Our wonderful Shepherd (10:1-42)

OUR WONDERFUL SHEPHERD

At this point in John’s Gospel, the theme music begins to shift from conflict with the Jewish authorities, to sorrowful love.  Israel had suffered from bad shepherds (leaders) down through the centuries: Ezekiel prophesies against them, saying that God will require accountability from them for the ways in which they have abused His flock (Ezek 34:1-10). The priesthood had become so money-grabbing under Annas and Caiaphas, that the Temple had become ‘a den of thieves’ (Mk 11:17). But the Pharisees were no better: Jesus repeatedly warned His disciples against their hypocrisy. Indeed it is on them that Jesus pronounces a fearsome list of ‘woes’, or curses, just before His crucifixion (Matt 23:1-36)

The Pharisees and Sanhedrim have just crystallised their cruel self-interested motivation in the way they handled the man born blind - one of ‘the lost sheep of the House of Israel’. They are the thieves and hired hands with whom Jesus is about to contrast Himself. But the comparison here is not so much about condemning their failures, but to bring out the wonderful character of the Good Shepherd:-

• the wonderful love & care of the Shepherd for His sheep;

• the incredible bond of communication between Him & them, similar to Him & His Father; and

• the utter security of the flock.

Though I have always read this chapter as a continuous passage themed around the good shepherd, verses 1-21 actually follow on from the healing of the blind man, just after the Feast of Tabernacles; whereas verses 22-42 take place during the Feast of Dedication (‘Hanukah’) three months later. This feast had been instituted in 164 BC, when Jewish guerrillas recaptured the Jerusalem Temple after it had been overrun and desecrated by Antiochus Epiphanes, ruler of the Greek Empire.  Antiochus’ actions had been foreseen by the prophet Daniel, and are used by Jesus as an illustration of what Antichrist will do in the end-times. The theme of the Feast is re-dedication, which is echoed in v36 when Jesus talks of His own dedication by the Father.

Another key to comprehension, is that Jesus uses the shepherding illustration in several different ways.  The Pharisees can’t grasp the simile first time (v6), so He tries again, repeatedly (vss7-18,26-31). He uses and re-uses the same simile of the sheep and the shepherd, to show out different aspects of His character as the Good Shepherd. We might summarise the different dimensions as:-

• The sincere Shepherd (vss 1-5)

• The safeguarding Shepherd (vss 7-10)

• The caring Shepherd (vss 11-13)

• The understanding Shepherd (vss 14-16)

• The self-sacrificial Shepherd (vss 17-18)

• The everlasting Shepherd (vss 27-30)

Shepherding in Israel

Before we can properly understand what this passage would have conveyed to its original hearers, we need to know something about shepherding in Israel, which was quite unlike modern-day sheep farming in UK!

Judaea has a long thin plateau running north-south with deep gorges radiating out from it to the Jordan (east) and the Mediterranean (west). This high ground is rocky and much more suited to sheep farming than cultivation. Vegetation was sparse meaning the shepherd regularly had to find new pasture and move the flock. There were no walls to enclose the sheep - it was more like the high moorland ‘commons’ around here; but the sheep didn’t get ‘hefted’ to a particular patch of land, and so were prone to wander. So unlike here in UK, you would never see a flock unattended: a shepherd was with them constantly.

There were plenty of sheep-rustlers around; lions, bears and wolves were commonplace; and a sheep that wandered off might well get stuck on a ledge or in a gorge somewhere, needing rescuing. So as well as a knapsack of food, the shepherd carried a ‘rod’ (crook) and a ‘staff’ (cudgel) as his two main tools. If a sheep was lost, the shepherd was held responsible unless he could produce its hooves or horns as evidence it had been eaten by an animal.

Another major difference was that sheep were kept primarily for their wool rather than for meat. This meant they lived much longer, and the bond between sheep and shepherd was much deeper.  Each shepherd spoke to his sheep in a unique ‘tongue’ quite distinct from ordinary Hebrew - see the account below - and would have specific names for each sheep, often based on their distinguishing features. Though not tied to any particular area, the sheep were instead ‘hefted’ to their shepherd’s voice; so much so that it was possible to have a common sheepfold for a village where all the flocks would mingle overnight, but then each flock would gather to their own shepherd when called out in the morning.

