No One Can Snatch Them – John 10:22-30

A text – John 10:22-30

²² At that time the Festival of the Dedication took place in Jerusalem. It was winter, ²³ and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the portico of Solomon. ²⁴ 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.” ²⁵ Jesus answered, “I have told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name testify to me, ²⁶ but you do not believe because you do not belong to my sheep. 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, in regard to what he has given me, is greater than all, and no one can snatch them out of the Father’s hand. ³⁰ The Father and I are one.”

A reflection:

Here is Jesus, walking in the sheltered porch at one end of the Jerusalem temple complex. The time is the Festival of Hannukah, in our vocabulary. The Jewish leaders have asked Jesus several times in earlier chapters if he is the Messiah. He has answered them by healing and by teaching about the Father, but each encounter causes one quarrel or another over his meaning or over the fact that he heals on the Sabbath and must therefore be a sinner. This explains Jesus’s reply – “I have told you, and you do not believe.”

He goes farther, saying that the Pharisees “don’t belong to my sheep,” who know me and who follow me. I give them eternal life and no one can snatch them out of my hand, or out of the Father’s hand. Finally “The Father and I are one.”

Jesus is answering their question once again. Probably some of the Jewish leaders hearing the answer this time are truly considering that the real Son of God might answer in just this way, might behave in just this way. His disciples seem to be further convinced the longer they spend time with him. He is the Messiah, the Son of God.  And he is promising them that no one can take them from him, no matter what. They have eternal life, not just in some future by-and-by, but right now.  As they are walking in Solomon’s porch or from town to town, they are having eternal life in the present. They can live without fear of dying, because The Lord has already given eternal life to them that no one can snatch away.

All of us who believe in this Jesus already have eternal life. How might we live in this world knowing we are sheep of Jesus’s fold who cannot be snatched away from his care? What worries might we give up today, knowing Jesus’s gift to us? And how might the light such knowledge brings shine healing and hope into the lives of our friends and neighbors?

A prayer:

Lord God, Thank you for loving us. Thank you for the gift of your Son Jesus. Thanks you for his gift of eternal life to us, both in the future and also now, in our present. Help us to shine into the dark corners of our world and bear Jesus’s light to those who need it now. Amen.