Work's that Testify part 2

Last week we looked at the beginning of this passage. We discovered that the Feast of Dedication is Hanukkah and has nothing to do with Christmas as many assume it does but is an eight-day celebration established as a memorial to the purification and rededication of the temple after it had been desecrated three years earlier. We also noticed that the religious leaders have surrounded Jesus and put Him to the question if, in fact, He is the Messiah (Christ). We discovered that this festival going on supports what is going on with the religious leaders. They are so emphatic on the tenets of Judaism that they do not recognize the desperate need for repentance and a turning back to God. This is why Jesus goes back to the Good Shepherd reference, they do not know the voice of the Shepherd because all they know is the voice of legalism. Just as the rededication of the temple was not marked with repentance, but a reestablishment of the tenant's Judaism. So, also the religious leaders do not understand they need repentance and so as we will see today they react with violence. The religious leaders cannot take what Jesus is saying, they do not comprehend what He means. Jesus will use scripture to again define the meaning and even with their deep understanding of what they believe the scriptures say, they do not understand and seek to do violence against Jesus. We must ensure we are understanding what Jesus is saying, are we open to the truth of the Gospel, the Word of God, or are we like the religious leaders and so fixated on the legalism of the tenants we cannot hear or understand His voice.