Since shepherds didn’t have sheepdogs, their leading of the flock had to rely on attraction from the front, rather than threatening from behind! The shepherd went ahead of the sheep, which meant he could look out for patches of good grass, and places for them to drink.  He never required them to go somewhere he had not already been ahead of them.

There were two different sorts of sheepfold: the large communal one just mentioned, which had a sturdy, lockable door and a guard each night; and much smaller folds out on the hills. These latter were suitable only for a single flock and with a narrow entrance but no door. When the shepherd had gathered his flock, he would lie down across the entrance such that he himself was the ‘door of the sheep’: nothing could go in or out unless he allowed it.

How shepherds call their flocks

In about 1860, H.V.Morton observed the way in which a Jewish shepherd talked to the sheep. “Sometimes he talks to them in a loud sing-song voice, using a weird language unlike anything I have ever heard in my life. The first time I heard this sheep and goat language I was on the hills at the back of Jericho.  A goat-herd had descended into a valley and was mounting the slope of an opposite hill, when turning round, he saw his goats had remained behind to devour a rich patch of scrub.  Lifting his voice, he spoke to the goats in a language that Pan must have spoken on the mountains of Greece.  It was uncanny because there was nothing human about it.  The words were animal sounds arranged in a kind of order.  No sooner had he spoken than an answering bleat shivered over the herd, and one or two of the animals turned their heads in his direction.  But they did not obey him.  The goat-herd then called out one word, and gave a laughing kind of whinny. Immediately a goat with a bell round his neck stopped eating, and, leaving the herd, trotted down the hill, across the valley, and up the opposite slopes.  The man, accompanied by this animal, walked on and disappeared round a ledge of rock.  Very soon a panic spread among the herd.  They forgot to eat.  They looked up for the shepherd.  He was not to be seen.  They became conscious that the leader with the bell at his neck was no longer with them.  From the distance came the strange laughing call of the shepherd, and at the sound of it the entire herd stampeded into the hollow and leapt up the hill after him”

The sincere Shepherd (vss 1-5)

Jesus's entry as the Shepherd of Israel has none of the skulduggery of a thief or a robber. He’s genuine; and both the doorkeeper and His own sheep recognise Him. They are attracted by the sound of His voice, whereas they will flee from a stranger’s voice. We will hear much more about this deep bond between the Shepherd and His sheep as we go on.  But inwardly, we recognise that ‘We are His people, the sheep of His pasture’ (Ps 100:3).

The context shows that the sheepfold referred to, is Israel; this sheepfold is large enough to have a door keeper, meaning it contains multiple flocks - the different sects & interest groups within Israel.  The psalmist addresses God as the Shepherd of Israel (Ps 80:1), calling on Him to come and save them.

The thieves and robbers are the Pharisees and Sanhedrim who Jesus has just been dealing with.  Thieves come stealthily, whereas robbers use overt force.  We see both in operation, in their stealthy attempts to have Jesus arrested or to discredit Him; and the use of authoritarian force in shutting His followers out of the synagogues.

Not all Israel will respond to the Shepherd’s call: only His own sheep. And He will call them by name I.e. individually.  He will call out 'a remnant' - a small handful - from amongst the nation as a whole, for 'Not all Israel, is Israel'.  They will hear His voice, in the sense of believing His teaching - unlike the Pharisees (v26).   And they will follow Him: follow His teachings; follow Him in bringing the gospel message to a hostile world; follow Him in feeding His sheep; follow Him in denying themselves and taking up their crosses.

Peter writes to Christian leaders: "Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly; nor as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock; and when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away.“ (1Pet 3:2-4)

The safeguarding Shepherd (vss 7-10)

Jesus recycles the simile for a  different purpose. This time He is talking of a small sheep pen out in the fields, suitable for only one flock, one shepherd.  And the shepherd Himself is the door. “No-one comes to the Father, but by Me.” (14:6)

There had been many false saviours, false Messiahs, prior to Jesus: see Acts 5:35-37.  Each time, the Roman Empire stepped in to quash any rebellion, and all their followers were killed.  But with Jesus it’s different.  His followers come into the sheepfold (this time, meaning the Church) through Him: and they can go in and come out.  To be able to come and go unmolested was the Jewish way of describing a life that is absolutely secure and safe.   Whereas when danger threatened, a city would be shut up under siege for example.

