Listen and Trust
I’m going to ask you to forget the dry heat of these last several days and ignore that we are very close to the triple-digit days of summer and instead picture a cooler December day—maybe not yet 50 degrees with even a light drizzling rain—as you make your way to the temple, walking through the big courtyard and finding cover under that long, wide, high-columned porch running along the interior of the courtyard not the one called the Royal Portico where the Sanhedrin, the Jewish ruling council, met and perhaps the place where Jesus overturned the tables of the money-changers and those selling animals for sacrifice but the one across the 35-acre Court of the Gentiles the one called Solomon’s Colonnade.
You’re there with others to celebrate Hanukkah…maybe even to hear Jesus teach, as he is likely to talk about God restoring Jewish worship in the Temple after it had been halted by Syrian oppressors and even replaced by worship of Zeus. This Feast of Dedication, which we know as Hanukkah, was a big holiday and happy occasion celebrated every year.
So, there you are, and as you pull your outer cloak a little more tightly to your body and step up and in between the columns and under the roof.. there’s Jesus. You expected to find him there. And a crowd is gathered around him. Also, not unusual. There always seems to be a crowd around him.
“How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” It’s not just that guy; others are chiming in saying the same things. They’re so aggressive. And they have him blocked in, surrounded Wait, I recognize some of them. Some are the same men who challenged him right here just a couple months ago at the Festival of Booths! Yeah, they said he was a crazy man! Some of them even said he was possessed by a demon!
You inch a little closer because Jesus is about to respond. “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.”
He’s repeating himself. It’s been a couple months, but I heard them demanding the same things, and he’s telling them exactly what he told them then. He’s even using the same pictures a shepherd…sheep…his closeness with the Father! Nothing’s changed… and nothing’s changed! Jesus is being open and honest with them, but they aren’t listening at all! I don’t understand. They’re ignoring all the miraculous things he’s done! They’re ignoring the way he has lived and the things he’s said! It’s like they’ve made up their minds and don’t really want to know the answer. And they’re so angry! And they’re starting to pick up stones!!
Maybe it’s fairly easy to see yourself standing by a pillar and watching and listening and feeling those kinds of things because we would definitely be on the right side if we were there, right? I mean, we’re the good guys. The bad guys challenged Jesus. The bad guys ignored what was right in front of their eyes. The bad guys picked up rocks to stone him after he said these things. And when I say “bad guys,” you know what I mean the people who would not listen to Jesus, who refused to trust in him as the Savior and follow him.
But you realize that without the grace of God stepping in and changing our hearts and attitudes toward Jesus, we are the bad guys, right? And don’t we even now, as sheep in God’s flock, sometimes act NOT like his sheep but more like those assailing Jesus at the temple?
If you don’t think so, pause for just a minute. Have you ever found yourself setting aside, even ignoring, the good things you have seen Jesus do in your life because you’re obsessed with the difficulty or trauma staring you in the face? So, you fret and worry and stress and cry and try to fight through it on your own forgetting to pray, to place your trust in him, to listen to what he tells you in his Word about never leaving you and using all things to bless you. We’re not so far removed from those evil men who ignored what they had seen Jesus do and who paid no attention to what he said.
Do you ever get frustrated by things that Jesus says in his Word…or angry…or you hear it but decide that you’re not going to listen to it? Yes, you do. It might be a particular thing he teaches that you don’t like pick your doctrine. Men, you don’t want to accept the spiritual responsibility at home and at church that Jesus places on you? Women, you don’t like the division of duties for men and women that God has put in place? You think communion should be this open thing where everyone comes to the Lord’s Table no matter what they believe? You completely ignore that Jesus says to give offerings to him even after he has blessed you quite a bit? You don’t think he’s right about sexuality issues of different kinds? Oh, I know for certain that we sometimes don’t listen to and reject what Jesus says. We decide what’s right.
And even if you think you’ve navigated that big stuff just fine, I’ll remind you that you have heard him say to not sin in all sorts of ways, but you have chosen not to listen because you do sin in lots of those ways. We don’t always act like docile, trusting lambs in Jesus’ arms; we’re more like squirming puppies that will not be held, but jump out and run all over the place doing whatever we want to do.
We don’t like what we see as we press against the portico pillar and watch those enemies of Jesus. But if we’re being honest, we don’t like what we see in us either because some of it looks suspiciously like their attitudes and behavior.
What do you do with all this though? Well, you don’t go all-in on your rebellion and pick up stones to sling at your Savior. There is a difference, isn’t there? There is because you are, as we will sing later, Jesus’ little lamb.
My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. What Jesus meant was that his sheep listen to his voice they accept his words and obey what he says.
In a world with so many opinions and false information and fake news and unverified claims and AI generated this and that passed off as real, his is the voice you can trust. He said he would do the work of saving you, and he did. You can trust him. You can trust him when he tells you what is right and what is wrong in the eyes of God. You can trust that he has your best interests in mind even as you are wandering, and he is calling you back to him. You can trust him when he says, “I forgive you,” and when he says, “This is the path that leads through this world and to eternal life with me.”
We are his sheep, and we do know his voice, so, we listen when he calls us to repent, and we acknowledge our sins, and we trust in his sacrifice to forgive us, and we believe when he tells us that we have eternal life waiting for us. This is listening to and trusting Jesus. This is seeing him as our Good Shepherd and following him.
As his sheep, you and I ought to find tremendous comfort in these words of our Good Shepherd when he says that he gives us eternal life, and that we will never perish! Now, make no mistake, this is entirely a gift. It is completely his grace. Probably the reminder that we sometimes act like those who ignored the evidence of Jesus’ miracles and message and actually attacked him is enough for us to see that we don’t deserve this eternal gift. It is not earned by our following; it is the promise of that gift that inspires our following. We LISTEN AND WE TRUST.
You know, Jesus was giving each one of those men pressing in on him and threatening him a chance to listen, a chance to trust. His words were an invitation as much as they were a defense. If any one of them thought again about the words and works of Jesus and saw in him the Messiah they refused to see before, they became part of Jesus’ sheep pen. We don’t know if they did or not.
What we do know is that Jesus looked at them not just as a crowd, but as individuals. He always did; he always does. The same goes for those who are his sheep. You are not just sheep #1032, just a number like you are when you’re in the online customer service chat queue. No, you have an actual relationship with Jesus. He knows you. He says so. And not just the Sunday-morning you who walks through the church courtyard and through the doors and worships him here.
He knows everything about you.
He knows what you need.
He knows what you’re going through and how it will turn out. He knows how you feel about the blessings he’s given you.
He knows when you read his Word and listen to him.
He knows that you trust him.
He’s happy when you follow.
He’s happy to hear you when you pray.
He’s happy to see that you’re looking forward with confidence to the day when you will see him face to face.
You’re one of his flock, but you’re not just another one of his flock. When Jesus talks about you, he says it is him talking and you listening…him leading and you following… him promising and you trusting. He makes a strong promise about you here: 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. Picture him holding you in hands that were nailed to the cross for you hands that will never let you go.
You can trust all of this until you are eternally safe and sound with Jesus in heaven. As you wait for that day, keep listening and keep trusting. Amen.
Now the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
22 Then the Festival of Dedication took place in Jerusalem. It was winter, 23 and Jesus was walking in the temple area in Solomon’s Colonnade. 24 So the Jews gathered around Jesus, asking, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” 25 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. 26 But you do not believe, because you are not my sheep, as I said to you. 27 My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all. No one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.”