Morning Prayer 26th March

John 10:22-end (Click here for the text)

These passages from John 8 through to the end of Chapter 10 are set at the time of Hanukkah the festival of dedication and lights, which in its original Jewish context celebrated the reconsecration of the temple after the Syrians desecrated it. The passages are about spiritual blindness being defined by an ability to see Jesus as the true revelation of God and of not hearing his teaching as the revelation of God's mind to us. Those without this illumination are still in darkness and have not seen what is before them. In the passages, 'the Jews' personify those who cannot accept Jesus and Jesus' own 'sheep' are those that hear and see. The temple becomes a symbol of what is to be replaced by Jesus. The irony that Jesus is in the midst of that which is a mere shadow of Him and yet is not recognised is painfully obvious.

The irony is made absolutely clear and the choice to believes in Jesus is further forced as Jesus makes very clear statements about who he is. 'I and the Father are one'; 'I am in the Father and the Father is in me'; 'I am God's Son'. These are the sort of statements that demand a response. If these statements are not true then Jesus is indeed blaspheming and making himself equal to God when he isn't. But if they are true then Jesus is revealing is God.

John is primarily concerned with the person of Jesus - who He is. He is taking for granted that what he teaches is known from other sources. The question he keeps placing before us is - who is Jesus?