Sermon Tone Analysis
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This story gets interesting when we pay attention to the surroundings in which Jesus tells it.
Jesus is attending a festival.
The Jewish religion has several festival gatherings.
In fact, a few weeks back when we looked at the context surrounding Jesus saying “I am the light of the world” we noted that we said those words underneath the temple torches during the feast of Tabernacles.
And here a few chapters later, John gives us another scene in which Jesus is gathered with others attending a Jewish festival.
This time it is the feast of dedication; we pick up that detail a little further down in verse 22.
The Feast of Dedication and a messy revolution
dedication = Hanukkah
The feast of dedication is not a festival that came from the Old Testament.
It is a Jewish festival that had its origins in that time between the Old Testament and the New Testament.
Verse 22 tells us that the feast of dedication was celebrated during the winter; and it is still celebrated during the winter by Jewish people.
The Hebrew word for dedication is Hanukkah.
rebellion of the Maccabees
Let me say a few things about the origins of Hanukkah.
It is a celebration of the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem.
In the year 200 BC, the Assyrian king known as Antiochus decreed that the Greek religion be recognized in the territory of Palestine.
This meant that the Temple in Jerusalem was now decreed by the Assyrians as a temple which also recognized the Greek god Zeus.
In the year 162 BC, a family of Jewish warriors led by Judah Maccabee led a revolt against the Assyrians.
The Maccabee revolt was about purifying the land of Judah from the influence of the Greek culture.
It was a bloody revolt using guerilla warfare tactics.
But the Maccabees were ultimately successful in overcoming the Assyrians and removing all references to Zeus and the Greek religious culture from the temple in Jerusalem.
The rededication of the temple is the feast of dedication that is still celebrated in the eight-day holiday of Hanukkah.
historians: revolt of the Maccabees had mixed reaction and partial support among other Jews
And as long-lasting traditions and holidays go, the story of Hanukkah has come to carry a bit of legendary status.
Think of George Washington crossing the Delaware River, or Paul Revere making his famous midnight ride.
Just like those stories are iconic to the American idea of freedom and liberty, the Maccabee rebellion holds that same kind of legendary status for the Jewish people.
But historians will point out that the Maccabee rebellion had a little bit more of a mixed reception during the time in which it took place.
Think maybe more currently to events that perhaps some of us remember; events such as the Vietnam war or the Gulf war.
These were events that did not necessarily receive the celebration and endorsement of every American citizen.
In fact, they had their share of protests and opposition.
Historians point towards that same kind of sentiment in Palestine about the rebellion of the Maccabees.
Not everyone was onboard; not all Israelites were in support of the Maccabee warriors at the time.
There was no clear consensus among all the people at the time.
story of the good shepherd illustrates mixed reaction and partial support among other Jews to the message of Jesus
Why do I bring this up?
Why is this important to the story that Jesus is telling about shepherds and sheep in John 10?
If you look closely at the surrounding passages here to this story you see a very mixed reaction to the actions and teachings of Jesus.
Some people were onboard and all in.
Some people were adamantly opposed to anything Jesus said or did.
Some people simply did not know for sure one way or the other.
There was no clear consensus among all the people at the time.
The good, the bad, and the ugly
uncertainty of people how to respond to Jesus
This mixed reaction and general uncertainty among so many people is the overarching feature running behind the scene in the story Jesus tells about shepherds and sheep.
There was a lot of mixed activity going on around this story.
You see, the point that Jesus would compare himself to a shepherd was not new or unique.
The Old Testament is filled with references to God caring for his people as a shepherd.
The description of the shepherd is what gives this story its powerful force for the time and place Jesus tells it.
It is not just that Jesus portrays himself as a shepherd.
It is that he portrays himself as a good shepherd.
It is the quality of being good that sets Jesus apart from others.
comparison of good shepherd to bad hired workers
Notice how prominently this plays out in the story.
The whole narrative is set up as a comparison between the good shepherd and the bad shepherds, the hired caretakers as Jesus refers to them in the story.
Jesus, who is the good shepherd, lays down his life for the sheep.
The hired workers do not actually care for the sheep at all because they turn and run away at the first sign of trouble.
What’s a sheep to do here?
You’ve got one good shepherd, who knows how many bad hired workers who don’t have the best interests of the sheep in mind, and ugly wolves who come and attack in order to destroy the sheep.
The good, the bad, and the ugly.
Jesus is giving a story that plays on the same kind of mixed conditions that surround the Maccabee rebellion and the celebration of Hanukkah.
The wolves seem obvious enough.
They are predators who are out to destroy the sheep.
And true enough, we live in a world in which there are predators who are out to attack and destroy God’s people.
The Bible reminds us that this is a struggle that extends into the spiritual realm.
Paul writes that our struggle is not only against flesh and blood, but also against the spiritual forces in the heavenly realms.
(Ephesians 6:12) There are places in the world today that mean to do significant harm to the church and to the people of God.
You and I who live in this country perhaps take that for granted.
Missionaries that we support through this church know better.
Paul Mpindi travels in the French Congo to places that are not safe for him to be.
Jesse Rodriguez serves in a very unstable community in Nicaragua.
And, yes, there are those in this country who oppose any expression of religion by people who strive to be followers of God.
threat of bad hired workers is hard to see
It is the hired workers who seem to receive the most attention in comparison to the good shepherd.
This one is a bit trickier to nail down.
You see, the hired workers are supposed to be there to help.
They are supposed to be ones who can be trusted.
They are ones who you wouldn’t think at first glance to be any cause of harm or danger to the sheep.
In fact, just the opposite.
The workers are there because they are supposed to be watching out for the wellbeing of the sheep.
I suppose the sheep themselves have no reason to suspect any threat from the hired workers.
When I was a student at Calvin College I worked part-time for a painter.
We did quite a bit of work in the Heritage Hill neighborhoods here in Grand Rapids.
The boss took extra measure to protect his equipment that would stay onsite till the job was completed.
At the end of every day we would stack and lock up all the ladders with chains and pad locks.
We would even disassemble and do the same thing with any scaffolding we had.
All the other equipment would go back into the utility trailer which he would hook up and take back to shed at the end of every day.
He was that concerned about thieves coming to steal his equipment in the middle of the night.
And for the years that I worked for him, there was never any piece of equipment that got stolen or went missing.
But there was an incident in which his business accountant who worked for him emptied out all of the money from the business bank accounts, skipped town, and went missing.
It turned out that middle-of-the-night strangers were not the threat.
The real threat came from one of his own employees who was supposed to be watching over the business.
it hurts when the place where we are supposed to be able to come and be loved, accepted, and forgiven instead becomes a place of anger, division, and judgement
That hurts.
It hurts when people that we are supposed to be able to trust turn out to be the ones who cause the most harm.
It hurts when we hear news stories about clergy abuse scandals.
It hurts when a friend in the church does something which leaves a wound.
It hurts when the place where we are supposed to be able to come and be loved and accepted and forgiven instead becomes a place of anger, division, and judgement.
Jesus was pointing this story towards the Pharisees and the religious leaders of his own day.
The context around the story makes that rather obvious.
It was those people who cared more about their own status and their own position than about reaching down to the most helpless and most vulnerable.
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