Today's reading shows some questions regarding who Jesus really is. We'll look at the Festival of Dedication, and what the Jews were really expecting to see in a Messiah. Then we'll see the image of Shepherd. Not what they were looking in a Savior. But maybe we should be... Today’s message is based on John 10:22-30. To read it now, click here.
It’s as close to a rite of passage as we have these days. It’s something every teenager looks forward to. It’s the driver’s license. If you’re an adult, and you already had a driver’s license, you may regret having to go back to renew it. Part of why you hate to go back is the waiting, and sometimes the staff is a little rushed and can get a little short with people who don’t have the right forms, but there might something else that might give cause for anxiety too. It’s the test. And I don’t mean the written, or even the road test. We don’t have to do those when we renew a license. It’s the dreaded eye test. And I’ve heard a few times in just the last week about people struggling with this test. It might be one of the odder quirks of the Department of Motor Vehicles that the eye test is often given last — suggesting that knowing the rules of the road, how to operating a vehicle, and the right paperwork and fees, are all more important than being sure you can see where you are going! For most drivers, the eye exam isn’t a big deal. It takes almost no time at all, and hardly even qualifies as a “test.” But, as you get a little older, or if you’re on some medications that might affect your vision, then it can be a real concern. It’s the one test you can’t study for, the one skill you cannot improve with practice, the one exam over which you have the least control, and it can become the biggest obstacle to renewing your license. Degenerating eyesight, whether because of cataracts, glaucoma, astigmatisms, or just increasing near- or far-sightedness, ends the driving careers of many drivers, especially older adults. In driving, there comes a time when experience and insight in the world won’t help. What is required is vision. The problem with the old adage “what you see is what you get” is that what you see is surprisingly subjective. I learned that in the insurance business when I was trying to get statements from people who witnessed an accident or some kind of damage. If you ask ten different witnesses, all who saw the same thing, you will get ten very different stories of what happened. They eye is an amazing, complex, and very sophisticated organ. But everything the eye sees has to be processed by our minds, and our minds are framed by a lifetime of experiences and expectations. So everything our eyes see is colored, clouded, focused, and framed, by who we are. We probably won’t admit it, but we all have our own shade of rose colored glasses. We all see things and interpret things differently. In our reading this morning, we see Jesus walking around the temple during the Festival of Dedication. He didn’t look like a Messiah. He wasn’t what the Jewish people had imagined. He didn’t fit the picture of a Messiah that the Jewish people had come to expect. So nobody recognized Him as the Messiah. Let me try to give you a little bit of the background behind the Festival of Dedication. At the expense of boring you, I’m going to go all the way back to Daniel. Back in Daniels day, the Babylonians invaded the regions of Judah and Israel. This happens in about 600 BC. By the time the Book of Daniel concludes, the Medes have taken control, within 50-75 years. Several chapters in Daniel talk about King Darius, who was a Mede. Then after Daniel’s time, the Persians come in. Then the Greeks under Alexander the Great take control in the mid-300’s BC. Alexander died in 323 BC, and the kingdom is effectively dividing among his military rulers. It’s not a peaceful division, there are a number of civil wars vying for control. The Seleucid Empire gains control of this region of Judah and Israel, and remains so until nearly 60 BC, when the Romans invade. Under the Seleucids, Antiochus was the Emperor from 175-164 BC. In about 167, While Antiochus was busy trying to extend his empire south into Egypt, there was a major uprising between the Jews, with the more orthodox Jews on one side, and some more Hellenistic Jews, who were heavily influenced by the Greek culture, on the other side. To put a stop to this, Antiochus had come in heavy, invading Jerusalem, and forbidding any religious rituals or sacrifices. He went so far as to set himself up as the god of the Jews, he even sacrificed a pig, to himself, on the holy alter in the temple. Danial prophesied about an abomination of desecration referred to in Scripture, this is what Danial predicted. Judas Maccabee, who had the nickname “Judah the Hammer”, led an orthodox Jewish revolt against Antiochus, driving him out of Jerusalem, and tearing down the desecrated alter in the temple, building a new one, and consecrating it, according to the Jewish Law. This Festival of Dedication was an annual festival that marked this rededication of the temple. The problem is, the Messiah the Jews were looking for was really another Judas Maccabee, someone who would stand up to the foreign power that oppressed them. This mild mannered, incredibly loving, and infinitely patient vision of Jesus wasn’t what they expected, or even what they wanted. He just didn’t look like or talk like the “Judas the Hammer” that they were waiting for. He didn’t talk about running the Romans out of town, which was what every Jew expected the Messiah would do. Instead, he talked about being a “Good Shepherd.” He spoke of self-sacrifice. He likened the faithful to “sheep,” not mighty warriors. Jesus offered protection and presence, not the triumph and glory they really wanted. To the Jews who questioned his identity and challenged him to tell them “plainly” if He was the Messiah, Jesus just didn’t look right or sound right. He just wasn’t what they were expecting. They struggled to see:
How many times have we expected something, maybe even really looked forward to something, but almost missed it because it wasn’t what we expected it to be? Sometimes we can fail our vision tests, too. God works in our midst, doing miracles in our communities, but we miss them, because we don’t expect God to be working there. We don’t expect Him to save motorcyclists, they’re just beyond hope. We don’t expect Him to do a miracle, miracles don’t really exist. We don’t expect God to work the way He does, so we don’t see it when He works. So we question whether He’s even here. We might even question if He’s really real. He doing incredible things in our midst, but we don’t see it. Our vision problems are the same as Jews at this Feast of Dedication. We simply don’t recognize Jesus when He comes to us, because we really don’t expect Him to come the way He does. But we need a Messiah today as much as they did then. We are politically free, but we are bound in so many other ways. We’re bound by economic conditions, the recession of about eight years ago has never really gone away, and it’s hurt about everybody. If you haven’t lost a fortune in your retirement pensions, then you’ve probably had wages or benefits cut. Or you’ve seen increases in expenses that you never expected. Or you were downsized. There are a lot of people who never thought they would have to worry about that, people who can’t find a job at all, let alone anything they’re even remotely experienced in. We’re bound by an economy that is barely crawling. We’re bound by our schedules. Life is so fast, people are so busy. Relationships are suffering because of it. We don’t see the relatives as often as we used to because we’re to busy, or they’re too busy. Or we can’t get the time off. Used to be we made our closest friends serving on committees, whether in the church or in the community, but so many younger people today are too busy to join these committees, and often don’t have the close friends because of it. The church family is so important, but for so many people, Sunday morning is the only time they get to sleep in. Sunday is their only day off. So they don’t go to church. And that church family support structure that can see them through so many hard times is never formed. They’re bound by a way too busy schedule. And as good as we might think we are, we’re all bound by sin by some extent. The sin in us keeps us from often doing what we really want. We’re bound by a sinful condition. We need a Savior. Jesus is that Savior. Can we see that? Do we believe that? Do we know Him? Do we listen to His voice? Do we follow Him? He promises to be our Shepherd. To lead us, to guide us, to care for us, to provide our every need. The Sheep in a flock are totally dependent on their shepherd. Jesus invites us to be a part of His flock, He offers to be our Shepherd. And we so desperately need a Shephard. He invites us to be totally dependent on Him. To be His sheep. If we will do that, no one can snatch us away from Him. The question I have for you this morning is this: Can you do that? Can you be His sheep? Can you let Him be your Messiah?
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
April 2023
Categories
All
|