Acts 9:36-43 and John 10:22-30 Sunday 8 May Easter 4
Truth. Certainty. We put a high price on knowing the truth and being certain about so many things, in practical as well as in spiritual ways.
We come to worship Sunday by Sunday or we worship at home. There are big questions we sometimes allow ourselves to ask, questions of life and death.
Questions like `how can we be sure that Jesus is who he says he is?` `How can we be sure that when we face death we will inherit life for ever with God?`
Our Gospel reading gives the account of Jesus` opponents meeting him as they gather in the Temple grounds in Jerusalem for the festival of Hannukah. It is an ideal opportunity to ask Jesus who he really is, to seek truth and know certainty. Here is their question:`If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.`
Jesus challenges them to look at the evidence for who he is. He encourages us to do the same.
The first pointers which tell us who Jesus is are the miracles he performed. Verse 25: `the works I do in my Father`s name testify about me`. Jesus` questioners had ample opportunity to see the miracles Jesus performed, miracles with no other explanation than that they were enabled by God himself. The Resurrection would be the final miracle after his death and before all the miracles listed in the book of Acts.
The second way in which the claims of Jesus are validated is in the changed lives of his followers. Verse 27: `My sheep listen to my voice; I know them and they follow me.` Someone once said that Christ`s sheep are marked in the ear and in the foot: they listen to his voice and they follow him Perhaps the religious leaders didn`t question in depth the apostles and those touched by the healing miracles. But the changed lives were there. We think of the apostles changed from frightened men on the run to people empowered to proclaim the good news of the resurrection. The raising from the dead of Tabitha, Dorcas, in our Epistle reading from Acts chapter 9 is just one account of a life and a community changed. You and I can speak of God`s faithfulness in or own lives and in the lives of others committed to Christ, lives empowered by the Holy Spirit.
Thirdly, when Jesus spoke, there was the ring of truth. His teaching validated who he was. The religious leaders would begin their discourses: `as rabbi so and so has written`. But Jesus spoke truth he had received from his Father directly. There was that ring of truth, pointing beyond himself to his Father. He puts it clearly in verse 30: `I and the Father are one`.
Here are some more hints: Verses 27 to 30: `My sheep listen to my voice; I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life and they shall never perish: no one can snatch them out of my Father`s hand.` Here is an amazing truth, the cornerstone of our worship: v.28: `I give them eternal life and they shall never perish.`
Jesus` questioners merely had to look at the evidence. But there is a condition. Verse 26: `you do not believe because you are not my sheep`. For us wayward sheep the promise is certain: verse 29: `no-one can snatch them out of my Father`s hand.` But we need to want to know God. Here are his words in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 7:7): `ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.`
It may be that we have never asked Jesus to reveal himself to us, to confirm the truth which we see in the Gospels. Perhaps today is the day we do so as we come to receive God`s blessing in bread and wine.
To each of us comes repeated his promise, utterly to be trusted: `I give them eternal life, and they shall 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.`
(Revd.) Pat Hopkins