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HANUKKAH
Part 3 of 3
INTRODUCTION
Among the many misconceptions Jewish people today have about Jesus (or in Hebrew, Yeshua) is that He never claimed to be God.
That’s simply not true. Jesus did claim to be God. He repeated that claim often and in various ways. It was during the holiday of Hanukkah, as recorded in John’s gospel (10:22-39) that Jesus gave the final and most clear declaration of His Deity.
So why are these claims ignored? Because people don’t want to be confronted or confused with FACTS, they’ve already made their minds.
Often facts are not used in the quest for truth. Especially in the arena of the spiritual, we rely on our feelings, values, fears, and/or traditions to lead us. We deny the absoluteness of truth and make it personal and relative.
But truth must align itself to factual reality, bounded by time and space. Regardless of how it feels, or what demands it makes upon our lives.
The truth is that Jesus was heard and understood. There were those who didn’t like what He said and tried to either stone Him or seize Him. Others knew He was telling the truth and believed. Confronted and challenged each person had to make a choice. The same is still true today. Each of us has to make a choice about Jesus.
It may not be a coincidence that at the core of the words “hears” and “heart” is the word ear. What goes through the ear seems to be processed by the heart.
THECONTEXT OF JESUS’ CLAIM OF DEITY
John 10:22-23 Then came the Feast of Dedication at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was in the temple area walking in Solomon's Colonnade.
During the Feast of Dedication (Hanukkah) that year Messianic expectations were almost palpable. Almost two hundred years had passed since the first Hanukkah celebration. Not much had changed. The Jews were still under foreign domination. There were still great conflicts within the Jewish community itself. They were desperate for their promised Messiah. As they had through Moses and later Judah Maccabee, they sought political emancipation so that they would enjoy spiritual freedom
Beyond their need for the Messiah, many knew the prophecy of Daniel (Daniel 9:25-26a). Simple arithmetic argued that this would be the year that the Messiah would be “cut off, but not for Himself”. Israel’s faithful had been watching and waiting (Luke 2:25, 36). They like Bethlehem’s shepherds and some Gentile wise men claimed they had found Him thirty years before this winter day (Luke 2:8; Matthew 2:11)
John 10:24 The Jews gathered around him, saying, "How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, [Messiah] tell us plainly."
The people said they were in suspense. Yet during the previous three months, since the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot) Jesus had been making very strong claims of deity. For those with a heart and ears to hear, the Messianic implications could not be ignored.
Thus the question put before Him on this day was revealing. It betrayed their refusal to accept the facts. Therefore Jesus could answer them:
John 10:25 Jesus answered, "I did tell you, but you do not believe.
Antiochus had claimed to be god in the flesh, but then couldn’t back up those claims with proof. Jesus who WAS God in the flesh easily proved His deity through His words, His works and His witness.
THE CLAIMS OF JESUS TO BEING GOD, THE MESSIAH
Although some the Jews then and still today are looking for a human deliverer, God had been clear in His words through the prophets that the He Himself would be the Messiah. (The shepherds and Magi knew this and worshipped Jesus even as an infant.)
ISA 60:16 You will drink the milk of nations and be nursed at royal breasts. Then you will know that I, the LORD, am your Savior, your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.
PS 49:15 But God will redeem my life from the grave; He will surely take me to Himself.
HIS WORDS:
What were the words of Jesus through which He claimed to Be Messiah?
: He said that He was the source of the Spirit and of living water:
John 7:37-38 On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him."
Thousands of years before, through the prophets God had said that He was the source of living water. From and in and through Him would come the Spirit and the river of life.
ISA 12:2 Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The LORD, the LORD, is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation." With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. i
PS 36:9 For with You is the fountain of life; in Your light we see light.
JER 2:13 "My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken Me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.
JER 17:13 O LORD, the hope of Israel, all who forsake You will be put to shame. Those who turn away from You will be written in the dust because they have forsaken the LORD, the spring of living water.
ISA 44:3 For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and My blessing on your descendants.
: He said that He was the Light of the world
John 8:12 When Jesus spoke again to the people, He said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."
He who created light and separated it from the darkness was Himself light. John was merely echoing the words of the Prophets before Him when he said about Jesus, “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.”
ISA 60:19-20 The sun will no more be your light by day, nor will the brightness of the moon shine on you, for the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory. Your sun will never set again, and your moon will wane no more; the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your days of sorrow will end.
ISA 10:17 The Light of Israel will become a fire, their Holy One a flame; in a single day it will burn and consume his thorns and his briers.
MIC 7:8 Do not gloat over me, my enemy! Though I have fallen, I will rise. Though I sit in darkness, the LORD will be my light.
MIC 7:9 Because I have sinned against him, I will bear the LORD's wrath, until He pleads my case and establishes my right. He will bring me out into the light; I will see his righteousness.
Is 9:1-2 & MT 4:16 the people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned."
