“I AM GOD’S SON”… During this exact same time of the year 2000 years ago, while everyone else was celebrating a festival, Jesus continued doing the same thing He had done for the past 3 years. Knowing His death was only a few months away, Jesus appealed to religious folks to believe that He was the Son of God. His revelations shook their world and continue to shake ours today as we contemplate the true meaning of our “holiday” celebrations.

“Then came the Festival of Dedication at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was in the temple courts walking in Solomon’s Colonnade.” John 10:22-23

There He was, the Only Begotten Son of God, walking in the midst of mankind here on Planet Earth, in one of the most venerated buildings in the entire world. The Colonade was known in Solomon’s day as the Hall of Judgment, the place where the King would pronounce final judgment in matters of law. But most folks were so busy celebrating, they couldn’t even see that the man, Jesus, the Son of God, the reason for the festival itself, was standing right there in their midst.

The 8-day Festival of Dedication, known today as Hanukkah, had begun several centuries earlier after an epic 3-year struggle by their ancestors against pagan practices that sought to destroy their relationship with God. Perhaps they had not seen how pervasive it was until the prohibition against the worship of the One True God was issued and a Greek idol had been profanely erected on the High Altar in the Temple itself. After successfully regaining control of the Temple, and spiritually and physically cleansing it, the people realized their need to rededicate the Temple to Almighty God and His Enduring Word. Indeed, the turmoil they had been through just intensified their longing for their Messiah-Deliverer to establish His kingdom in their midst.

As people began to recognize Jesus as the one who had also physically and spiritually cleansed the Temple earlier during the spring Passover Festival (John 2:13-17) and declared himself as the Living Water just a couple months before at the fall Festival of Tabernacles (John 7:37-44), they began to gather around Him. Predictably, as they reflected on the events that had led to the Festival of Dedication, their questions reflected their intense desire for the arrival of the Messiah. “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.” John 10:24

When Jesus answered them, it was about as plain and to-the-point as you can get. In fact, He had just told a group of Pharisees exactly that when they questioned His miraculous healing of a blind man, recorded in the previous chapter.

“I did tell you, but you do not believe. The works I do in my Father’s name testify about me, but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” John 10:25-30

We can immediately sense that this very moment in time was pivotal in the timeline of Jesus as Messiah. In fact, he seems to be saying that His human nature was the Temple of the Divine, and finally in His own words, “I and the Father are one.” All the pieces of the puzzle were coming together, and the picture that was being revealed was undeniable. Yet the people—His people—still resisted and would not believe that Jesus was fulfilling His appointment as Messiah as He literally stood before them.

“Again (they) picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?” John 10:31-32

“We are not stoning you for any good work,” they replied, “but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.” John 10:33

"Jesus answered them, 'Is it not written in your Law, "I have said you are “gods”? If he called them ‘gods,’ to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be set aside— what about the one whom the Father set apart (sanctified) as his very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, ‘I am God’s Son’? Do not believe me unless I do the works of my Father. But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.' Again they tried to seize him, but he escaped their grasp." John 10:34-39

Jesus pointed out the great irony that if the world’s defiled and unjust rulers are referred to as gods in scripture (Psalm 82) how much more is the One who is sanctified and set apart from the world by God Himself to be declared “God”. Perhaps the hidden gem here is the fact that the Greek word “sanctified” translated into Hebrew means “dedication,” So literally, Jesus is pointing to Himself as the fulfillment of the Feast of Dedication, sanctified by the Almighty to stand undefiled as His Temple. In every respect He was the TRUE Dedication of the Temple.

But they still didn’t believe Him. Sounds a lot like us today, right at this very moment as further scripture study reveals other “gems”. Haggai 2 states that on the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month on God’s calendar, the foundation of His temple was laid. “From this day on I will bless you.” On the same day, Zerubbabel is designated “a servant of the Lord” and marked as the signet ring of the Lord, guaranteeing His blessing through him from then on. Jesus is in the direct line of Zerubbabel as recorded in Matthew 1:1-16 which clearly establishes Jesus as the legal heir to the throne through the kings of Israel, but he still emphasizes Mary as the biological parent “of whom” Jesus was born.

“From this day on I will bless you” indicates the blessing moves forward from the appointed 24th day of the 9th month. The next day, the 25th, reckoned by biblical count, begins the evening of the 24th day. New Testament scholars and theologians N.T. Wright and Michael Bird document in their current book, “New Testament Theology: The New Testament in its World” that the rededication of the Temple occurred exactly three years after its desecration by the Greeks on December 25th, 164 B.C. The Apocrypha With Notes, repeats the same historical fact. Since God's festival days follow a lunar calendar, and do not fall on the same date on our solar Gregorian calendar every year, it would have been easy to mistake the Julian calendar date of December 25 as the anniversary date of the dedication, instead of calculating it by the lunar calendar pattern set forth in God’s Word. The beginning of the Festival of Dedication to which Jesus points Himself as the fulfillment in every way, the 25th day of God’s 9th month on the lunar calendar, begins the evening of December 26 on our 2024 solar/lunar Gregorian calendar.

So now we can begin to see the BIGGER picture coming into focus. St. Clement of Alexandria (c. 150 – 215) references the same date and also speaks of Jesus earthly fulfillment in a most unexpected way, “And there are those who have determined not only the year of our Lord’s birth, but also the day; and they say that it took place in the twenty-eighth year of Augustus, and in the twenty-fifth day of Pachon. (9th month on Coptic calendar) The later Apostolic Constitutions, an ancient work compiled between 375 and 390 A.D. dealing with all manner of Christian life and practice, both for clergy and laity repeats the same date and also instructs the celebration of ALL the festival days. : “Brethren, observe the festival days; and first of all the birthday which you are to celebrate on the 25th of the ninth month” (Book V., sect. iii., 13).

Today, right this very minute, Jesus is gifting us with the same words He spoke over 2000 years ago, still speaking to folks so busy with their holiday celebration they don’t recognize that it is just a shadow of God’s anointed Holy Day manifesting the Incarnation of the Son of God…

"I AM GOD’S SON."