Sermon at the Feast of Dedication (Hanukkah).

(John 10:22-42).

This festival was established by Judas of Maccabea on 169 BC, and commemorates the restoration, purifying and rededicating the Temple of Jerusalem, desecrated by Antiochus Epiphanes. This festival is celebrated annually over an eight-day period, commencing mid-December. Being cold, the Lord moved around the enclosed gallery within the Temple. Here, He was surrounded by the Jews asking Him: “How long do you keep us in doubt? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.” The Lord was unable to respond “plainly,” because they associated the word “Messiah” with the false representation of an earthly, leader of people, who is supposed to liberate them from the Roman rule.

The Lord answers the question judiciously: He points to His past witness of Himself, on His works and on His relationship to His Heavenly Father. From all this, they should have realized a long time ago that He is the Messiah, although not in the same sense that they imagined. The reason why they don’t understand this is because they “are not of My sheep” and “do not hear His voice.” Remembering about His sheep, the Lord pronounces the promise of the gift of eternal life: nobody will be able to abduct them from Him, because “I and My Father are one.” There could be no clearer testimony of Christ’s Divinity than these words.

When the Jews picked up stones to stone the Lord as a blasphemer, He disarmed them with a succinct question: “Many good works I have shown you from My Father. For which of those works do you stone Me?” The unexpectedness of the question confused the Jews, and showed that against their will, they inwardly acknowledged the greatness of the Lord’s miracles. That’s why they released the stones and tried to justify their actions, by stating that they didn’t want to stone Him for His good works, but for His “blasphemy.” In response, the Lord refers to the 81^st. Psalm, where people called to hold court and protect the weak from the infringements of the powerful, were titled “gods” — naturally, not in a personal sense.

In citing excerpts from this Psalm, the Lord is seemingly saying: “you cannot accuse the Psalmist of blasphemy; if he called those that were worthy of having Divine authority, “gods,” then how can you accuse Me of blasphemy — One Who has named Himself the Son of God and having performed works that only God alone can do?” The Lord continued: “You could have disbelieved Me had I not performed works that are peculiar to God alone. However, because I performed these works, you must understand that I and the Father — are One, “Father is in Me, and I in Him.” Once again, the Jews attempted to seize the Lord, “but He escaped out of their hands” — left so that nobody dared to touch Him, and traveled beyond Jordan to Perea. Here, many who had heard about Him from John’s sermons and convinced in their genuineness, believed in Him.