John 10:22-30 Easter 4—Good Shepherd Sunday
Pastor Ron Koehler
Grace—Tucson, AZ
May 11, 2025
Listen and Trust I’m going to ask you to forget the dry heat of these last several days and ignore that we are very close to the triple-digit days of summer and instead picture a cooler December day—maybe not yet 50 degrees with even a light drizzling rain—as you make your way to the temple, walking through the big courtyard and finding cover under that long, wide, high-columned porch running along the interior of the courtyard—not the one called the Royal Portico where the Sanhedrin, the Jewish ruling council, met and perhaps the place where Jesus overturned the tables of the money-changers and those selling animals for sacrifice—but the one across the 35-acre Court of the Gentiles—the one called Solomon’s Colonnade. You’re there with others to celebrate Hanukkah…maybe even to hear Jesus teach, as he is likely to talk about God restoring Jewish worship in the Temple after it had been halted by Syrian oppressors and even replaced by worship of Zeus. This Feast of Dedication, which we know as Hanukkah, was a big holiday and happy occasion celebrated every year. So, there you are, and as you pull your outer cloak a little more tightly to your body and step up and in between the columns and under the roof...there’s Jesus. You expected to find him there. And a crowd is gathered around him. Also, not unusual. There always seems to be a crowd around him. “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” It’s not just that guy; others are chiming in saying the same things. They’re so aggressive. And they have him blocked in, surrounded. Wait, I recognize some of them. Some are the same men who challenged him right here just a couple months ago at the Festival of Booths! Yeah, they said he was a crazy man! Some of them even said he was possessed by a demon! You inch a little closer because Jesus is about to respond. “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The works I am doing in my Father’s name testify about me. But you do not believe, because you are not my sheep, as I said to you. 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. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all. No one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”