“The LORD will preserve you from all evil; He shall preserve your soul. The LORD shall preserve your going out and your coming in, from this time forth and even forevermore.” (Ps 121:8).

Unlike the thief’s motives, which are about death and destruction, Jesus's motive is that we might have ever-increasing zoe life.  Not just enough to stay alive, but an overflow, a surplus to give to others.  As we’ll see later, that life consists of knowing the only true God, and His Son Jesus (17:3).  He wants our relationship with Him to grow deeper and deeper!

“The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul; He leads me in the path of righteousness for His name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” (Ps 23:1-4)

The caring Shepherd (vss 11-13)

Wolves were a common threat to a flock. Jesus said of his disciples that he was sending them out as sheep in the midst of wolves (Matthew 10:16); Paul warned the elders of Ephesus that grievous wolves would come, not sparing the flock (Acts 20:29).  If these wolves attacked, the hireling shepherd forgot everything but the saving of his own life and ran away.  Jesus’s point is that the man who works only for reward thinks chiefly of the money; the man who works for love thinks chiefly of the people he is trying to serve.

The word for ‘good’ is καλος (kalos). This means morally good, but also attractive & beautiful: noble might be a better translation. He lays down His life for the sheep: He is totally focussed on their welfare rather than His own. This is άγαπη (agape) love in action: ‘Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down His life for His friends” (15:13). “God demonstrates His own love towards us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Rom 5::8)

The key to God’s character is that unlike the hired hand, He cares (v13).  You matter, to God.  Satan will often tempt us to believe that He doesn't care - that He’s randomly angry, or so distant and almighty that He can’t be bothered with our trivial problems.  But the truth is, He cares; this is a massive reason to. pray, and we are told to ‘Cast all your cares upon Him, for He cares for you.” (1Pet 5:7)

The understanding Shepherd (vss 14-16)

Another aspect of the Shepherd is that He knows His sheep. There is something deeply reassuring in knowing that you are known. Our families are a great source of comfort in this, and our spouses too. But still for most people there is a hunger to know and to be known, more deeply: a spiritual loneliness, if you will.

The noble Shepherd knows His sheep.  He knows each of us is different, with our own unique strengths and struggles. He knows we are all wayward soul-wise, and spiritually helpless.  He knows every detail of our life history, everything that has shaped and formed us.  And He loves us unconditionally.

His knowledge of us is both supernatural - omniscience, such as He showed with Nathanael - but also natural. Since He has been tempted in every respect as we are (though He never sinned), He sympathises with us in our weaknesses, and is the ideal Intercessor for us (Heb 4:15).

His heart's desire is for us to know Him - and to know Him more and more deeply.  And that through Him, that we might know the Father (14:7-9). This is the essence of eternal life (17:3) - to know Him, and His Father.

“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life, …. we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ”. (1John 1:1-3)

Our knowledge of Him, our fellowship with Him, comes in different ways.   We gradually grow in our grasp of the revelation He has given us in scripture.  We grow in our assurance of His goodness and mercy  (Ps 23:6). We grow in our experience of His victory over the world, the flesh and the devil in our lives.  But John is referring to something something beyond these.  True, he had entered heaven and seen Jesus in His glory (Rev 1:9-17).   But a one-off vision is not what he is describing.  Fellowship is a daily reality of the awareness of God's Presence, as both Father and Son: daily communion with them, as real as when John’s eyes had seen Jesus on earth, or heard Him, or touched Him.

Our knowing of Christ, is to be like His knowing of His Father (v15).  He was continuously aware of His Father’s heart, and His Father’s intentions and actions.   He is the ‘only-begotten’, continually being fathered through all eternity, His Father showing Him everything He is doing (5:19-20).

It is because He knows His Father’s heart, that He (Jesus) is about to lay down His life for the sheep.  Calvary lay only six months away at this point.  But Jesus can see way beyond that: He can see that the Father has given Him multitudes of sheep that are ‘not of this fold’ - I.e. Gentiles.  He gospel is to be preached 'to the Jew first, but also to the Gentiles’ (Matt 28:20; Rom 1:16). They too will hear the voice of the Son of God, calling them into life (5:25).

