²² It was now winter, and Jesus was in Jerusalem at the time of Hanukkah, the Festival of Dedication. ²³ He was in the Temple, walking through the section known as Solomon’s Colonnade. ²⁴ The people surrounded him and asked, “How long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.”

²⁵ Jesus replied, “I have already told you, and you don’t believe me. The proof is the work I do in my Father’s name. ²⁶ But you don’t believe me because you are not my sheep. ²⁷ My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. ²⁸ I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them away from me, ²⁹ for my Father has given them to me, and he is more powerful than anyone else. No one can snatch them from the Father’s hand. ³⁰ The Father and I are one.”

³¹ Once again the people picked up stones to kill him. ³² Jesus said, “At my Father’s direction I have done many good works. For which one are you going to stone me?”

³³ They replied, “We’re stoning you not for any good work, but for blasphemy! You, a mere man, claim to be God.”

John 10:22-33

Dear God, sometimes we’ve just made up our minds and no answer will suffice. The group of people around Jesus that day already had their minds made up. No answer Jesus gave would have sufficed and made them believe. If he had said, “Yes, I am the Messiah. Get behind me and let’s make Israel great again,” they would have stoned him. If he had said, “Yes, I am the Messiah, but it’s not what you’ve always thoughts. I am here to die and come back to life for the redemption of the world’s sins and reconciliation of Jews and Gentiles to the Father,” they would have stoned him. The only answer that would have gotten him out of danger would have been a lie: “Who me? No, I’m not the Messiah!”

There are so many areas in life where I’ve already made up my mind. My heart is hard. Sometimes it’s easier to just walk away than go through the hard work of reconciliation. Or maybe I’ve developed a way of doing business at work that is out of date, but I keep doing it because it is comfortable, it is what I know, and it’s how it worked in the past.

Father, I need your Holy Spirit to speak to me gently but clearly. Well, maybe not even so gently if that’s what it takes. But I need to know when my thinking is stubborn and harmful. When I put a ceiling on people or opportunities. When I can’t see the whole picture through my limitations, so I shut down and decide to not see at all. I don’t want to be the people in the Temple from this story (I assume it’s largely the Pharisees). I want to love. I want to care about others and the work you have for me to do. I told my wife yesterday that, with Lent over and the Lenten meditations I was putting up daily on Facebook done, I feel like I need a new project. So then I set about trying to find something new on my own instead of waiting on your timing. Kind of like Peter looking for Judas’s replacement in Matthias instead of waiting on you to bring Paul around. So help me to wait. And help me to hear. Help me to learn. Help me to see.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen