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Scripture for Sunday, September 24: John 10:22-39
(focusing especially on verses 22-30)
Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 35 & 36
We are in week three of our series on the Heidelberg Catechism's teachings on the Apostles' Creed.
The first two weeks we considered the first line of the Apostles' Creed: "I believe in God the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth." We thought about God's care for his creation and creatures, and about his role in the events of human history.
This week we turn to the second line of the Creed, to the person of Jesus: "I believe in Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary...."
For Christians today, the idea that God took humanity to himself in the person of Jesus is everything--an absolute essential of our faith. It's a cause for great joy and thankfulness, and something that--if we're honest--we can take for granted because it is so familiar. By now it is not "news."
But for the Jewish leaders of Jesus' time, Jesus' claim to be God in-the-flesh was brand new. And not only that, it was blasphemous. Join us on Sunday as Rev. Hoogeboom helps us recognize Jesus for who he is--the image of the invisible God (Col. 1:15).
Seeing Jesus
John 10:22 places us with Jesus at the temple during the Feast of Dedication, or Hanukkah. Hanukkah is a Hebrew word that means "dedication." The Greek term for Hanukkah means "renewal."
This is a time when God's people would remember and praise him for establishing his presence among them--first in the Tabernacle; later in Solomon's Temple; and after that in the second temple, built under Ezra after some of the people of Israel returned from exile. The Feast of Dedication marked a time when the hearts of God's people were turned toward him in worship.
And so it is that at a time set apart for "dedication" Jesus enters the temple courts to find open conflict. It seems that sometimes "renewal" comes with pain.
Jesus' adversaries badger him, telling him to stop stringing them along. "Why are you keeping us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly."
"I did tell you," Jesus responds. "But you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name testify about me, but you do not believe because you are not my sheep.... I and the Father are one."
The Jewish leaders of John 10 expect to recognize God's Messiah by his works. They expect he'll do the kinds of things they do: worship in the temple as they do, keep the festivals as they do, claim ancestry from Abraham as they do, observe the Old Testament law as they do.
But Jesus' coming turns the Jews' expectations upside-down. No longer do God's people belong to him through Abraham's human family; they belong to God by being "born again" through the Spirit. No longer is the debate about proper worship of God solved by a direction to the Jerusalem temple; it's solved by a direction to Jesus AS the temple, the place where God's presence is known on earth.
And not only that. God's Messiah doesn't serve to announce God's reign or a political rescuer from the Romans, God's Messiah is God himself, taking on "a truly human nature...like his brothers and sisters in every way except for sin." (Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 35).
This oneness between Jesus and the "one God" of Deuteronomy 6:4 is mind-boggling for the Jewish leaders. It is Jesus' claim of oneness with the Father that brings the Jews' indignation to the boiling point.
Incarnation is not something they expected. But it is the very thing that will bring about the renewal they so desperately need.
Questions for Reflection or Discussion
1. From the Sermon: How and when have you recognized Jesus' work--a hallmark of his oneness with the Father--in your own life? How has he worked in ways you expected? In ways that surprise you?
2. On recognizing Jesus: Read Luke 24:13-35. What do you notice about how the disciples came to recognize the risen Jesus?
3. On why the Incarnation matters: Read Exodus 33:12-23. What is the implication of seeing God's face? Now read Hebrews 1:1-4. What difference does the Incarnation make for our ability to see God?
4. St. Anselm of Canterbury was an archbishop in the 11th century who wrote about why it was necessary for God to become human. Anselm argued that no one but God could save humanity; but only human beings should pay the debt for sin. God's solution was to send his Son:
"God
will not do it, because he has no debt to pay; and man will not do it, because
he cannot. Therefore, in order that the God-man may perform this, it is
necessary that the same being should be perfect God and perfect man, in order
to make this atonement. For he cannot and ought not to do it, unless he be very
God and very man" (Book 7 of Cur Deus Homo).
Does Anselm's reasoning persuade you that the Incarnation was necessary? How would you talk about this argument with someone who was considering Christianity and found this doctrine hard to swallow?
5. What difference does it make in your day-to-day life that Jesus is like us--his adopted younger brothers and sisters--in every way, except for sin?
