When John opens this section of his Gospel with the words, “It was the Feast of Dedication in Jerusalem. It was winter,” he is not simply marking time on a calendar.  

John is signaling that everything Yeshua is about to say must be heard against the backdrop of Hanukkah, the Feast of Dedication. A celebration of light, restoration, and the rededication of God’s House. After it had been defiled by foreign kings and compromised leaders within Israel. 

Hanukkah reminds Israel and the Jewish community that God is faithful, even when leaders fail, even when His Temple is desecrated, when darkness seems to win. It recalls how God preserved His people and restored true worship by the Maccabees.  

It also reminded Israel of the dangers of spiritual compromise the very thing that had allowed Hellenism, pagan practices, and foreign corruption to enter God’s sanctuary in the first place. 

And into that festival of light, identity, kingship, and revelation steps Yeshua, standing in the Temple courts and declaring who He truly is. After centuries of waiting for the Messiah.  

Israel’s leaders surround Him and demand, “If You are the Messiah, tell us plainly.” But Yeshua refuses to let them define His Messiahship on their terms. Instead, He reveals Himself through His works, His voice, and His unity with the God and Father of Israel. 

Hanukkah provides the perfect setting for Yeshua to reveal that He is the true Light, the true Shepherd, and the true Temple the One who restores, protects, and gives everlasting life to all who come to Him. 

Just as God acted in the days of the Maccabees to cleanse and rededicate His earthly Temple, God acted through Yeshua to reveal His glory, gather His people, and make us into a holy people filled with His Spirit. 

Hanukkah celebrated God’s deliverance in the past.  Yeshua announced God’s deliverance in the present. And He taught about His future deliverance of Israel in the future. 

Hanukkah is celebrated to recall the rededication of the Temple after Antiochus Epiphanes the Selucid king defiled it. It is a celebration of God’s faithfulness and preservation of His people, and the restoration of true worship. 

Antiochus declared his sovereignty over Israel and assumed kingship, asserting that his rule was supported by the gods of Hellenism. 

During the festival of light and rededication, Yeshua presented himself as the Shepherd King in the likeness of Israel’s greatest king, David. He asserted that He was sent by the God and Father of Israel. 

So Hanukkah is the perfect backdrop of what unfolds in these verses. It is a festival about identity, purity, kingship, and revelation. 

It begins with a confrontation in John 10:24 The Jewish leaders gathered around Him, and were saying to Him, “How long will You keep us in suspense? If You are the Messiah, tell us plainly.” 

During Hanukkah, Jewish leaders surround Yeshua in Solomon’s Portico in the Temple and demand clarity from Him. This is not a benign and honest question. The Greek word translated “surround” carries the sense of pressing in to intimidate.  

They wanted Yeshua to define Himself according to their expectations. 

Hanukkah was a time of remembering a miraculous deliverance from an ungodly tyrant and rule. The memory of the Maccabees still stirred national hope of a political liberator to overthrow Rome. 

But Yeshua refuses to let the crowd define His Messiahship through the lens of military power or nationalism. Instead, He responds in three ways by 1) His works, 2) His voice, and 3) His relationship with the Father. 

Concerning His Works – v 25 He says ““I told you, and you do not believe; the works that I do in My Father’s name, these testify of Me. 

Hanukkah commemorates the miraculous deliverance of God’s people against impossible odds. So, Yeshua points to His own works as an even greater testimony of His power to bring deliverance. 

The healing of the blind, the raising of the dead, the cleansing of unclean lepers all were signs that the Kingdom of God and His Messiah had come. While Hanukkah recalls the restoration of the Temple, Yeshua’s works point to the restoration of God’s people. 

He restores both the Holy Temple in Jerusalem and its people. However, verse 26 states that, due to the leaders’ unbelief, they will not find what they seek: “But you do not believe because you are not of My sheep.” 

Their issue was not a lack of information. It was where they were in their walk with God and the attitude of their hearts.  They refused to hear, to see, to follow. 

Hanukkah historically reminds Israel that compromise with the world led the nation to spiritual blindness. Here again, the people and their leaders would not be able to recognize the very One whom the Temple was built to honor Immanuel: Isaiah 7:14 

Therefore, the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel. 

In vv. 27-29 Yeshua reveals that He is true Shepherd of Israel. “My sheep hear My voice and I know them They follow Me and I give them eternal life They will never perish No one can snatch them from My hand.” 

These words contrast sharply with the corrupt shepherds of Israel criticized by the prophets such as Ezekiel in 34:1-3 “Then the word of the LORD came to me saying, “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy and say to those shepherds, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD, “Woe, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flock? 

During Hanukkah, Israel remembered not only the oppressive actions of Antiochus Epiphanes, but also the tragic failure of Israel’s own priesthood in the years leading up to the Maccabean revolt.  

