4th Sunday after Easter
John 10: 22-30
"My Sheep, Hear My Voice"
"It was the feast of the Dedication at Jerusalem; it was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the portico of Solomon. So the Jews gathered round him and said to him, "How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly." Jesus answered them, "I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name, they bear witness to me; but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; and I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one." John 10:22-30, RSV.
Grace and Peace to you from our Lord and Saviour, Jesus who is the risen Christ. Amen
At first glance, our gospel lesson this morning seems out of place. This story takes place before the events of the Passion week, before Jesus’ death on the gross, before his resurrection As a matter of fact, the events in this story lead to the events of the past several weeks. So why has this text been placed for us to study this fourth Sunday of Easter?
The last two Sundays we have been looking at the texts that tell us Jesus has risen. We have seen him appear to doubting Thomas. We have seen him appear to the disciples as he made them breakfast on the shore of the lake. The last two Sundays, we have seen that Jesus has indeed risen. We have seen that the promise he made that in three days he would rise had come true. The physical fact of the resurrection has been demonstrate very clearly these last Sundays.
So today we take a step further. We see how the risen Lord affects our lives. In todays text, we, see the consequences of the the resurrection. We see what the resurrection means for our daily living. And since Jesus spelled out very clearly during his three years of ministry on the earth the consequences of his resurrection even before it happened, we need to go back to those texts to see how his resurrection on affects our lives today.
Our text begins as Jesus is walking in the portico of Solomon in the temple in Jerusalem. It was a cold day as John says it was winter. Winter in Jesus’ day meant that the wind came in from the east and it was raw and cold. He was walking in the part of the temple that was enclosed which sheltered him from the raw east wind. As he walked, prayed and meditated, a group of Jews came to him and asked him how long will he keep them in suspense? "If you are the Christ, tell us plainly". They wanted him to come right out and say who he was. But Jesus answers them by telling them he has already told them who he was, but they didn’t listen too well. And if you do not believe my words, you don’t even believe my works, for my works are done in my Father’s name, says Jesus. If you cannot believe my words and if you cannot believe my works then you don’t belong to me. Jesus says you are not one of my sheep. For if you were One of my followers, you would understand my words, you would see in my actions that I want to take care of you, that I want to give You eternal life, that I do indeed love you!
Jesus the shepherd wants to take care of his sheep like the shepherd in the following:
In the Highlands of Scotland, sheep would often wander off into the rocks and get into places that they couldn’t get out of. The grass on these mountains is very sweet and the sheep like it, and they will jump down ten or twelve feet, and then they can’t jump back again, and the shepherd hears them bleating in distress. They may be there for days, until they have eaten all the grass. The shepherd will wait until they are so faint they cannot stand, and then they will put a rope around him, and he will go over and pull that sheep up out of the jaws of death. "Why doesn’t the shepherd go down there when the sheep first gets there? You see they are so very foolish they would dash right over the high edge and be killed if they did!"1
Jesus understand how foolish we can be trying to save ourselves instead of listening to his words of salvation.
Jesus wants us to hear his words, he wants us to understand who he is for our lives. He wants us to know and believe that he is our shepherd and we are his sheep. He wants us to follow his voice, he wants us to hear his words of peace and comfort for our lives. But sometimes you and I have a difficult time hearing.
Jesus is like the shepherds in the following and we must be like those sheep.
Bob Crabtree, AG Superintendent of Ohio, tells while in the USSR, he saw two shepherds come together in the middle of the road. They had 300 sheep all become one group. He had to wait as the shepherds talked. Finally, Bob wondered how would they ever separate all those sheep. As the one shepherd was leaving, in a low voice he bade his sheep come. The two groups separated instantly and went their ways.
The sheep knew the voice! 2
One of the consequences of the resurrection that is pointed up in this text, one of the things Jesus is asking us to understand about our risen Christ, is that we need to hear his voice and follow it in this world.
