Jesus At Chanukah, Season Of Miracles

(John10:22-40)

JESUS AT CHANUKAH

Jesus was in Jerusalem during Chanukah, the Festival of Light and Season of Miracles. He was walking in Solomon’s Colonnade, an open area of white stone columns bordering the Temple’s vast Court of the Gentiles. This porch was part of the original Temple, built by King Solomon 1,000 years before.

Chanukah means Dedication. The festival marks the rededication of the Temple in the 160s BCE, following a successful revolt by the Jews against the occupying Syrian Greeks.  

SEASON OF MIRACLES

The enemy had ransacked the Temple and the ner tamid— the eternal light— had been snuffed out. The victorious Maccabean Jews needed to rekindle the flame and sanctify all the oil that had been spilt. There was only enough holy oil for the light to burn for one day. But it would take seven days to prepare more.

That was when the miracle happened.

The Jews lit the ner tamid anyway and that wonderful little flame burned brightly a full seven days, until more holy oil was ready.

Chanukah begins on 15^th of Kislev in the Jewish calendar, which usually falls in December. Being at the top of a mountain, Jerusalem, can be really cold at that time.

I am sure that Jesus drew his robe around himself, seeking warmth on that chilly day.  

MESSIAH

Some of his opponents— Jews from the Sanhedrin and their associates— approached him and accused him of toying with them. “Why are you keeping us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, then say so.”

Jesus knew that, regardless of his response, they would be set against him. “My sheep hear my voice. I recognize them and they me.”

This angered them. He was claiming to be God here. In Psalm 23, written by their great hero, King David, once a shepherd himself, it says The Lord is my Shepherd.  

Jesus continued, “They know who I am through the miracles I perform in my Father’s name.”

Miracles were at the forefront of their minds during Chanukah, when every Jew was kindling lights every evening for a week, to mark God’s miracle of the ner tamid that had burned for so long without oil.

“No one can deter my sheep from following my Father: I and the Father are one.”

To their minds, this was blasphemy. Jesus was claiming to be one with God!

“You don’t believe because you are not my sheep.”

INTENT UPON STONING

Enraged, they armed themselves with stones, ready to kill him.

He turned to them.  “For which of the miracles that the Father did through me would you stone me?”

“Not for any miracle,” they yelled, “but for your blasphemy in claiming to be God. You’re just a man.”

Jesus’ reply quoted from Psalm 82:6: “I have said you are gods.”  

These words of God are a reminder that man and woman are made in His own image and likeness and empowered by Him to rule over everything in the world, (Gen.1:26-28).

NO BLASPHEMY

“If you accept God’s Word,” Jesus continued, “then there can be no blasphemy in my claiming to be God’s son. When I perform miracles that echo those of the Father,” (like making the light of the ner tamid continue to burn,) “you should believe, but you don’t. You can’t understand how the Father can be in me and I in the Father.”

They tried to grab him, but he slipped through them, just as he did when a mob in Nazareth had tried to throw him off a cliff.

In the face of such opposition, Jesus and his followers left Jerusalem. They went down to the banks of the Jordan River, where John the Baptist, now dead, had baptized Jesus. John had called Jesus, “The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.”

He was both sacrificial Lamb and Shepherd.