The self-sacrificing Shepherd (vss 17-18)

The Shepherd, out of His voluntary submission to the Father, yearns with His Father's yearning for the redemption of mankind.  He will not die of natural causes, or of man's malice, or as a miscarriage of Roman justice; but voluntarily.  He will lay down His soul-life (ψυχη) willingly, which is why the Father says of Him, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased’ (Matt 3:17).

Before the foundation of the world, He had committed to being ‘the Lamb whom God would provide’; the real sacrifice for sins to whom all other sacrifices pointed.  When He came into the world, He said: “Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, But a body You have prepared for Me.  In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You had no pleasure. Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come— In the volume of the book it is written of Me— To do Your will, O God.’ ”” (Heb 10:5–7)

His sacrifice is ‘for the sheep’.  Isaiah says, “Surely he has born our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” (Isa 53:3-6).

The Father had not only authorised Him to lay down His own life, but also to take it again (vss 17,18).  Christ died in order to rise, and by rising, to be glorified, and be seated at the Father’s right hand with the glory He had in eternity past (17:5).  From there, He would pour out the Spirit, so that all His flock might have eternal life (v28)

The everlasting Shepherd (vss 27-30)

The flock have been given into Jesus’s care by His Father.  While He was in the world, He lost none of them except Judas, the 'son of perdition’.  On leaving the world, He prays that His Father would keep them from the evil one, by sanctifying them with His word of truth (17:15-19).  Father and Son are utterly at one, just as much in the work of keeping and sanctifying His people as in their original salvation (v30).

Because the Father is greater than all, and has given Jesus the highest of all names, no-one will be able to snatch any true saint out of their hands.  Occasionally we hear of children being snatched on the street; but we are as safe as if we were being held between our Father's hand on one side, and our big brother's hand on the other.   This is the doctrine known as ‘the perseverance of the saints’.  [There will however be weeds sown amongst the harvest field: there will be antichrists who eventually leave rancorously, so that their true allegiance might be uncovered (1John 2:18-23).]

As sheep, we are inherently wayward, prone to wander and stray.  But we are ‘kept by the power of God, through faith, for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time’ (1Pet 1:5).  We are utterly secure in His care: not even Satan can snatch us out of His hands.

Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!

Oh what a foretaste of glory divine!

Heir of salvation, purchase of God,

Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.

Christ and the Church

What does this chapter teach us about the relationship between Christ and the Church?

• He calls people individually into the Church. For example, Peter James & John; Phillip (1:43); Matthew (Matt 9:9); Zacchaeus etc etc.  Each one has been individually given to Him by the Father; entrusted to His care.  One cannot become a sheep by joining a particular church, or going through a particular rite, or being born to Christian parents: you must be called personally, by Him.

• Though He calls those from different sheepfolds -Jews first, Gentiles later - we are all one in Christ Jesus. He is the Head of the Church, the Chief Shepherd. There is to be one flock and one Shepherd: Jews and Gentiles together will form a new man, a new type of human society (Eph 3:11-19) without barriers of race or culture.

• His sheep recognise His voice; Mary Magdalene thought He was the gardener, until she heard His voice (Jn 20:15,16). It is a promise of Christ, that you too will be able to hear His voice. If you don’t feel you can do so, or envy others their apparent ease in hearing, claim His promise from the Father.

• He leads us: He is the head of the Church, the ‘Great Shepherd’; all others are under-shepherds.  He nurtures and nourishes us (v9-10), leading us to fresh pastures and still waters; restoring our souls day by day.  He will never ask us to face something He has not faced, or go somewhere He has not gone before us.

• He knows us inside out - His omniscience means that He knows each of us, just as He knew Nathanael )1:47-50).  His desire and intention is that our knowledge of Him goes deeper and deeper, that the life that comes through our fellowship with Him and His Father grow more and more abundant. The steamed-up mirror of our present sight will clear, and we will know Him as fully as we are known (1Cor 13:12)

• We are utterly secure in His hands. Nothing and no-one in heaven or earth or under the earth, can abduct us from His care. “Neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus” (Rom 8:35-39)

The role of pastors

The word ‘pastor’ is just the Latin-origin equivalent for the word ‘shepherd’.  Jesus is referred to as ‘the Great Shepherd of the sheep’, and everyone with a pastoral ministry, whether ordained or informal, is simply an ‘under-shepherd’ who models themselves on Jesus’s example.  Every aspect of Jesus's character which is brought out in this chapter, is necessary in such a role.  But most of all, we need His shepherd heart.

