John 10:22-42

Be Still:  Lord, steady my soul to receive you today. Amen.

Read: John 10:22-42

I and my Father are one. (v30)

Encounter: The increasingly fractious Jewish leaders continue to hassle Jesus in the Temple about who he thinks he is. It's now the Feast of Hannukah (dedication) when they celebrate the liberation of the Temple ( BC 167)  from enemy hands by Judas Maccabaeus, their resistance hero. Judas subsequently set himself up as king, and his dynasty lasted a hundred years until the Romans took over, appointing Herod the Great as king; he married into the Maccabaeus family so he could claim to continue the line of 'shepherd-kings' of Israel. At Hannukah the Jews thanked God for the Temple, liberation, and the making of kings. 

And here is Jesus, in the Temple, declaring he is the true shepherd, that all before him were 'thieves and robbers' and he alone will rescue the 'sheep' and give them eternal life because he and the Father are one. God and I are indivisible, he tells them. The authority of Father God is mine too. He has given those who follow me into my care, for ever.

Controversial or what! Most of the Jewish teachers are beside themselves with fury. Blasphemy! Jesus challenges them: Look at the works, the miracles I'm doing. How can you say I'm not God's Son: he in me, I in him. They try to stone him; but his time to lay down his life for the sheep is not yet come. He leaves them to their unbelief.

Apply: Eternal life. I recently 'lost' a much-loved friend, lost to this present life. But she had and has eternal life from Jesus. And so do you and I. What gives us complete confidence in this supreme gift from Jesus? Because he and the Father are one. In putting our trust in Jesus alone, we are bound into their eternal union. Let's live our earthly lives in that truth.

Devote: Thank you, Shepherd-King, Son of God, Lord of Lords, for my eternal life.