I love this passage from John because I think we finally hear someone ask Jesus the question that we all want to ask him. It says the Jews gathered around Jesus and asked him, how long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly. Isn’t that what we all want to ask him? Jesus if you are the son of God, just make it clear to us. And then, you have to love Jesus’ response, I did tell you, but you did not believe. Now on face value, I have to call into question Jesus’ answer here, because if you read the gospel of John up to this point in chapter 10, you will not find any place where Jesus speaks directly to the crowds and tells them that he is the Christ. There are two places where Jesus states directly that he is the Messiah, but neither time is he speaking to the crowds. The first time Jesus proclaims he is the Messiah it is to the Samaritan women that he meets at the well. John 4:25-26. So when Jesus reveals that he is the Messiah here the only person to hear him is the woman.
The second time Jesus states that he is the Messiah is in a conversation with a blind man that Jesus has just healed. This is from John 9:35-38… now here there are a few other people around when Jesus makes the statement, further down in John 9:40 it says there were some Pharisees who where there, and they obviously heard part of the conversation, but Jesus is not speaking to a large gathering here and it is not clear to us how much those around him actually heard. So there is no record of Jesus making a public statement that he is the Christ, so on face value, what Jesus says here doesn’t seem 100% true, but don’t worry, Jesus does go on to explain his answer.
I did tell you, Jesus said, the miracles I do in my Father’s name speak for me. It is the miracles of Jesus that proclaim He is the Christ. If you stop and think about it, if Jesus had not performed those miracles but just went around and told people point blank that he was the Messiah, no one would have believed him. Anyone can say they are the Messiah, so Jesus doesn’t just say it, he proves it. It is the actions of Jesus, the miracles he performs, that give people the evidence they need believe. For Jesus it has always been his actions that were to speak for him.
When John the Baptist began to have some doubts about Jesus being the Messiah he sent some of his disciples to ask Jesus if he was the one they had been waiting for, and in Matthew 11:4-6 Jesus says, go back and tell John what you have heard and seen. The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. What Jesus tells the disciples of John is the same thing he tells the Jews this day in the Colonnade, my actions speak for me. The miracles I do not only reflect the power and love of God, but they should make it clear to you that the Father and I are one.
So here we have Jesus stating clearly that his actions speak louder than any words possibly could, and his actions prove that he is the Messiah, but notice what this proclamation does, it forces people to either accept Jesus or oppose him. Jesus says, my sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life and they shall never perish. In other words, those who listen and know and follow Jesus, those who are with him, are secure in the hands of God, they have life, but look at what happens to those who oppose him, John 10:31. Those who oppose Jesus are ready to kill him. So we are either with Jesus and have life, or we are against him and on a road that leads to death and it is that choice we all have to make in life.
It was 24 years ago that this reality hit home with me. For the longest time I was somewhat indifferent toward Jesus. I believed in him and knew about him, but then through a whole series of events I came to realize this truth, that with Jesus there is life. When we believe in Jesus as the Messiah and put our whole trust in his grace and power, there is an abundant life for us to live right here and now and there is eternal life to come. With Jesus there is life, but without Jesus there is death. Without Jesus in our lives, without God’s grace working to forgive us and bring us the gift of life, there is simply death. That death may not come for 50, 60 or 70 years, but it will come and it will be complete. In some ways, our faith really is as simple as making this choice, will we accept Jesus or will we oppose him? Will we choose life or will we pick up stones that will lead to death?
I think this was the choice Jesus was giving the people in Solomon’s Colonnade. Look at the day this interaction takes place, it says it was the Feast of the Dedication. The feast of the dedication was the day when Israel celebrated the rededication of the Jewish Temple. In 167 BC, the Roman leader, Antiochus Epiphanes defiled the Jewish Temple by sacrificing a pig on the altar. Two years later, the Jewish leader, Judas Macabbeus regained control of the Temple and when he did he cleaned it out and rededicated it to God. In Jesus time, this cleansing and rededication was seen as God’s last great deliverance of his people. The Temple being restored was a sign of God’s saving power and the feast of the dedication gave people the opportunity to commit themselves once again to God. So it is in the context of people thinking about dedicating themselves to God that Jesus says, I have told you clearly who I am, my actions have proven it to you, and you are either with me or you are against me. It’s as if Jesus is giving the people the same opportunity that Joshua gave God’s people centuries earlier when he called on them to choose that day who they were going to serve.
I don’t know if you remember that story of Joshua, but it was near the end of Joshua’s life and the people if Israel have been settled in the promised land for a while and they have had some good times and some bad times. They had been faithful to God at times, and failed God miserably at times. Joshua knows he is not going to be around much longer and so he calls the people to make a choice. This is from Joshua 24:14-15.