Several of Israel’s high priests, such as Jason and Menelaus, embraced Hellenism, adopting Greek customs, values, and even forms of worship. Their compromise opened the door for pagan influence in the Temple itself. 

They permitted the construction of a gymnasium near the Temple, participated in Greek athletic events, and even altered priestly practices to please foreign rulers to gain political and financial advantages. They children became the Sadducees. 

This erosion of holiness inside God’s House eventually set the stage for Antiochus to desecrate the Temple with idolatry. Thus, Hanukkah became a yearly reminder that spiritual compromise by God’s shepherds can lead to corruption and suffering.  

The celebration of the Maccabee victory was not merely about defeating an external enemy; it was also a call to repentance from Israel’s unfaithfulness, especially within the priesthood and Levites. 

Into that historical memory, Yeshua is described John 10 as the faithful Shepherd and the true Leader of Israel, standing in contrast to corrupt shepherds who were leading God’s people astray by embracing the world’s values instead of God’s. 

Yeshua presents Himself as the faithful Shepherd who gathers, protects, and preserves His flock. He provides what no earthly deliverer could: security, protection, intimacy with the God and Father of Israel, and eternal life, 

Just as the Maccabees delivered Israel from Antiochus and Hellenism, Yeshua delivered His people from darkness itself. 

Then in Jn 10:30 Yeshua, has the chutzpah to say, “I and the Father are one.” This is the climax of this confrontation.  In the very season celebrating God’s faithfulness to dwell among His people, 

Yeshua here declares His unity with the Father. Not merely unity of purpose but unity of essence. The Temple was the symbol of God’s presence. Yeshua is the embodiment of God’s presence. 

Hanukkah celebrates the rededication of the House of God. In Yeshua, God is present in flesh. He described His Body as the Temple of God in John 2:18 when the leaders of Israel reacted to His overturning the tables in the Temple. 

“The (Judeans) then said to Him, “What sign do You show us as your authority for doing these things?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Judeans then said, “It took forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?” But He was speaking of the temple of His body.” 

So what does Hanukkah teach us about Yeshua today? He is the true Light in a world of darkness led by counterfeit kings and false shepherds. 

During Hanukkah we remember a man who claimed divinity and brought darkness. Antiochus. While Yeshua on Hanukkah was bringing God’s true Light, that brings life and revelation.  

He revealed what was misunderstood and not know about God and His promised Messiah. 

Yeshua is the true Temple 

The Temple was restored but Yeshua is the living Temple where God dwells. What made the Temple holy was the Spirit of God that resided in the Holy of Holies. When Yeshua died on the cross God though an earthquake tore the veil of the Temple, symbolizing that God left the building. 

Yeshua died during Passover, rose from the dead on Bikkurim (First Fruits), and then, 50 days later on the Day of Pentecost, sent the Holy Spirit—the Third Person of God—to live within those who would receive Him. 

Those who come to Him we are also being made into a holy dwelling a Temple of God. 

Today Yeshua is the Good Shepherd who speaks to both Jews but to Gentiles. Nothing really has changed, we have false shepherds today just as in the days of Ezekiel and in the days of Yeshua.  

Just as Ezekiel foretold in 34: Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the LORD: “As I live,” declares the Lord GOD, “surely because My flock has become a prey, My flock has even become food for all the beasts of the field for lack of a shepherd, and My shepherds did not search for My flock, but rather the shepherds fed themselves and did not feed My flock; therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the LORD … 

I will deliver My flock from their mouth, so that they will not be food for them.”’” For thus says the Lord GOD, “Behold, I Myself will search for My sheep and seek them out. 

His sheep then and today head His voice. And to this day God is calling His sheep. He is the Good Shepherd who has revealed Himself in the Person of Yeshua. He leads. He protects and He gives everlasting, and abundant life to all who will come to Him. 

Yeshua calls us to rededication Hanukkah is about cleansing the Temple. Paul says today we are the Temple of God’s Spirit. Hanukkah invites every believer to examine their lives, to remove defilement, and rededicate themselves to the God of Israel who preserves and sanctifies His people. 

At Hanukkah, Israel remembered a courageous stand for the purity of God’s house. Yeshua steps into this feast and reveals that He is the One who purifies, restores, and preserves. 

He is the true Light – the true Shepherd – the true Temple – the true Messiah. 

Hanukkah is not only a celebration of past deliverance but a pointer to the One who brings eternal deliverance.  And to all who hear His voice and follow Him He gives eternal life and no one can snatch them from His hand. 

Christmas and Hanukkah do not share a historical origin, but they share a profound spiritual theme.  

Hanukkah celebrates the restoring of God’s house and the triumph of light over darkness. Christmas celebrates the coming of the Light of the World. Both testify that God steps into our darkness to bring deliverance.