We Christians are now in the period we call Eastertide--those weeks between resurrection and Pentecost.
We have been focusing on the recognition of the resurrected Jesus by those closest to him. This Sunday, the gospel reading returns to events in his final journey to Jerusalem.
He is in the temple. It's Hanukkah, a time for remembering the rededication of the temple after the Maccabeans' successful revolt about two hundred years earlier.
They would have heard about him--including how he had healed many and fed many. But they weren't sure who he was. Some believed he was the promised Messiah. Others did not.
"How long will you keep us in suspense," they asked him that day. "If you are the Messiah, say so."
He responded to them, "I've told you before, but my saying it didn't make you believe. You saw the work that I could do, but the evidence of your own eyes didn't make you believe."
They weren't the last witnesses who weren't able to believe. To paraphrase Chrysostom, it takes a sheep to recognize a shepherd.
If hearing and seeing don't do it for us, what will?
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