No One Knows The Hour (part 37)

Before tackling the specific text from which this study commenced and provided the title of the study, it will be appropriate to take the opportunity to bolster the conjecture in which this effort has been engaged concerning second Peter.  To get there, one must first look to Matthew.  As Jesus continues on with His discourse about the fall of the Temple, he says to “stay alert, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.  But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, He would have been alert and would not have let his house be broken into” (Matthew 24:42-43).  Because of what has been determined, that the author of second Peter is referencing the prediction that the Temple would indeed fall, it is not at all surprising to hear him say “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief” (3:10a), as the analogy is drafted into use. 

Along the same lines, if second Peter is being written with a knowledge of that which will eventually come to be communicated in Matthew twenty-four, then it is also unsurprising to hear the regular references to Noah and the judgment of the flood, especially considering what Jesus can be heard to say with “For just like the days of Noah were, so the coming of the Son of Man will be.  For in those days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and given in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark” (24:37-38).  To that, Jesus adds “And they knew nothing until the flood came and took them all away.  It will be the same at the coming of the Son of Man” (24:39). 

If Jesus’ prediction is, in fact, in mind, and if questions concerning the legitimacy of His prediction and therefore His ministry and therefore the church and its proclamation concerning Him, then this provides an interesting avenue by which to approach something to be found in the first chapter of the letter, which is “Moreover, we possess the prophetic word as an altogether reliable thing.  You do well to pay attention to this as you would to a light shining in a murky place” (1:19a). 

In the third chapter of the letter, after insisting that the day of the Lord will come like a thief, a question is proffered: “Since all these things are to melt away in this manner,” as one remembers the three uses of “these things” in the synoptic recountings of Jesus’ discourse (while also remembering that, if this is indeed written before the Temple’s fall, that there is no access to Matthew, but rather, only the oral tradition and possibly Mark, if it was written before the fall, though this particular letter seems to make reference to that which would find its way into the Matthean tradition), “what sort of people must we be?” (3:11) 

Jesus proposes an answer to this question about the sort of people that His people must be as they wait for the fall of the Temple and the coming of the Son of Man to receive His kingdom.  He says “Who then is the faithful and wise slave, whom the master has put in charge of his household, to give the other slaves their food at the proper time?  Blessed is that slave whom the master finds at work when he comes.  I tell you the truth, the master will put him in charge of all his possessions” (24:45-47).  He then goes on to provide a contrast with an evil slave. 

Jesus continues, saying “At that time,” the time when the Son of Man comes to the Ancient of Days and the Temple falls, “the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom” (25:1), with a further contrast between those that were wise and foolish in their preparation in relation to the coming of the bridegroom (who clearly stands in for the Son of Man for purposes of this parable).  Following that, Jesus offers up that which is referred to as “the parable of the talents,” saying “For it is like a man going on a journey, who summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them” (25:14).  Like the previously mentioned slaves, these slaves were all given certain responsibilities. 

Continuing to seek the answer to “what sort of people must we be?”, Jesus is heard saying “When the Son of Man comes in His glory and all the angels with Him” (another telling mention of angels---not even the angels in heaven know when the Son of Man is going to come to the ancient of days), “then He will sit on His glorious throne.  All the nations will be assembled before Him,” as Daniel seven indicates, “and He will separate people from one another like a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.  He will put the sheep on His right and the goats on His left.  Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (25:31-34). 

Good Shepherd (part 1 of 2)

Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and robber. – John 10:1  (ESV)

Having put forward this thought, Jesus embarks on a series of statements about entering the door as the shepherd of the sheep, about gatekeepers, about sheep hearing the voice of true shepherd, about their not following strangers, and about sheep fleeing from that voice.  It is then said, not surprisingly, that “they did not understand what He was saying to them” (10:6b).  This lack of understanding must have been communicated by either facial expression or verbally, because Jesus goes on to elaborate, repeating His dictum of “Truly, truly, I say to you”, and going on to say, “I am the door of the sheep” (10:7).  He then makes a slight change to His previous statement in regards to those that climb in by another way, and by doing so, makes it more direct and applicable, saying that “All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them” (10:8). 

What does Jesus mean when He said that “All who came before Me are thieves and robbers”?  About whom is He talking?  He is obviously not talking about the prophets.  He is probably not talking about humans in general, and it is unlikely that He is referring to the leaders of Israel in that day.  So we must look to the context in which this discourse about being the “good shepherd” is presented.  What is it that comes before the beginning of the tenth chapter of John? 

The ninth chapter of John is taken up with the story of the man who had been born blind, but who had been healed by Jesus.  This story include a notation that anyone confessing Jesus to be the Christ was to be put out of the synagogue (9:22).  Clearly, the idea that this Jesus fellow might very well be the Messiah, was present, with this aside accounting for that fact.  As we come to the close of the ninth chapter, Jesus encounters the formerly blind man again, asks him if he believes in the Son of Man (9:35).  This title carried huge significance to the people of that day.  Upon confirming that he had a desire to believe in the Son of Man, and perhaps more specifically in the ideas, hopes, dreams, and aspirations of God’s people that were represented by that title “Son of Man,” Jesus tells him that “it is He Who is speaking to you” (9:37b). 

Naturally, this follows from the eighth chapter, in which there has been much talk about Jesus Himself, based on His declaration that He was “the light of the world” (8:12).  Though this is not our focus here, with these words, we can hear Jesus positioning Himself as the embodiment of national Israel, taking up what was to have been the task of Israel itself, as it was God’s covenant people Israel that were supposed to be the light of the world.  This, of course, follows from chapter seven, in which we find the people openly asking “When the Christ appears, will he do more signs that this man has done?” (7:31b).  Again, this was Messiah-speak by the people, as “the Christ” was understood to the “anointed One” of God, with such anointing hearkening back to the anointing of the kings of Israel, especially Saul, David, and Solomon. 

It was these words that led to the first movement by the chief priests and Pharisees to arrest Jesus, most likely because He was creating Messianic expectations amongst the people, but had not attempted to gain the support of any of the influential factions or ruling parties.  This may very well have been a political calculation, to test Jesus’ true popularity amongst the people, to bring him in for questioning, and to offer Him a deal to stand in solidarity with the chief priests and Pharisees, depending on the outcome of some private conversations.  Jesus, however, as He would later declare, always spoke openly in the Temple and in the synagogues, purposely avoiding such back-room dealings and the problems that lie therein. 

Finally, we look back to the sixth chapter.  Though the event took place in Galilee and not in Jerusalem, there was already some type of movement afoot in regards to Jesus-as-Messiah, as upon the great and miraculous feeding that had been at His hand, the people responded by saying “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world” (6:14b); and together with that statement of clear, Messianic significance they “were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king” (6:15b).  This is to what Israel, almost as a whole, was constantly looking.  So as we consider all of these things from the sixth chapter, on through Jesus’ shepherd statements of the tenth chapter, it must be remembered that these things are occurring in the context of the often-stoked expectations of the people, beginning with the first major revolt of the second century B.C. and the establishment of the ruling, Hasmonean dynasty, that it was well past the time for their God to enter into history, to send His Messiah, to forcibly remove the pagans from their land, to violently lift the yoke of oppression, and to exalt Israel as chief over all the nations of the world.  It is such remembrance that will give full weight to Jesus’ speaking of Himself as the shepherd of the people.