Shepherds must feed their flock with the word of God, and enable them to drink of the Spirit. They must beat off attacking predators with their cudgel, but also rescue sheep from their own stupidity using a crook. Sometimes a fierce attack will come which causes the sheep to scatter and become even more vulnerable: we see this when churches suddenly fall apart. These are the wolves. But other times, people within a congregation try to develop a following of their own and draw members away, forming sects within the church and eventually leading to schisms. (Acts 20:26-35)

Whatever the form of threat, if we are pastors we need to step in between the flock and the threat; even if it means the attack then focusses on us.  Very often the attack will come against us, as it did with Jesus: for the enemy knows that if he can strike the shepherd, the sheep will be scattered and be that much more vulnerable to predation.  We need Jesus's courage, His care for each individual, His commitment to shepherd everyone God has entrusted to us, His compassion for their weaknesses and foolishnesses.

Jesus’s identity challenged again (10:19-42)

Jesus’s teaching about being the good Shepherd who would lay down His life and take it up again, caused intense controversy amongst the Jews.  Some were clear He was bonkers, possessed by a spirit of megalomania (v20).  Others realised the significance of healing a man with congenital blindness (v21).   It seems that this theme of being the good Shepherd was dominant throughout this climactic period of Jesus’s ministry in Jerusalem.

Three months after the Feast of Tabernacles, came the Feast of Dedication, now known as Hanukah. This had been instituted by Judas Maccabee following his guerrilla war against Antiochus, fought to reclaim the Temple which had been defiled. The key element was the re-lighting of the Menorah - the seven-branched candelabra which stood in the Holy Place, signifying the Holy Spirit and the light of the Spirit-inspired word of God.

Jesus was walking in Solomon’s Portico, which offered some shelter from the winter winds.  Knowing that everything about the Temple was symbolic of Him, He was perhaps thinking of how His body would be defiled at Calvary three months later, and then raised to life and glorified.  He knew He would be rededicated to serving the Church, through His dual roles of pouring out the Spirit and being our High Priest, our intercessor at God’s right hand.  In fact, He sanctified Himself - dedicated Himself to this new role - the night before the Cross (17:19)

His meditation was rudely interrupted by some of the Jews, who surrounded Him threateningly, blocking any avenue of ignoring or escaping them. They were annoyed by Jesus’s aura of mystery: was He the Messiah or not? Though He had declared Himself in private to the woman at the well (4:25,26) and the man born blind (9:35-37), and had confirmed His disciples’ understanding of this (Matt 16:13-16), He had studiously avoided declaring it publicly.  Perhaps this was because He knew the term carried all kinds of mistaken connotations, and would likely lead to Him being forced to become an earthly King (6:15): He knew that His Kingdom was not of this world.   It would also have brought down the wrath of Rome prematurely.  But these zealous Jews, whose Pharisee fathers had formed the backbone of Judas Maccabee’s forces, wanted a black-or-white, yes-or-no answer. The Feast, with its commemoration of national liberation, had perhaps stirred them to think it was ‘now or never’, to rebel against Rome.

Disconcertingly, Jesus says He has already told them: His miracles, especially the Messianic miracle of healing a man born blind, have clearly demonstrated who He is.   All His ‘signs’ were done in His Father’s Name.  Just as Peter would later use the authority of Jesus’s Name to heal the lame man at the Temple gate (Acts 3), so Jesus was operating not in His own authority, but for His Father’s glory and renown.  But the fact that God honoured Him through these miracles, attested His identity.

They have had plenty of proof of Jesus’s identity, and yet their question shows they still don't believe. Their unbelief shows that they cannot hear His voice: to them it is like the mysterious sing-song tones of a shepherd to his sheep.  This in turn shows that they are not His sheep: they are not part of the flock which His Father has given Him.  In fact, as He had told them (8:43,44), they belong to an entirely different flock, whose ‘father’ is the devil. They are goats, not sheep!

