URC Daily Devotion 18 June 2025
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.’ The Jews took up stones again to stone him. Jesus replied, ‘I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these are you going to stone me?’ The Jews answered, ‘It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you, but for blasphemy, because you, though only a human being, are making yourself God.’ Jesus answered, ‘Is it not written in your law, “I said, you are gods”? If those to whom the word of God came were called “gods”—and the scripture cannot be annulled— can you say that the one whom the Father has sanctified and sent into the world is blaspheming because I said, “I am God’s Son”? If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me. But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.’ Then they tried to arrest him again, but he escaped from their hands.
He went away again across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing earlier, and he remained there. Many came to him, and they were saying, ‘John performed no sign, but everything that John said about this man was true.’ And many believed in him there.
Reflection
I recollect sitting quietly meditating in the sun in the grounds of Iona Abbey, looking across the Sound to the cliffs and hills of Mull. I could hear the calling of seabirds overhead, the gentle susurration of waves on the rocks, and the bleating of lambs as they grazed on the grassy area over the wall.
Listening, I became aware that the lambs and the ewes did not all make the same sound. I recalled that I had read somewhere a passage by a shepherd who commented that each ewe and lamb had a different “call” so that they could recognise one another from a distance. A good shepherd recognised their own flock by the sounds of their voices.
In the preceding passage in John’s Gospel, Jesus describes himself as the Good Shepherd and illustrates many ways in which a shepherd shepherds their sheep. He does not endear himself to his listeners.
As this passage opens, Jesus is in the temple at Jerusalem. It is the Festival of the Dedication which we might know better as Hanukkah or the Festival of Lights. This festival commemorates the consecration of the Second Temple in 516BCE, but soon to be destroyed again. At Hanukkah, Jews celebrate this liberation from the oppressor by the shepherd God who had heard the voices of his own people.
Jesus did not here explicitly identify himself as the Messiah, but pointed out that those who recognise his voice as the true shepherd will be safe whilst those who do not will not. It was going back amongst his own people that many would hear, respond and believe.
Our task in this noisy world of competing siren voices is to distinguish the call of the lamb in the midst of the cacophony, assisting others to recognise its authenticity and to respond.
Prayer
Good Shepherd, may I hear your call
and when I hear, may I answer you
and come and listen to you.
Good Shepherd, may you hear my call
and when you hear, please answer me
and come and listen to me.