John 10:22-42

Over 150 years before the events in today's passage took place, a king named Antiochus Epiphanes (which literally means “God manifest”) led his armies in the occupation and severe persecution of the Jewsish people. If genocide and the order to halt the performance of Jewish rituals wasn’t bad enough, Jewish priests were ordered to sacrifice to idols. A priest named Mattathias Maccabee killed the priest that stepped forward to make this sacrifice and it sparked a revolt.

At the end of the war the Jews reclaimed the temple and dedicated it, re-establishing Yaweh’s dwelling place with them and setting up Jewish rule. This moment is commemorated each year by the Jews as the Feast of dedication or Hanukkah. This is the kind of leader that many jews expected in the messiah. So when Jesus is spending time with the poor and talking about including Gentiles, we can see why this would be alarming to those listening.

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1. What surprised you in the passage? What questions came to mind?

2. Jesus gives assurance for the safety of his sheep because of his relationship to the Father. For his Jewish opponents, this statement was worthy of death, but for Jesus’ followers it was the best kind of hope. Can you see the hope of being claimed by Jesus? What anxiety and fear can you let go of today, knowing that no one will snatch you from his hand?

3. Jesus’ words here are incredibly controversial. Twice in this story his opponents try to kill him. He is claiming to be both Israel’s true King and the embodiment of their God. How might these claims be hard for even us to hear? Where is there dissonance? Where is there comfort?

Ask the Spirit to meet you in whatever feelings come up for you--to bring clarity, hope, and peace.

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