They may pride themselves on their religious observance and patriotic fervour, but they will never know or be known by Him, or follow Him. When He sits on His throne of judgement, He will say to them, “I never knew you; depart fromMe, you who practice lawlessness!” (Matt 7:23).

By contrast, those who can hear His voice, are known by Him and do follow Him, and have utterly secure zoe life. No sheep-rustler, however determined, will ever be able to abduct them from either His grip, or His Father’s grip. They are like a young child whose hands are being held on one side by their elder brother and on the other by their father.  Father and brother are utterly united in keeping them safe: “I and the Father are one” (10:30).

Another attempt to kill Him

This was just too much for them. To be excluded from the warmth and security of Messiah’s kingdom, whilst others much less worthy (in their eyes) were utterly secure inside. But Jesus had at last given them justification for stoning Him for blasphemy.  His last statement, they recognised, was more than just a claim to be in complete agreement with God.  It was a claim to be God!

Their lifetime mantra, the Shema, said: “Hear O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is One”.   But here was a man - the Greek word means a human being, rather than a god - making Himself out to be God.  In calling God His Father, He was claiming to be the Son of God: the unique, one-of-a-kind, only-begotten Son of the Father.  And their Law said, “He who blasphemes the name of the Lord shall be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him” (Lev 24:16).

They began preparing to stone Him.  Since the Temple was still under sonstruction, there were loose stones on hand.  But Jesus challenged them saying, “Which of My miracles, done in My Father’s Name, is any justification for you to stone Me?”  Under the Law, even if a so-called prophet did great miracles, if he led them astray from worshipping only Yahweh, he was to be killed (Deut 13:1-5).   They explain that it is blasphemy, not miracles, they are stoning Him for.

Jesus quotes Psalm 82:6, 'I said, You are gods'.  Though He quotes only a brief portion, the whole psalm is relevant.  It is a Messianic psalm that looks back to the appointment of judges amongst the people of Israel, just prior to the revealing of the Law at Sinai (Ex 18:18-26). The psalmist recognises that the judges have become corrupt and unjust, showing favour to the wicked whilst failing to defend the poor and fatherless.  The judges do not know or understand God’s ways - they ‘walk in darkness’, making the foundations of human society unstable.   God declares that though they may be ‘gods’, like Him in the sense of having the power of life and death over others, they will nevertheless die like all other men. But the psalmist’s plea is for a restoration of God’s direct rule over all mankind, not just the Jews: ‘Arise, O God, judge the earth; for You shall inherit all nations’.

Jesus’s argument goes like this: “If the infallible word of God, which you so prize, calls Jewish judges ‘gods’, then why do you count it blasphemy for the one appointed as judge of all and sent into the world by Almighty God, to call Himself the Son of God?”  He continues, “If I am not doing works which only Almighty God can do, then don’t believe My words.   But if I am, then even though you don’t believe my words, believe the evidence of your eyes.  Then you will know, and come to understand, the mutual indwelling between Me and My Father.  Here on earth, He is in Me; and above, in heaven, I am in Him.”  His unity with the Father is much more than just functional: it is unity of substance within the Godhead.

In referring to His Father’s sanctifying of Him ( we might use the word, ‘ordination’), Jesus is once again referring them back to the meaning of the Feast of Dedication.  If they are celebrating the dedication of the physical Temple after a period of defilement, why would they not celebrate the Father’s dedication of His only-begotten Son, so that ‘whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life’?

This is Jesus’s last plea to the Jewish leaders to believe: it’s their last opportunity to avoid the terrible curses that He will pronounce over them if they do not (Matt 23).   His argument was enough to stop them stoning Him, but not enough to prevent them seeking to arrest Him.  Maybe they felt the issue needed to be tried before the Sanhedrin?  But as on several occasions before, Jesus escaped: His time had not yet come, and His Father was protecting Him till then.

Jesus realises that He needs to lower the temperature, till Passover.  He and His disciples withdraw to the place where He had been baptised by John, on the far side of the Jordan river (v40).  This was the place where He had identified with mankind through baptism, and where His identity had been so clearly heralded by John the Baptist.   It was the place where His Father had declared, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased”.  The locals remembered those events well, and realised that everything John has said about Him had proved true - even though John himself had done no miracles to validate his ministry.   Many believed in Jesus at this time: the contrast with the skeptical Judaean leaders could not have been more stark!