Children of God - 11/27/2022

This passage ends Jesus' ministry during and immediately after the Feast of Booths (Jn 7:1-10:21). We move forward by about seventy days during the "Feast of Dedication." We know this celebration as Hanukah. This is an eight-day festival that typically takes place in December. It commemorates the cleansing of the temple, which took place in 164 B.C. after a Jewish revolt liberated Jerusalem from Antiochus Epiphanes. When it was time to light the seven-branched lampstand after the temple had been purified, only one small vial of holy oil could be found. It would only last one day, but miraculously while they worked to prepare more oil, the oil lasted for eight days. To remember the miracle, eight candles are lit one by one over eight days.  

As Jesus ministered under the porch of Solomon, probably because it was stormy that day, according to John, the religious leaders surrounded Jesus, mocking Him, and trying to get Him to say He was the Messiah. Jesus often referred to Himself as the Son of Man, typically in public avoiding "Messiah," which had political expectations of a liberator who would usher in a civil uprising. Jesus tells the religious leaders that He declared who He was through His words and works. We have the same ability to declare who Jesus is through words and works by the authority given to us through Jesus. Jesus is the Son of God, and we are the children of God.