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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. So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, "How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly." Jesus answered, "I have told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name testify to me; but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep. 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. What my Father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father's hand. The Father and I are one."
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This is the Gospel selection that will be read aloud by a priest on the fourth Sunday of Easter, Year C, according to the lectionary for the Episcopal Church. It will follow a mandatory Easter reading from the Book of Acts, where Peter raised Tabitha (Dorcas) from death. We read there, “Peter put all of them outside, and then he knelt down and prayed. He turned to the body and said, "Tabitha, get up." Then she opened her eyes, and seeing Peter, she sat up. He gave her his hand and helped her up. Then calling the saints and widows, he showed her to be alive.” That is followed by a singing of Psalm 23, which says, “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” That will be followed by a reading from John’s Revelation, where in a vision he heard an elder say, “for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life.”
It is good to know that each of the three liturgical years the fourth Sunday of Easter is called “Good Shepherd Sunday,” according to the Episcopal Church (tradition has it be the third Sunday). The Gospel selection for each year comes from John 10, with Year A focusing on verses one through ten, Year B on verses eleven through eighteen, and Year C the verses listed above: twenty-two through thirty. In this, three verses are omitted: nineteen through twenty-one. It is worthwhile to know those verses are important to realize, in order to see these verses as being separate timing from these of the Year C lectionary.
John 10:19-21 state this:
“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?”
(NRSV)
The ones who Jesus told he was the gate to the sheepfold and the good shepherd are not identified in the verses read in Years A and B. It is these omitted verses that we see it was generically stated to be “the Jews,” who were “divided” because Jesus used the shepherd-sheep analogy. The two questions posed state that Jesus spoke words that nobody understood; so, the use of shepherding and sheepfolds flew over everyone’s heads. The two question pose that people saw Jesus either as a threat or as a miraculous prophet, who spoke in ways people could not understand. The point made by these three is the shepherd-sheep theme was spoken regularly while Jesus was in Galilee. This division among the Jews was more prominently against Jesus in Jerusalem; and, this is where these nine verses selected to be read during Year C take place.
In the Greek of these three verses, verse nineteen begins by saying, “Schisma palin engeneto,” which translates as “Division again it came.” The capitalization of “Schisma” divinely elevates that word to be read as more than a common “split.” This “Division” must be read as the significance of “Two,” where that number always denotes a duality. When a divine elevation is applied to “Two,” this becomes a soul in a body of flesh. When the verb “engeneto” can be read as “it born,” the two question posed can be seen as metaphor for fertilization, where an egg is naturally resistant to outside influences and a sperm becomes those external influences. The two do not join naturally, as pregnancy is always guided by the hand of God. Thus, the egg symbolizes Judaism, made up of all the Jews that defended the Law, while not being complete with knowledge of what the Law meant; and, Jesus was the sperm that was sent to impregnate the egg with that knowledge, with the egg knowing it needs to receive and “Split” to grow, while rejecting all comers as a natural sense of protectivity.
Verse twenty-two begins with a capitalized “Egeneto,” which is a third-person singular Aorist Indicative form of “ginomai,” which means, “to come into being, to happen, to become.” The capitalization raises this word’s meaning to a divine level, where it means more than “it happened.” The word must be read as shining the implication of “it was Born,” where after three years of ministry this “division among the Jews” “Became” more than a fear of Jesus, but a sincere concept that Jesus must die. This “Birth” took place “at the time these” came to Jerusalem for the “Feast of Dedication.”
According to the Wikipedia article (“Dedication”), this is written: “The Feast of Dedication, today Hanukkah, once also called "Feast of the Maccabees," is a Jewish festival observed for eight days from the 25th of Kislev (usually in December, but occasionally late November, due to the lunisolar calendar).” From this, John writing a non-capitalized “enkainia” says this festival was not divinely elevated, therefore not recognized by Yahweh. A “dedication” or “renewal (of religious values)” was not a “dedication” to Yahweh, but to a piece of property held dear to the returning exiles from Babylon. Their Second Temple gave them some sense of importance in the world, after having cheated on their Holy Husband until officially divorced. The “dedication” of the Jews in “Jerusalem” was to themselves being property owners again, having nothing to do with giving honor and praise to Yahweh (and Yahweh had never Commanded, “If I allow you to divorce me and take away your promised land, then if you ever get part of it back you must recognize that date every year for eternity.”)
The capitalization of “Hierosolymois,” the Greek form of the name “Jerusalem,” needs to be read as the meaning behind the name: “Teaching Peace.” This says that a “dedication” to a second temple (and not to Yahweh) taking place in the place where “Teaching Peace” (that of Yahweh’s presence within) should be projecting knowledge that taught how to find the inner “Peace” of Yahweh was not a ”rededication” to anything other than proclaiming self-worth. This is most important to realize, as this segment naming “Jerusalem” is followed by a complete sentence that says, “winter it existed” (from “cheimōn ēn”). Not only is “winter” when the days are shortest and the nights are longest, in the Middle East “winter” was synonymous with “storms” or “the rainy season.” Thus, the Jews chose a time to “dedicate” themselves to serving a second temple (rather than Yahweh), when sunlight was less and clouds routinely blocked what sunlight there was.
When John then wrote that Jesus was on the “porch of this of Solomon” (“stoa tou Solomōnos”), where “stoa” also means “portico” or “colonnade,” the capitalization of “Solomon” makes it become a divinely elevated statement about the temple the Jews “dedicated” their soul to. The name of “Solomon,” who first decided to build a fixed place in which to transfer the Ark of the Covenant, says the “Wisdom” his name stands for is what the Jews worshiped, more than the divine insight of Yahweh’s possession. When the Easter season is known to be a time when the souls of Yahweh’s flock are raised from the dead that is a lost sheep, the name “Solomon” becomes synonymous with the “Big Brain.” Big Brains are the great impetuous that keeps a soul from receiving the soul of Jesus (remember the egg and the sperm analogy). So, it was not coincidence that had Jesus “encircled” by those divided against him in a place named for a “Big Brain.”
When the NRSV shows those Jews asking Jesus, “How long will you keep us in suspense?” this is an over-simplification of the truth written by John. His Greek says: “Heōs pote tēn psychēn hēmōn aireis?” That literally translates to ask, “Until when this human soul of ourselves you raise us up?” Here, the capitalization of “Heōs” becomes a divinely elevated statement of “As far as” or “How long,” which states an inner soul demanding of Yahweh to answer their question of “when” the Jews will ever be “raised up” from their deaths as servants to their Roman overlords. It states a demand of Yahweh to speak to them, at their command, which is some self-perceived authority as keepers of a temple. The question is based on their “human souls” (“psychēn”), which were believe to be from “the breath of identity” given to them by Moses, as the ‘children of God.’
When John next wrote that the Jews said, “If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly,” they questioned (the “Division” of “Schisma”) within their “human souls,” where the conditional of “if” (written “ei,” not a capitalized word) said they did not know for sure. Before they killed Jesus, they wanted him to state in “plain” words, “I am the Messiah” (written “Christos”). Again, using the pregnancy metaphor of the egg and the sperm (where “Division” is the Yahweh-directed cell growth that leads to a body of flesh being born), this question would be like the egg asking the one sperm (out of who knows how many) to produce authorization papers from God, saying “Let this one into you.” That must be seen as a demand that lacked total and complete faith in Yahweh. It is like telling Yahweh, “I will believe in you after you do a trick for me … like make me rich.”
In verse twenty-five, Jesus basically spelled out what a total and complete lack of faith was. It was everything done prior, which led to that moment in time. Everything Jesus had said to them completely shut them up, letting them know that none of them had a clue about what the words of the Law they so diligently memorized meant. On top of all those “plainly” stated conversations held every time Jesus was in Jerusalem, and all the times they conversed in Galilee, Jesus had performed miracles that none of them could ever do. Jesus “plainly” stated everything he had done pointed to the answer they wanted; but they were to Big Brained to see the forest from the trees.
