Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Easter
(John 10:22-30)
Experts tell people unused to publicity never to joke with the press. In today’s media when journalists often make the news themselves, they are inclined to give the most controversial interpretation possible to anything a public person says. For this reason people of responsibility, if they talk with reporters at all, are very cautious and exact. In a similar way Jesus deftly answers his interrogators in the gospel today.
The Jews ask Jesus to state clearly whether or not he is the long-awaited Christ or Messiah. We may notice how this question is the exact one put to Jesus during his interrogation by the high priest in the Gospels according to Matthew, Mark, and Luke which the Gospel of John treats very differently. Jesus gives a similarly indirect answer in Matthew, Mark, and Luke as he does here. He implies that he is the Christ and his works testify to it, but the Jews still do not believe.
Prudent and intelligent, Jesus outwits his enemies again. But his accomplishment just begins here. More importantly, the Father has given him the power not to lose any of his sheep. We can rest assured, therefore, that as long as we stay close to Jesus, the Good Shepherd, nothing will ever really harm us. Come cancer, fire, even murder, Jesus will save us from disaster.
