Eastertide
May 7, 2022
Scripture Reading: John 10:22-30
At that time the festival of the Dedication took place in Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the portico of Solomon. 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.’ 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.’
During our spring session, my Bible study group studied the Apocrypha*, which we discovered most of us had barely even read. Though it was not canonized in the Hebrew Bible, it fills a gap of understanding between the exile and the coming of Jesus, who had read at least some of the Apocrypha even quoting it.
The Feast of Dedication mentioned in the scripture above is another name for Hanukkah, an eight-day Jewish festival that commemorates the rededication of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem in the 2nd-century BCE. It is a happy celebration of God’s care for God’s people when their situation seemed hopeless. I thought of that today as I watched a few people being rescued from the Mariupol steel plant in Ukraine. Still, others remain.
I also heard on the news that the cost of bread around the world will go up because Ukraine and Russia are primary providers of the grains needed to make bread. Neither country can to the degree necessary farm and fight a war simultaneously.
I do not think Jesus was just talking about the Jews present when he answered the question of whether he was the Messiah, and he said he had already told them. I think he is talking to all of us today telling us that we need to get our act together and become one, not just in our houses of worship but all people worldwide are called to be One, assuring that no one’s bread bin is ever empty.
Prayer: Lord, forgive us for not recognizing that your abundance is for everyone. Amen.
*We used the book The Apocrypha by David A. deSilva
All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.