John 10:22-30 Commentary

After two weeks of post-resurrection Easter encounters, the lectionary always brings us back to pre-Easter events and to Jesus’s teachings about the new life he envisioned for his beloved. We start here at the Festival of Lights/Dedication or as it is more well-known today, Hannukah.

It is a gift to return to these texts during this season. Just last week we heard Peter being called, through his love for Jesus, to feed Christ’s sheep, and here we are now, hearing a description of who those sheep are and how Jesus pictures feeding them spiritually.

Biblical scholar Dale Bruner interprets Jesus’s words as a summary of the church’s life—especially verses 27 and 2—as Jesus explains, “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.” Bruner sees two sets of three here. First, there is what the sheep are doing: listening to Jesus, experiencing Jesus, and living as disciples. These are then followed by the sheep’s reality of receiving life from Christ, of having a secure eternal existence, and of being safe in his arms. (The Gospel of John: A Commentary, p. 635-36)

Of these six verbs, all of them are in the present tense except for “snatch,” which is in the future tense. In other words, this is a living reality for Jesus’s sheep, a continuous description of their life with the Good Shepherd. So as Jesus leaves to Peter the call of “feeding the sheep,” we understand what he means by how Jesus himself has established the pattern: the Word, the Spirit (who make us experience Jesus Christ), and discipleship, or, our faith lived out. No wonder Bruner sees a description of the life of the church here!

Jesus cements this promise and description with a whopper of an identity statement and justification for his claims: “What my Father has given me is greater than all else… The Father and I are one.” Throughout the history of the church, this passage has been used as proof for the Trinity, that Jesus is God, co-equal with the Father, and sharing in the one essence (the “one” in Greek is neuter).

But thinking about these words in the context of the setting in which they were spoken, we have to hear them as Jesus’s response to the people in verse 24 who asked Jesus to speak “plainly” about who he was. A lot of modern translations soften the tone of their question by interpreting it as “How long will you keep us in suspense?” The true sense is more like “how long are you going to annoy or provoke us?” They want to know if Jesus is the Messiah (something Jesus doesn’t ever say in the gospel) and this unity with the Father is how Jesus describes himself. Jesus’s answer is that he and the Father are one: he is more than what they understand the Messiah to be, and those who understand this truth do so because they listen to him, live with him, and know him and are known by him. They are kept close and kept safe in the knowledge of God’s purposes for them (verses 27-28.)

Your theological tradition likely determines what immediately comes to mind with Jesus’s words, “what my Father has given me.” Is it the calling to fulfill the decree of salvation and justification? the role as great high priest and head of the church? the chosen people? something else? All of the above? Our English translations provide a direct object, “it,” for the verb “snatch,” but there actually isn’t one in the Greek.

It is, however, the same verb for Jesus and the Father: they are equally strong and secure in grip. We might even describe them as layered protection. What a comfort to return to these words now that Jesus no longer walks among us in the flesh. His grip is just as strong even if we do not have the comfort of his physical presence. His purposes remain true, and his methods are laid out for us to take and to eat, to remember and believe. Living in this reality is the foundation of the Easter life.

Textual Point

Two other things that Dale Bruner taught me. First, the Hebrew word Hannukah means Renewal. Second, verse 30 is the exact middle of the Gospel of John. “The Father and I are one.”

Illustration Idea

In the world of security there’s a way of thinking about protection in layers. First, there’s deterrence, or how one works to keep an attack from happening. Things like having security measures described on signage, noise making, or security guards fit in this category. Then there’s being able to detect threats as soon as possible—think security cameras, sensors, etc. And finally, if an attack does come, there’s mechanisms put in place to delay the attack’s progress through obstacles (barricades, additional security measures for different areas, etc.)

There’s another kind of activity that can be employed as a sort of deterrence, often referred to as soft power, where you share your resources with at-risk sectors so that they do not reach the kind of desperation or desolation that leads them to attack. It seems to me that Jesus and the Father’s layered protection is all about their “soft power”: they offer to anyone who hears and recognizes the truth and beauty of their voice a new kind of life and existence. The Jesus Way teaches us how, with the Spirit, we can deter the evil one’s advances and our own sinfulness, and how to detect and discern the truth. And though we may feel like it is Jesus who is delayed in his return, we can remind ourselves that we are secure in his hands.