Jesus In The Winter

John 10:22

Now it was the Feast of Dedication in Jerusalem, and it was winter.

I came across this verse as part of my morning devotional. I have made it a practice to go back to the Bible and read the verse mentioned in my morning readings and try to get the context of the verse as one would a star in the sky or a jewel in a crown. I don't know why I found the mention of it being winter to be so poignant. Seeing Jesus in my mind's eye in the winter weather and seeking shelter in Solomon's Porch/Temple has both prosaic and profound layers. We had four snows in the last week so I had been primed for wintery reflections.

On the practical level, Jesus in His humanity, is cold. Jerusalem, due to its elevation, experiences colder temperatures than most of Israel. It is truly a "City on a Hill." And it snows. With the profound layer, the Temple was the epicenter of Jewish culture and the ground zero of Jerusalem. About a century and a half before, the Maccabees had violently driven out profane Hellenization from the Temple. The historical events were celebrated in the Jewish Festival of Lights, what we now know as Hanukkah, aka the Feast of Dedication, which was actually a rededication. For the Temple had been dedicated originally under Solomon's reign.

Jesus is revisiting the reign of Solomon when Israel was at its highest ascendant position globally. Now, in the first century, Rome had its snowy boot on Jerusalem's neck. The Jews prayed that God would bring a military and political leader to make the Romans pay. A return of revenge in spades and swords. When Jesus spoke of loving ones enemies, it wasn't real vague about who the # 1 enemy was. It rankled the Jews who did not believe in Jesus incessantly that He was so "spiritual" about everything. They wanted Roman blood and their collaborators to run frozen in the streets.

If the reign of theocracy in Israel had been seasons, there had been a Spring, Summer, and Fall. Now, it was Winter. God had promised in Deuteronomy that the Jews would experience desolation if they were disobedient. The summer sins had now left a wintery and barren fields of regret and dissolution in the Vineyard. Rather than repent, the country desired to strike out at its perceived enemies rather than the enemy in their own hearts and souls. Chapter 10 in John second half shows this projection from pride. The nation and their own souls were in the balance and found wanting. It was winter.

Back in college, there was a huge parcel of land between the dorms and the Brookwood apartment complex where most of the parties happened. It was Millersville University's equivalent of fraternity row, just a degraded version. This land, now a parking lot, was nicknamed the "Tundra." One had to walk a quarter-mile or so across the frozen field both to and from the parties. In a very profound symbolical parallel, my soul was that Tundra. I went to the parties looking to be warmed but walked away frozen, despite the sweltering excesses of college students under the influence. It left me cold. I walked that field one last time and never went back. I had found the scene, myself, and others, wanting. I wanted more.

Lest we judge Jerusalem and Israel too harshly, we must always keep front and center, our own sins that put Jesus on the Cross. He died for the sins of the world, yours, mine, everyones. In the furor arising from the GQ comments of the Duck Dynasty Patriarch, the battle array falls along the typical lines. The Chic-Fil-A militia of the Lord versus the godless Pagans. The faithful vs. the faithless. I have little use for television-generated stardom and celebrity. That these shows and their participants gain such a large audience to start with already shows us to be pathetic and craven. We live inside the world of make-believe. Truly, the entertainment cord needs to be cut. We are being amused to death. We Christians feed the beast when we dig our snouts in this rubbish. We are playing our own fiddles while Rome burns. No Nero needed. A fast food enterprise become the reservoir of righteousness--a Temple of tasty junky food and demonstrably devilish diabetes-inducing sugar-laden soda pop? It is all so sad and pathetic.

God come to us in this Winter....