: He said that He was the Good Shepherd
The prophet Ezekiel (Chapter 34) had compared the bad shepherds leading Israel with God, the Good Shepherd of Israel. Even today many people know and love Psalm 23 which defines the Lord God as The Shepherd. Jesus was taking that title upon Himself.
Psalm 23:1 The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.
GE 48:15 God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day,
GE 49:24 the Mighty One of Jacob, the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel,
PS 80:1 Hear us, O Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock; you who sit enthroned between the cherubim, shine forth
Furthermore, as Ezekiel recorded God’s ownership over His sheep, Jesus was exercising the same ownership:
John 10:25-27 Jesus answered, " …but you do not believe because you are not My sheep. My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me. ii
EZE 34:11-16 " `For this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I myself will search for My sheep and look after them. As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after My sheep. I will shepherd the flock with justice.
HIS WORKS
Jesus was reiterating that both His words and His works were testifying that He was Messiah.
John 10:25 Jesus answered, "I did tell you, but you do not believe. The miracles I do in my Father's name speak for me.
: He exercised power over creation
He turned water into wine (John 2:1-11)
He calmed a storm by speaking to it (Mark 4:35-41)
He walked on water (Matthew 14:22-33)
He fed thousands with a few fish and loaves of bread (Matt 14:15-21 &15:32-39)
: He raised the dead
Lazarus had been dead for days (John 11:1-54)
Raises a widow’s son as he was being carried for burial (Luke 7:11-16)
: He healed the lame, the dumb, the blind
: He set the captives free
: He forgave sins
MT 1: 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because He will save his people from their sins.”
MK 2:5-7 When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven. "Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, "Why does this fellow talk like that? He's blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?"
: He had power over death:
John6:39-40 And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that I shall lose none of all that He has given Me, but raise them up at the last day. For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day."
JN 11:25-26 Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in Me will never die.
REV 1:18 I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.
HIS SELF WITNESS
THE CONFRONTATION
It’s clear from the record that Jesus was heard and understood.
JN 10:31-33 Again the Jews picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus said to them, "I have shown you many great miracles from the Father. For which of these do you stone Me?"
"We are not stoning you for any of these," replied the Jews, "but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God."
They had heard. They just didn’t like nor accept what they heard. So the problem was not obscurity but obstinacy. Jesus was being clear in His proclamation. He had been telling them that He was their Messiah in every way possible for the last three years. He hadn’t spoken in secret but to crowds of thousands.
In this His last public appearance for several months; Jesus was confronting the people with the hardness of their hearts. Their ears had heard but their hearts had refused to listen. It wasn’t a hearing problem, it was a heart issue.
JN 10:25 Jesus answered, "I did tell you, but you do not believe
JER 6:10 To whom can I speak and give warning? Who will listen to me? Their ears are closed so they cannot hear. The word of the LORD is offensive to them; they find no pleasure in it.
The problem was the people’s refusal to accept Him. Had they done so, their lives would have had to change. Jesus never gave the option of believing but not following Him. As God the Father, God the Son was demanding passionate love, total commitment and complete dedication.
DT 6:4-5 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
JN 14:15 "If you love me, you will obey what I command.
MT 10:37-38 "Anyone who loves his father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me.”
MT 16:24-25 Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Me will find it.
Much was at stake. The people were being confronted with the truth about Jesus, about God and about themselves. The Jewish people had been chosen by God to be His witnesses, to be holy unto Him. Hanukkah is a memorial to God’s faithfulness to a remnant that chose, against persecution and torture to stand firm in faith and be faithful to Him.
Hanukkah, like life, is about choice. Moses, Joshua, King David had challenged the people of their day to make a choice: life for death. God or the gods of the world. Was it with sadness or anger or resignation that Jesus confronted them with the result of their choice?
JN 10:25-27 Jesus answered…you are not My sheep. My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me.
Their choice had eternal consequences. They had been looking for a political savior, but before them was the Savior of their souls. They had hardened their hearts to the ultimate promise of freedom and security:
John 10:28-29 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can 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.
Jesus continued pleading with them to make the right choice- the choice of faith:
JN 10:3-38 Jesus answered them, "Is it not written in your Law, `I have said you are gods' ? If he called them `gods,' to whom the word of God came--and the Scripture cannot be broken-- what about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse Me of blasphemy because I said, `I am God's Son'? Do not believe Me unless I do what my Father does. But if I do it, even though you do not believe Me, believe the miracles that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father."
The Biblical account of Hanukkah, the holiday of Dedication, ends with another the miracle, the miracle of faith
JN 10:40-42 Then Jesus went back across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing in the early days. Here he stayed and many people came to Him. They said, "Though John never performed a miraculous sign, all that John said about this man was true." And in that place many believed in Jesus.
(Not The End)
i The Hebrew word translated as “salvation” is Yeshua, the Hebrew name of Jesus
ii This is a very small sampling of miracles recorded by several eye witnesses. At the end of his gospel account, John wrote, “And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. (John 21:25)
Hanukkah part 1: The Setting
Hanukkah part 2: The Story
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