Jesus at The Hanukkah

The light keeps shining in the dark, and darkness has never put it out (John 1:5 CEV).

In a long ago winter, during one Hanukkah*, Jesus was again recorded in the Temple. (He may well have been to many Jerusalem Hanukkah celebrations, as to the other recurring events in his culture.) John here gives us a note of the chronology of Jesus' life. In chapter 7 we see Jesus in Jerusalem even when the climate had become very threatening. He had been there (approximately in October) for the celebration called Booths (Tabernacles). Enmity against Jesus reached a peak with official action being by taken primarily by the elite, "the Jews", and their followers.

The 8 day Hanukkah festival (in our December) may have been more popular and light-hearted ("joy and gladness") than the ones we read about in our Old Testament, such as Passover. That particular Hanukkah there were argumentative conversations, as we shall see. However, although not everyone was happy with what Jesus said, no-one was actually attacked. No blood was shed. Not then. (The final, fateful Passover was a few months away. Then the shepherd would lay down his life for his sheep.)

The passages I am looking at seem all to belong to that (comparatively) brief period. It could be so. Although it is not possible to be completely certain of the chronology, John's indications do "add up". (However, recently I was chatting to a professional, a preacher, who basically seems to discard the witness of John - that simplifies things for that person!) If we start reading from John 8:12 and through John 9, the theme of "light" ties it together.  We read of truth. Of freedom. Of true fatherhood. Of blindness removed, or denied. The text then unexpectedly culminates in the Shepherd and his sheep and the specific mention of the festival. Without that statement the timing would be less clear. The days of that festival also allow time for extended teaching and interactions there in dangerous Judea. Such is found in the other Gospels; such is found in John 8 and John 9!

I am starting here, from John 10, with the specific mention of Hanukkah (Dedication). Only John gives us this marker of time and circumstance. Focussing on John's chapter 10 text, here is part of the talk:

I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father” (John 10: 16-18 NIV).

There are those who listen. There are those who will listen. The listeners have just one shepherd.

Was Jesus saying people could belong to the one flock of God, without joining Judaism? What else could he mean than that - he had sheep in another pen, implying not this one. The flocks would be one because they heard Jesus' voice. No mention of hearing Moses and the Prophets. Jesus is God's final word to us.

The Good Shepherd has one flock. The flock is one. How can there be hatred and harm in the flock?

Here (again) Jesus claimed to have control over his length of days - and that is not like us. We all know that "our days are numbered" and we can but do our best to keep a good quality of life whilst breath remains. Our medical people are motivated to prolong life. We do not have the control, though with "voluntary assisted dying" there is a blurring now. Nonetheless, we can not take up our lives when they have ended. Women and men do generously lay down their lives. I think of those who so remarkably tackled the murderers at Bondi in the cowardly terrorist shootings, 14/12/25. Lives were cut short; the 15 victims so tragically killed can not take their lives up again.

Jesus acknowledged the Father as the source of his authority. He claimed direct authorisation from God. He alone can say such. Would he be believed? How many would trust him? How many do?

Again the Jews were divided because of these words. Many of them were saying, “He has a demon and is out of his mind. Why listen to him?” Others were saying, “These are not the words of one who has a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?”

At that time the Festival of the Dedication took place in Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the portico of Solomon. (John 10:19-23 NRSVUE)

Some considered just what Jesus was saying - his words remained with them. Many were offended or distrustful. Again - see chapters 6 and 7. What created the division? What did they not want to hear? Possibly the idea of one flock, if they thought Jesus indicated a people of God other than Judaism. They may have accepted variations on Jewishness, as seen in their culture at the time, but an alternative was another matter. For them, people were welcome to become Jews and join with God's ancient people. That was the way.

Or, was the aggravation arising from Jesus saying he could take up his life again? Claiming direct authority from God? Who could do such a thing? Was it both?

Some of the crowd, as well as feeling the appeal of his words, were referring to the way Jesus had opened the eyes of the man born blind (see below on John chapter 9). The elite had discounted that event as in any way supporting belief in Jesus.

The people surrounded him and asked, “How long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.”

Jesus replied, “I have already told you, and you don’t believe me. The proof is the work I do in my Father’s name. But you don’t believe me because you are not my sheep. My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them away from me, for my Father has given them to me, and he is more powerful than anyone else.[a] No one can snatch them from the Father’s hand. The Father and I are one.”
Once again the people picked up stones to kill him (John 10:24-31 NLT). Notice it is "once again" that the stones are picked up. Jesus said things that were just unacceptable; things that were outrageous to them as they clung on to their religion, as they understood it. Their comfortable religious confidence was threatened. Their grasp of truth was under question. They did not want Jesus to give them eternal life. They were comfortable as they were.