But I think you and I are too easily distracted in the rush of the modern world. Maybe we aren’t deaf to the words of Jesus, maybe we don’t have a hearing problem as much as we hear what we want to hear and we tune out Jesus and tune in on all the sounds and words of the world as it rushes by. Maybe part of our problem, is we don’t have a trusting relationship with him to listen intently to his words, and maybe the other part of the problem is we only listen to what we want to listen to, and far to much of our listening is centered on the world and not on Jesus.
The following story will help explain what I am,trying to say:
"Two men were walking along a crowded city sidewalk. Suddenly, one of the men remarked, "Listen to the lovely sound of that cricket," But the other man could not hear the sound. He asked his friend how he could hear the sound of a cricket amid the roar of the traffic and the sound of the people. The first man, who was a zoologist, had trained himself to hear the sounds of nature. He didn’t explain to his friend in words how he could hear the sound of the cricket, but instead, he reached into his pocket, pulled out a half-dollar coin, dropped it onto the sidewalk, and watch intently as a dozen people began to look for the coin as they heard it clanking around amid the sounds of the traffic and the sounds of the crowded city living.
He turned to his friend and said, "We hear what we listen for."
Maybe that is our problem with the voice of Jesus as he is trying to get us to follow him, we hear everything else but him because we aren’t willing to listen, We don’t want to hear his voice, we tune it out instead of focusing our attention on it.
The Jews heard, but did not believe. They saw his signs, but did not get the message. We have heard his words down through the centuries through the Bible, through preaching, through the sacrament, that Jesus is the Christ, the risen Lord. We have seen his deeds as his Holy Spirit has worked in the lives of countless people, but still we don’t believe. We have a difficult time centering our attention, our focus on this shepherd who would guide our lives. In one sense we have an advantage over the Jews of Jesus’ time, we have the whole story. We have seen in the scripture the witness to the resurrection. We have seen these last two Sundays a powerful witness that indeed Jesus has risen. So we should be able to trust in him, to follow him, to believe in his Lordship for our lives with greater conviction that the Jews who approached Jesus in the temple.
But sadly, many people still doubt, many people still do not trust Jesus as their savior. Many people are still looking, still searching for meaning and purpose to their lives. Many people have found no one to help them with the burdens they carry. Many people are still wandering aimless in life, with no direction, no goal, no idea what to make of their life, what they want to accomplish with the God given gifts that have been so generously given to them.
I think one reason so many people are direction less, are aimless, are just wandering around with no purpose is because they have not let Jesus have control. They have not surrendered to him so that he can be the good shepherd, so that he can take care of them giving them guidance, peace, a sense of worth and direction.
Jesus wants us to ask him to help us with burdens of our lives. He wants us to surrender to him, and follow his voice so that we might have eternal life. Jesus wants to give us direction to our lives. Yes, Jesus is the good shepherd, he knows what is best for his sheep, and he can provide for them if only we will let him. If only we will hear his voice amiss the other sounds of this world If only we will focus in on that voice and tune out all the other voices that are calling to us.
Jesus was us to focus on him.
A closing story tells it well:
In his book, A Turtle on the Fencepost, Allen C. Emery tells of a night he spent on the Texas plains with a shepherd who was keeping two thousand sheep. The shepherd prepared a bonfire for cooking supper and providing warmth. The sheep dogs lay down near the fire as the stars filled the sky.
Suddenly Emery heard the unmistakable wail of a coyote with an answering call from the other side of the range. The dogs weren’t patrolling at the moment, and the coyotes seemed to know it. Rising quickly, the shepherd tossed some logs on the fire; and in this light, Emery looked out at the sheep and saw thousands of little lights.
Emery writes, "I realized that these were reflections of the fire in the eyes of the sheep. In the midst of danger, the sheep were not looking out into the darkness, but were keeping their eyes set toward the shepherd."
We’re to keep our eyes on our Shepherd, to be always looking to Jesus the author and finisher of our faith. If a coyote is wailing within earshot of you, turn your eyes upon Jesus.3
Written by Pastor Tim Zingale April 23, 2007
1 Contributed by: Michael King as found at SermonCentral
2 Contributed by: Wade Hughes, Sr as found at SermonCentral
3 from PreachingNow (Turning Point Daily Devotional, 12-10-04)