As Jesus is walking through the Colonnade I wonder if he is thinking about this story. You see Jesus knows that he too is getting ready to depart from this world. This story in John takes place just a few weeks before Jesus’ crucifixion so he knows he isn’t going to be around much longer and so he states pretty clearly, my actions prove I am the Christ and if you believe in me and listen to my voice and follow me, you will experience life, and while he doesn’t say it, the other choice seems pretty clearly too. Without me and without the grace and power of God, there is death. I wonder if Jesus sees this as a Joshua moment where he is calling the people to choose who they were going to serve.
As we listen to this story today, we are given our own Joshua moment. Jesus asks us today, as I think he asks us everyday, who are we going to serve? Are we with Jesus, or against him? Will we choose life, or will we walk away from him and pick up the stones that lead to death? Who will we serve, and if we are going to serve Jesus, what will look like? What does it mean to choose Jesus and serve him only? If we just look at what Jesus says here, choosing him means two things; it means hearing his voice and reflecting his life.
Jesus says, my sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. So if we choose Jesus today, the first thing we need to do is listen to his voice, but listening to Jesus isn’t easy and it doesn’t happen instantly. It takes time for a sheep to learn the voice of their shepherd. It takes time for a sheep to recognize, trust and then be willing to follow the voice of their shepherd, but once that relationship is strong, the sheep will follow that voice wherever it goes because it knows it will lead to green pastures and safe and still waters. If we are going listen to Jesus and learn how to trust and follow his voice, it will take time.
Learning to hear the voice of Jesus takes time in prayer where we can silence all the other voices around us and begin to recognize the voice of God. While we may want God to speak in some kind of loud booming voice, the truth is that most often God speaks in quiet whispers. Jesus knew that, which is why he sought out times alone so that he could silence the noise around him and tune into the voice of his father. It takes time in silence and in prayer to be able to recognize the voice of Jesus, but it also takes time reading the words of Jesus and the word of God. God is not going ask us to do something that is not in agreement with his word, so we need to know what he has already said so that when we hear God speak in times of prayer and reflection we can test those words. Choosing Jesus means hearing his voice, but it also means reflecting his life.
Let’s go back to John 10 and look at how Jesus answered the question of the religious leaders. When they ask him if he is the Messiah, Jesus replies, the miracles I do in my Father’s name speak for me. We know Jesus is the Son of God because his actions reflected the life of his Father in heaven. If we are going to choose Jesus, then our lives need to reflect his. When people look at us they need to see Jesus, which is exactly what happened in the life of the early church, when people looked at the followers of Jesus they saw reflected in them the life of Jesus.
In Acts 9:32-42 Peter performs 2 miracles that reflect perfectly two miracles of Jesus. First Peter heals a paralyzed man by telling him to get up and take care of his mat which is almost exactly what Jesus said when he healed a paralyzed man. Jesus said, take up your mat and walk. The two miracles are almost identical; Peter is reflecting the life of Jesus. And then Peter raises a woman from the dead. The woman, Tabitha, had died and was lying in her home with many people gathered around mourning her loss. Peter raises her from the dead by saying Tabitha, get up. Again this is almost identical to the time Jesus raised a young girl. She too was lying in her home with a great crowd gathered around to mourn her loss, Jesus raises the little girl by little girl, get up. Again, the miracle Peter performs is just a reflection of the life of Jesus and as he reflects Jesus life, the people place their faith and trust not in Peter, but in Jesus as the Son of God.
Our lives need to reflect the life of Jesus, but I don’t think this means we are supposed to go forth from here today and heal the sick, restore sight to the blind and raise the dead. By an large, that didn’t happen very often in the book of Acts, but what did happen in the life of the early church, and what has happened throughout history and what needs to happen today is that our lives need to reflect the life of Jesus. Our words, our attitudes and our actions need to reflect the words and attitudes and actions of Jesus. What this means is that like Jesus we need to patient with one another and we need to forgive one another. Like Jesus, we need to look at one another and see only the best. We need to love people so much that like Jesus we are willing to place their needs and their desires before our own. If we will do that, if we will reflect he life of Jesus, people will place their faith and trust not in jus, but in Jesus.
Today may not be a special day like it was when Jesus was walking through Solomon’s Colonnade, but really every time we gather for worship should probably be a Joshua moment for us where we can commit ourselves anew to Christ. Will we choose today to serve Jesus? Will we choose to listen to his voice and reflect his life? Let us choose this day who will we serve, who we will listen to and whose life we will reflect.