It was here that Jesus returned to the shepherd-sheep theme, which he had preached prior, which most probably they had heard (in some way or another). When Jesus said, “you do not have faith in what you have heard and witnessed external to your bodies of flesh (where Big Brains sit enthroned in a skull), because your souls do not exist from out of of sheep of this of myself” (from “este ek tōn probatōn tōn emōn”). There, the Genitive case in “of sheep, of this, of myself” shows possession. This is “plainly” telling each and every Jew standing around Jesus (“encircling”), “To have faith that I am the Messiah, your souls [“hymeis” as “yourselves,” where “selves” are “souls”] have to be possessed by my soul [from “emōn” as “mine”]. As my possessions [my “sheep”], you would have lost your Big Brains and realized your soul’s safety is in my hands. Big Brains lead you to find the wolves, which does not end well.” Again, using the egg-sperm analogy, the Jews thought they were better off sloughing out as wasted opportunity [death born], rather than receive the seed of Yahweh and be raised from the dead as “little sheep” for His Son to shepherd.
In verse twenty-seven, Jesus repeated what are the expectations of “these sheep,” which are “these of myself” or “of mine,” stating clear possession. This possession is spiritual, not physical ownership. This possession says the soul of Jesus has been raised with the souls of his sheep. Once that soul possesses his sheep’s souls, they hear his voice speaking to them spiritually. Because the soul of Jesus is one with the souls of his sheep, Jesus knows everything about those sheep. When the verse ends with Jesus saying importantly (use of “kai”) “they follow” (“akolouthousin”), this is what Jesus meant when he said, “Follow me” to his disciples. That does not mean walking behind a physical Jesus on a trail somewhere in the Middle East. It means the soul of Jesus has become the Lord soul over a soul and its body of flesh, so each individual sheep does as Jesus commands. When “they follow,” they are Jesus reborn; and, this is the Easter theme of being raised from the dead.
To confirm this is a spiritual possession, verse twenty-eight does that by Jesus saying, “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand.” (NRSV) That is the permanence of “eternal life” (“zōēn aiōnion”), which last just a little bit longer than a mortal life in human flesh lasts. In order for a soul to be possessed by Jesus’ soul, it has to first submit totally and completely to Yahweh, being made pure by His Spirit. That allows for the soul of Jesus to resurrect within another soul (countless times – one of the abilities Yahweh has), which is permanent and forever and ever. Only souls last that long; but they get recycled into mortal bodies of flesh, if they do as the Jews decided to do.
This marriage to Yahweh coming first is confirmed in verse twenty-nine, where Jesus said, “What my Father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father's hand.” (NRSV) What is actually written in the Greek text is this: “ho Patēr mou ho dedōken moi”, which literally states, “this Father of myself this he has given to myself”. In that, the Genitive case says Yahweh (“Father”) is the owner of Jesus, so Jesus is His possession (as His Son). The meaning of “this he has given” is the flock’s souls (his sheep). Wherever “self” is possible to be translated (“of myself” and “to myself”), a “self” is a “soul,” as there is no human life on earth without a “soul.” A “soul” makes a “self” out of a corpse. When Jesus takes possession of one’s “soul-self,” then that ‘sheep’ has gained “eternal life,” compliments of marriage to the “Father.”
In verse thirty, Jesus said, “The Father and I are one.” (NRSV) This says “the Father” and the Son are one. When a sheep’s soul gets added to that combination, one is talking about a Trinity, where the possession of a soul by Yahweh comes by His Spirit in divine marriage. When the soul of Jesus is then resurrected within that wife-soul of Yahweh, one has the “Father,” Son and Spirit. When the Spirit is present in a human being, that is Baptism by the Spirit, which makes a soul in a body of flesh become Holy” (“Hagion”). Only such sheep can be “Holy,” because holiness, sainthood, and living righteously is only done by divine possession on planet earth.
As a Gospel reading for the Sunday deemed “Good Shepherd Sunday,” it is imperative to see that one identifying as a Christian, while not being a Saint, is really no different than the Jews of Galilee and Jerusalem, where half of them thought Jesus was possessed by demons, while the other half thought there was something special about anyone who can work miracles. If one does not hear the voice of Jesus tell one what to do, then Jesus is not one’s shepherd. The whole point of the Easter season is to die of self, because one realizes self will only lead a soul to ruin. One must submit to marriage to Yahweh (learning His name is a good ‘ice-breaker’), in order to be possessed as His flock. Once one is a sheep of Yahweh, then He will send His Son to be your Good Shepherd; and, Jesus said “only God is good.”
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