Lights were part of the Hanukkah festival. Going back now to the prior pages of John's Gospel, Jesus is the Light of the world: When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12 NIV). That fits with the festival - Jesus drew on his culture and the life of the time. "I am the light" - quite a big claim? Some hearers believed, at least to some extent. The conversation went on from there and Jesus made a promise; to some, a promise very, very, unwelcome:

As he was saying these things, many believed in him. Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free” (John 8:30-32 NRSVUE). Taking the speakers (the Jews) as referring to the elite; the religiously respectable; the "good" people, it is not hard to see that would be as unacceptable as it was. The response: “But we are descendants of Abraham,” they said. “We have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean, ‘You will be set free’?” (John 8:33 NLT). For them there was freedom and there was "freedom". They had (they thought) an impeccable status with God. This man could offer them no redemption, for they did not need it from him. They achieved it by their religion.

The conversation (or disputation) continued (here I am omitting some content): Jesus replied, “If I honored myself, it would mean nothing. My Father is the one who honors me. You claim that he is your God, even though you don't really know him. If I said I didn't know him, I would be a liar, just like all of you. But I know him, and I do what he says. Your father Abraham was really glad to see me” (John 8:54-56 CEV). Liars, all! Claiming to know God but their attitude to Jesus proved the lie of the claim. The culmination of that was stones picked up to use on Jesus. (Curious that in Herod's completed Temple there were stones - perhaps there were some not far away, maybe even builder waste? Or was it a stockpile kept for purpose?) Jesus was hidden and went out of the temple (John 8:59 CSB).  Some versions render as "hid himself".

John's text continues (chapter 9) with the remarkable account of the man born blind receiving sight from Jesus. Crucially (to the elite) that happened on the sabbath and was it was reported to them (the Pharisees). The formerly blind man would not be shifted from his story and simply told the truth to power. “He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud, spread it on my eyes, and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ Then I went and washed and received my sight”” (John 9:11 NRSVUE). Now that surely is a summary. I imagine Jesus speaking to the man and offering his help and telling him how it would be given. It would be very unusual for Jesus to not have the "informed consent" of those whom he served. (But see chapter 5; nonetheless, even there a conversation took place.)

The Pharisees punished the innocent now-seeing man by making him an outcast from the synagogue. Jesus found the man and helped him understand just who his new friend was. That pericope ends with: Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, “Are we also blind?” Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt;[a] but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains (John 9:39-42 ESV). They (the elite) were supremely confident in their seeing of the truth that mattered. They believed in God (their god.) They had no need of having their eyes opened (so they thought). Jesus interprets their confidence differently. Thus there was a division - some would allow their eyes to be opened; some would never think it necessary - unthinkable.

The man had known his eyes were blind but now knew they were open! Jesus wants to open all blind eyes. Or, in other words, as above, Jesus wants to welcome all into his fold as sheep. 

The same words come to us all. Those words may be received with faith as by one of Jesus' own people (sheep). Those words may be rejected in refusal to listen - to Jesus.

Was it all connected? Did people return to listen again? Were people just trying hard to understand? Why was it so difficult? How many returned to make objection? What did Jesus want people to hear?

People had problems.

Jesus was patient with them.

Jesus is patient.

May you be blessed by God

Allen Hampton

*Hanukkah's basis at the time of Jesus

Observances (Passover; Weeks; Booths) had been laid down in the OT books of the Torah; we see them in the pages of the New Testament. Our equivalent would be our public holidays.

Hanukkah was a then modern addition, dating to events in BC164. At that time the previously desecrated Temple was restored to proper use.

“Then Judas and his brothers and all the assembly of Israel determined that every year at that season the days of dedication of the altar should be observed with joy and gladness for eight days, beginning with the twenty-fifth day of the month of Chislev” (1 Maccabees 4:59 NRSVUE).

In our canonical Bibles the word "Dedication" is found only here and at Nehemiah 12:27 (when the rebuilt walls of Jerusalem were celebrated). The word can be translated as "rededication".

[Another annual festival previously added to the Jewish calendar was called Purim. The story of the introduction of that festival comes from the brutal book called "Esther". (See especially chapter 9.) I can imagine Jesus previously in Jerusalem at those events also.]

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Scripture quotations marked (NRSV) are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked (NRSVUE) are from the New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021

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