Ed, my old neighbour from Saskatchewan, was convinced I should not take a plot in a community garden here in the city. "Gardens are no place for any man, even an old geezer like you,” Ed insisted over the phone last week. I have a few weeks to decide if I will garden here in Chilliwack. A community garden plot would allow me to try gardening in British Columbia. I have gardened in Ontario, Saskatchewan and Alberta. Now I have a chance to garden in one more province. I feel it is an opportunity too good to pass up, but I’m stuck between maybe I will and maybe I won’t.
“The weather, weeds, bugs and blights are just as troublesome in British Columbia as they are here in Saskatchewan," Ed warned me. I could not argue with him, as gardening is always a challenge, but the frost free days are considerably longer in number here in Chilliwack as compared to Melville. My old neighbour believed golfing and fishing should consume my time and energy in the days ahead. I admit saying that I had gone golfing or gone fishing could be viewed as better by some, rather than saying I have gone to the garden. Ed does not want to hear that I am a gardener.
The enemies of Jesus did not want to hear Jesus say he was the good shepherd, especially one who would lay down his life for his sheep. They wanted Jesus to confess openly to them he was the Christ, promised by God. Jesus replied to his enemies he had told them, but they did not believe him. He said to them the miracles he did in his Father’s name spoke of his identity as the Christ. The reason they did not believe him to be the Saviour from God was because they were not his sheep or followers.
Sheep in the time of Jesus knew the voice of their shepherd. They would follow only their shepherd's voice. Shepherds led their sheep to pasture and water. Those following Jesus did so because they listened to his voice and trusted him. No matter how many miracles Jesus performed, his enemies refused to put their confidence in him. If he openly said he was the Christ, they would have cause to kill him by stoning him.
Jesus did say before his enemies that he would give his followers eternal life. His Father, who was greater than all, had given his sheep to him. He also said he and his Father were one. His opponents picked up stones to stone him. Jesus asked them which of his miracles was responsible for his threatened stoning. They replied that they were not putting him to death for his miracles. They were ready to stone him for blasphemy, because he, a mere man, claimed to be God.
Some still refuse to hear Jesus was the Christ. Many are confident that he was simply a man, possibly a good one, but not truly one with God. Jesus’s enemies never denied his miracles and those showed the Father was in Jesus, and Jesus was in the Father. Jesus was and is God, accept it or not.
