Day 21 - Tuesday, March 14
Title: THE FEAST OF DEDICATION: MORE INTERACTION WITH THE PHARISEES
Scripture: John 10:22–42

Then came the dedication festival at Jerusalem. It was winter-time and Jesus was walking about inside the Temple in Solomon’s cloisters. So the Jews closed in on him and said, “How much longer are you going to keep us in suspense? If you really are Christ, tell us so straight out!”

“I have told you,” replied Jesus, “and you do not believe it. What I have done in my Father’s name is sufficient to prove my claim, but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. My sheep recognise my voice and I know who they are. They follow me and I give them eternal life. They will never die and no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all. And no one can tear anything out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are One.”

Again the Jews reached for stones to stone him to death, but Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good things from the Father—for which of these do you intend to stone me?”

“We’re not going to stone you for any good things,” replied the Jews, “but for blasphemy: because you, who are only a man, are making yourself out to be God.”

“Is it not written in your own Law,” replied Jesus, “‘I have said you are gods’? And if he called these men ‘gods’ to whom the word of God came (and the scripture cannot be broken), can you say to the one whom the Father has consecrated and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’? If I fail to do what my Father does, then do not believe me. But if I do, even though you have no faith in me personally, then believe in the things that I do. Then you may come to know and realise that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.”

And again they tried to arrest him, but he moved out of their reach.

Then Jesus went off again across the Jordan to the place where John had first baptized and there he stayed. A great many people came to him, and said, “John never gave us any sign but all that he said about this man was true.”

And in that place many believed in him.

Poetry & Poet:
“The Voice of God”
by Mary Karr

Ninety percent of what’s wrong with you
could be cured with a hot bath,
says God from the bowels of the subway.
But we want magic, to win
the lottery we never bought a ticket for.
    (Tenderly, the monks chant, embrace
the suffering.) The voice of God does not pander,
    offers no five year plan, no long-term
solution, nary an edict. It is small & fond & local.
    Don’t look for your initials in the geese
honking overhead or to see thru the glass even
    darkly. It says the most obvious crap—
put down that gun, you need a sandwich.

THE FEAST OF DEDICATION: MORE INTERACTION WITH THE PHARISEES

Today’s passage ends at the Jordan River - a symbol of death and resurrection as we remember when Israel passed through. And it gives an explicit reminder of John the Baptist. The one who posed a question to Jesus that was quite similar to the one posed by the Pharisees in today’s passage. “Are you the one?” John asked from prison in Matthew 11. In confusion, frustration, grief, and doubt, we have likely each asked or will ask this question. 

Having identified and baptized Jesus, John’s confusion seems fairly obvious. The Messiah has come. John saw the Spirit descend. He heard the voice of God. Yet John is in prison, while miracle upon miracle occurs outside his walls. He trusts Jesus, but in the back of his mind perhaps he is thinking, “I could use a little encouragement.” Like the sheep that recognize Christ’s voice, John will listen for whatever response will come.

The Pharisees are confused and frustrated as well. Jesus is performing miracles all over. And he comes here to the dedication festival to do what? The festival celebrates the Maccabean Revolt that took place roughly 200 years earlier. The religious oppression the Israelites are facing in John 10 is eerily similar to the oppression that led up to the earlier revolt––a revolt that finally ignited after an idol was placed on the temple altar with a demand to sacrifice to it or die. The Pharisees are not mistaken in their perception of this similarity as a mere three years after Jesus’ death, Roman law would demand a statue of the emperor be placed on the altar and worshiped. “How much longer are you going to keep us in suspense?” they ask. Rise up if you are the Messiah! This is the time and the place to do it. Unlike John, the Pharisees can see acts of power, but they do not recognize the voice of Him who holds all power, and so have no desire to listen. 

Jesus answers the Pharisees by referring to his miraculous actions as “good things.” His language somehow shrinks these miracles down, lumping his non-miraculous encounters alongside them, reminding us of the deeply intimate and relational nature of his redemptive work. The work he does in sharing intellectual, political, and religious banter with a woman is the same work as giving sight to a blind man. As our poem describes, the works of God are indeed “small and fond and local” if we shift our perspective from the marvel of the miracles to the somehow subdued, personal nature of them. 

In both Matthew 11 and John 10 Jesus quotes the prophets. To John he quotes Isaiah 35, “The blind receive sight, the lame walk […] the dead are raised.” To the Pharisees he quotes Psalm 82, “I said you are gods.” A further look at this Psalm explains that the work of the Messiah is to, “Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; [...] rescue the weak and the needy.” To John He names his miracles and to the Pharisees He reveals his care. And in these two answers, we inexplicably link together the humble act of relational care and presence with the glory of the miraculous. 

The conclusion of these encounters bears similarity as well. John is not miraculously freed from prison, and Jesus will not raise an army from this temple. 

The reason for even posing these kinds of questions to Jesus (“Are you the one?”, “How much longer are you going to keep us in suspense?”) is that we experience circumstances that feel wildly out of order as though we and the world are falling apart. Like today’s art installation Neither from Nor Towards, the stones, like our lives, like the temple, are crashing down, dying. We pause during Lent to recognize this. By suspending the stones, time stands still, and we are forced to take pause. 

May we, for a moment, contemplate that these stones are being held as they fall.

The title for today’s art implies that we should not assume the stones are only falling. May we also contemplate that His great miracle will be to hold all our pieces in his care as He personally walks us through death and brings us back together in our fullness on the other side. Indeed, as He holds us, believe when He says that no one can tear anything out of the Father’s hand.

Prayer:
We come to you from our varied circumstances and ask “Are you the one?” in the desperate hope that you can be trusted to hold us in the midst of every death, big or small, that we experience. Hold us in our confusion, anger, and grief. Like the Pharisees, we feel the temptation to ask in demand, “How long will you keep us in suspense?” Keep us from being deaf to your voice. Give us a craving for your presence and care as you lead us as a shepherd to and through the waters.
Amen

Stacie Poston
Adjunct Instructor
Torrey Honors College
Biola University

For more information about the artwork, music, and poetry selected for this day, we have provided resources under the “About” tab located next to the “Devotional” tab