus walks under the cover of the Portico of Solomon to escape the cold winter rains.

In frustration, the Jews gather around him and say, “How long are you going to keep us in suspense. If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.” (10:24) Jesus replies, “I have told you plainly but you do not believe.” But more importantly, he says, “The works I do in my father’s name testify to me.” (10:25) Isaiah had foretold what the Messiah would do. It had to be on the minds of the Pharisees and on the mind of Jesus: “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless shall sing for joy.” (Isaiah 35:5-6) Jesus had healed the lame, given sight to the blind, loosened the tongue of the dumb, restored hearing to the deaf, he had done all of those things. The works that he had done in the father’s name were testimony to him.

Today’s reading in John chapter 10 is right in the middle of the “I am the Good Shepherd” discourse. Jesus, the Good Shepherd, contrasts himself to the thief who comes to steal the sheep, the hired hand who has no stake in the herd and runs at the sign of danger, or the wolves who come to destroy. These come to kill, or steal, or abandon. Jesus is the Good Shepherd who comes that you might have life and it abundantly (10:10). In our passage he says, “I’ve told you [that I am the Messiah], but you do not believe. The works that I do 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 will give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are One.” (v 25-30 NRSV and NASB)

Because they would not believe, the adversaries of Jesus did not belong to his sheep. We believe. We know we need to believe, but they did not. Why not? Why in face of not only his words, but his works which testified to Him? Why did they not believe?

Simply, they had the wrong world view. We sometimes use the word paradigm which is a philosophical framework on which we hang all of our understandings. I think of it as a filter, a lens by which we view the world. We often can’t see outside of that filter or outside of the field of view of that lens. Those things that are outside of our field of view we disregard.

The Jews had been using a paradigm of who the Messiah was to be for 1500 years. For them, the Messiah would be a prophet, yes, of the lineage of David, yes, who would restore the nation to its greatness. They were looking for a warrior who would throw off the shackles of Rome as Judas Maccabeus had thrown off

Jesus had come as a prophet yes, of the lineage of David yes; but not as the warrior David, but as the shepherd David. Not to restore the grandeur of the nation, but to establish the kingdom of God. Not to re-consecrate the Temple, but to be the Temple. Not to renew the sacrifices on the Temple altar, but to be the sacrifice that takes away the sins of all the people. He was outside their paradigm, outside their world view. And He was a threat to them.

And then when he says, “I and the Father are One,” to their ears, within their framework, their paradigm, it was simply blasphemy. The concept of One God in three persons, simply didn’t fit their world view, their paradigm.

We too get stuck in paradigms. Why is it we get so stuck in our paradigms? A story about paradigms that might help. This was told by Frank Koch in the journal “Proceedings,” the magazine of the U. S. Naval Institute:
Two battleships assigned to the training squadron had been at sea on maneuvers in heavy weather for several days. [Koch says he] was serving on the lead battleship and was on watch on the bridge as night fell. The visibility was poor with patchy fog, so the captain remained on the bridge keeping an eye on all the activities.
Shortly after dark, the lookout on the wing of the bridge reported, “Light, bearing on the starboard bow.”
“Is it steady or moving astern?” the captain called out.
Lookout replied, “Steady, Captain,” which meant we were on a dangerous collision course with that ship.
The captain then called to the signalman, “Signal that ship: We are on a collision course, advise you change course 20 degrees.”
Back came the signal, “Advisable for you to change course 20 degrees.”
The captain said, “Send, ‘I’m a captain, change course 20 degrees.” “I’m a seaman second class,” came the reply, “You had better change course 20 degrees.”
By that time the captain was furious, He spat out, “Send, I’m a battleship. Change course 20 degrees.”
Back came the flashing light. “I’m a lighthouse.”
We changed course [Koch says].

In the world view of the Jews, the paradigm of the Jews, the Messiah was to be the battleship, the Messiah was to be like Judas Maccabeus who would throw off the shackles of the earthly oppressor. When Jesus came, He was a light house, the light of the world. The Jews were not about to change course.

In the world view of the Jews, the paradigm of the Jews, the Messiah was to be the battleship, the Messiah was to be like Judas Maccabeus who would throw off the shackles of the earthly oppressor. When Jesus came, He was a light house, the light of the world. The Jews were not about to change course.

Mixing metaphors, they were not of this light house’s flock and His signals were not known to them. Jesus said, “You do not believe me because you do not belong to my sheep.”
Even though Jesus, the shepherd, had taught them his voice, they did not believe him to be their shepherd and they did not respond to him. This shepherd was outside of their paradigm, their worldview. Jesus says, “The sheep hear my voice. I know them and they follow me. My father is greater than all else and no one can snatch them out of my father’s hand. I and the father are One.” (10:27, 29-30) This was a paradigm shift they could not accept.

“I and the Father are One.” Unity. Jesus’ unity with the Father was in his relationship with the Father, one of perfect love of the father and perfect obedience to the Father. Perfect love and perfect obedience are the two pillars of unity. And Christ asks unity for us and of us. In John 17, just a few chapters later, Christ prays to God for us saying, “I ask..on behalf..of those who will believe in me...that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us so that the world may know you sent me.” (17:20-23)

Christ praying that we become one with one another, one with Him and in so doing our oneness, our unity testifies to Christ, that God has sent him. We are to have oneness with Christ so that all the world may know him.

The twin pillars of unity are love and obedience. The manifestation of these pillars of unity are works that testify to Christ. Just as Jesus said, “The works that I do in my Father’s name testify to me.” The works that we do, the works of the Church of Jesus Christ, also testify to Jesus Christ.

First Pillar: We love God by first believing in him and making that belief manifest by the works that we do that testify to Him.

Second Pillar: We secondly obey God and make that manifest also by the works that we do that testify to Jesus Christ.

In so doing we become one with Christ, one with the Church, one with one another. And we give witness to Christ through our works. That is how the story is told. That is how the world may come to know that God has sent him.

Today is “Change the World Sunday.” But for us, I would prefer it to be “Change the World Summer” as we involve others in the community to gather Health Kits, the things we do in Christ’s name, and thereby witness to him that God has sent Him. Being one with Christ and witnessing to him.

Close

One in love that comes through belief, and one in obedience because we hear his voice saying, “My sheep hear my voice and I know them, and they follow me.”

Susannah Wesley, mother and spiritual guide of John Wesley is quoted as saying, “There are two things to do about the gospel: Believe it and behave it.”

Believe it and behave it. In so doing you will have unity with Christ and with one another. So may we all become believers and become behavers, and in so doing, become one in Jesus Christ. Amen.