Text: John 10:22-30
Date: May 11, 2025
Event: Good Shepherd Sunday (The Fourth Sunday of Easter), Year C
John 10:22-30 (EHV)
Then the Festival of Dedication took place in Jerusalem. It was winter, 23and Jesus was walking in the temple area in Solomon’s Colonnade.
24So the Jews gathered around Jesus, asking, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.”
25Jesus answered them, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The works I am doing in my Father’s name testify about me. 26But you do not believe, because you are not my sheep, as I said to you. 27My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. 28I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. 29My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all. No one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. 30I and the Father are one.”
Is Jesus Keeping You in Suspense?
Suspense and tension are powerful storytelling tools. The movie or book that hints that there’s something really, really wrong but doesn’t give you enough information to figure out what that thing is will probably keep you engaged because you want the resolution to that suspense. You want to learn the mystery, the secrets that are hidden beneath the surface. So the minutes of the movie tick by, the pages of the book turn, and you dive into the world.
When God called Abraham to leave his home in Ur and go to the place God would give to his family—the Promised Land—God didn’t actually tell him where he was going. He didn’t give him a city, country, or any other information. He simply told Abraham to head out, and he’d let them know when they arrived. God used that suspense to test and prove Abraham’s faith, not really for God to learn something, but for Abraham himself to learn something about his faith and as a powerful testimony to those who knew what Abraham was doing. I have to imagine that even as Abraham trusted God, the suspense must have left him at least slightly rattled and on edge.
In our Gospel, the Jewish people gathered around Jesus felt that he was keeping them in suspense about something very specific: “If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” The timing of this request (or maybe better, demand) of Jesus is significant. Jesus is in Jerusalem, at the temple, for the Festival of Dedication. In our day, we know this festival better as Hanukkah.
Hanukkah was and is the celebration of the dedication (or, perhaps more accurately, rededication) of the temple after it was polluted by the Greek ruler Antiochus IV a little over 150 years before Jesus was born. There was a revolt against the Greeks led by a Jewish man named Judas Maccabaeus. Under his leadership, the pagan ruler and their disgusting worship was kicked out of Jerusalem and the worship of the true God—as God had commanded—was restored. It was (and continues to be) a significant moment and thus a significant celebration on the Jewish worship calendar.
So, in the context of this festival, the Jewish people gathered around Jesus and asked him if he was the Christ, the promised Messiah. The implication seems to be, “Are you, Jesus, going to be another savior like Judas Maccabeaus? Are you going to do for us today what he did back then? Are you going to get rid of the Romans like he got rid of the Greeks?”
Because this was largely the idea of the Messiah that had been warped at this time. Ignoring most of the context of what God had promised through the prophets in the Old Testament, the leaders and the people could often only focus on the here and now and looking for immediate, physical, earthly relief rather than looking for the greater new thing that God had promised—redemption from hell and the forgiveness of sins.
So, you get a sense for the suspense that the Jewish people felt at Jesus’ actions—or lack of action. “How long are you just going to parade around the countryside preaching, teaching, healing, and even raising the dead? When are you going to get to the real Messiah work? When are you going to rescue our nation from these Gentile oppressors?”
When we’re looking for something from God, when our prayers don’t seem to have answers (or at least, not answers that we’re looking for), perhaps we feel similarly to the Jewish people around Jesus in our Gospel. “Jesus, how long will you keep me in suspense? Are you going to heal that illness in my loved one, or in me? Are you going to provide a way out of these financial hardships? Will you solve the political turmoil in my community or our nation? Will you heal that strained relationship or help with those difficulties in school?”
What’s the common theme running through all of those questions? They’re all about the here and now. And that, on its own, is certainly not wrong. In fact, God is very clear that in our distressful days we should call out to him for help and he will deliver us from that trouble, according to his will (see Psalm 50:15). But are these earthly things, these temporal things, the main thing we’re looking for from Jesus? Are they, perhaps, the only thing we’re looking for from him, at least for right now?
If that’s true (and speaking for myself, I can say that this is often true), we have the same flawed understanding of Jesus’ purpose as the people asking him if he was the Christ at the Festival of Dedication, or as even the disciples did at his ascension, asking if he was going to restore the kingdom to Israel now (see Acts 1:6).
Jesus’ response to this question is telling, not only to what was on the people’s minds, but also Jesus’ goals for his people: Jesus answered them, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The works I am doing in my Father’s name testify about me. But you do not believe, because you are not my sheep, as I said to you. My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all. No one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”
Earlier in John 10 is the main Good Shepherd discourse, where Jesus claims to be the gate for the sheep and the Good Shepherd who tends to their needs. But there, he emphasizes that his work will be primarily seen in laying down his life for the sheep and then taking it back up again (John 10:11, 14-15, 17-18). What we have before us in our Gospel seems to take place after the main discourse, but close enough to it that Jesus is directly referring to it as he calls his people—believers—his sheep. Jesus he says that his sheep know his voice and follow him. And what does Jesus give them first and foremost? Not relief from political turmoil, not a full belly, not a happy life right now. No, Jesus says, “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand.” “Perish” is a stronger word than “die.” “Perish” is not the opposite of life on earth; it’s the opposite of life in heaven. “Perish” is eternal condemnation in hell. Jesus is using the same wording that he used earlier in his ministry when he taught Nicodemus at night, assuring him, “God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him” (John 3:16-17).
When we hear those comforting words of Psalm 23, that the LORD, our Shepherd, leads us to those quiet waters, allows us to graze on those nutritious pastures, cares for us so that we lack nothing, we do well to let the rest of the psalm explain the metaphor. David wrote that by doing this, “He restores my soul. He guides me in path of righteousness for his name’s sake. … Surely goodness and mercy will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the LORD forever” (Psalm 23:3, 6). God is our shepherd through this life, yes, but the ultimate goal is eternal life. It’s not comfort now for a brief time, it’s comfort for eternity. That’s what Jesus came to accomplish, what Jesus came to give, and what his victory means for us. “…not perish, but have eternal life…”
So Jesus is redirecting the crowd at the festival, and you and me along with them, to look beyond the troubles, hardships, and difficulties of this life and see what he has accomplished for us. Those troubles will feel like God has left us, or at least isn’t particularly concerned about this thing that is so important to us right now. Those moments and those heavy situations can feel like we’re living in complete suspense in God’s narrative here; how will any of this turn out?! But God’s concern for you and me is greater than today; his concern for us is for eternity.
Jesus promises that as our Good Shepherd, we sheep are perfectly safe with him, are perfectly safe with the Triune God who is unified in this purpose to save us from our sin and bring us to himself in heaven: I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all. No one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.
I almost wonder if the apostle Paul had these words and promises from Jesus in his mind as he penned those tremendously comforting words at the end of Romans chapter 8 by inspiration of the Holy Spirit: What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will trouble or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? … No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor rulers, neither things present nor things to come, nor powerful forces, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:35, 37–39).
Dear Christian, your Savior has you safe in his hand. Your Shepherd is there by your side, guiding you to those places where you need to be so that you will eventually be in that place where you will always be—before his face forever in the perfection of heaven. Is Jesus keeping you in suspense? Maybe a little bit. But while the suspense you might feel about how this thing or that thing will turn our is real, he has brought clarity to the greatest conflict and greatest need that you gave: your sin is gone, paid for at the cross and proved by his empty tomb—yes, even that sin of being too earthly-focused and not enough eternally-focused. Nothing can pull you out of our Shepherd’s hand.
Rest easy, dear fellow sheep. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Amen.
