Year C. Fourth Sunday of Easter John 10: 22-30 May 6th, 2001
Title: “Jesus Voice”
22 At that time the festival of the Dedication took place in Jerusalem. It was winter, 23and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the portico of
Solomon.
24So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.”
25Jesus answered, “I have told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name testify to me;
26but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep.
27My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me.
28I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand.
29What my Father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father’s hand. 30The Father and I are one.”
In the midst of the Feast of Dedication while Jesus was in the Temple area he is challenged to say plainly whether he is the Messiah. He answers by claiming a unity with God his Father, a unity he also shares with his Father’s “sheep.”
The general theme of chapter ten is that of Jesus as the “Good Shepherd.” In the ancient world it was common to view and explain the ruler by using shepherd imagery and language. God as ruler, the king as ruler or any other rulers would and could be compared to a shepherd and evaluated in those terms. Thus, in Ezekiel chapter thirty four prophecy against the shepherds of Israel, bad rulers are denounced as shepherds who failed to govern Israel well and wisely and God himself promises to shepherd his people, sheep and appoint a new David over them as his hand-picked king, shepherd, anointed one, the Messiah. When Jesus uses the seemingly idyllic and peaceful image of a shepherd to explain himself he is really claiming to be that anointed one sent by God to replace the old kings and priests and rulers and act in God’s stead. Jesus’ audience knew what he meant and the leaders of the Jews simply called “the Jews” in John, reacted angrily to his claim. Amidst all the imagery the chapter answers two questions: Is Jesus the Messiah, verse twenty four and Does Jesus make himself God verse thirty three? The answer to the first question is found in verses twenty five to thirty and the answer to the second in verses thirty four to thirty eight. To each answer the “Jews” react unfavorably, first with an attempt to stone him, then with an attempt to arrest him. These two questions are exactly the ones given in the Synoptics-Matthew, Mark and Luke, at the trial of Jesus before the Sanhedrin. John is showing that these questions did not just pop up at the end of Jesus’ career but dogged him throughout.
In verses one to thirty, encompass the shepherd imagery. Verses one to five, consists of several shepherd related parables. Verses seven to thirty, contain allegorical explanations of three terms: first, the gate, explained in verses seven to ten; the shepherd, explained in verses eleven to eighteen; and the sheep, explained in verses twenty six to thirty. After that the imagery is dropped and Jesus speaks plainly about himself and the works he does as God’s Son. Within the parabolic language Jesus has compared the Pharisees to thieves, bandits and hirelings. This did not make him any friends in that group. He is showing them that they are outside his flock, not part of God’s “sheep” and yet not able to snatch any of God’s sheep away from him.
It is possible that during the Feast of Dedication, when this discourse is said to have been delivered, that the assigned reading was from Ezekiel chapter thirty four and would have prompted Jesus to preach about his fulfilling that prophecy.
In verse twenty seven, my sheep hear my voice, the sheep are the true believers. “My” means that not everybody is one of the flock. Jesus is referring to the “Jews,” specifically the Pharisees, who do not accept him. Jesus’ sheep can also distinguish between his voice, the voice of the good shepherd, and that of false shepherds, like that of the Pharisees and other false religious leaders.
I know them and they follow me: “Know” means a personal, intimate knowing. “Follow me” is merely the other side, the consequence, of being intimately known by the shepherd. The sheep also “know” the shepherd and do what sheep do in regard to their own shepherd.
In verse twenty-eight, I give them eternal life: The metaphors are dropped. Jesus gets right to the heart of the matter. Eternal life is the very quality of life which God himself enjoys. He shares that with his “sheep.” In verse seventeen, Jesus said he willingly lays down his life for his sheep so that they may have that life. The picture, and it is only a picture, is that Jesus had to separate himself from his life, by death, in order to make that life available for others to take it up, pick it up, obtain it.
No one can take them out of my hand: Eternal life means eternal protection. The sheep are as safe as safe can be and permanently so. However, just because no one can forcibly take the sheep from the shepherd does not mean that the sheep are no longer free to stray . They do that on their own, by their own power and decision, however. Once a “sheep” always a sheep, unless the sheep decides to leave.
In verse twenty-nine, my Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all: This is a difficult sentence. It means, “My Father, in regard to what he has given me, is greater than all.” The Father is all-powerful. So, no one can take anything from him. Since the Son has been given that power, no one can best him either.
In verse thirty, The Father and I are one: While this sentence later took on profound theological and metaphysical meaning and had momentous consequences for the Christological controversies of the third and fourth centuries of the Christian era, here it has a simpler meaning. “One” means not “one thing,” but “belonging to the same category, “ or “equal.” The author is referring to the behavior of the Father and Jesus. Their behavior is one. This is a unity, but one conceived in ethical, behavioral, terms, rather than metaphysical ones, terms everyone could understand and relate to. The Father and Son behave in exactly the same way because they share the same eternal life, a life now shared with the “sheep,” which are to thereby behave accordingly. Just as the Father and Son are one, so they bind the believing sheep to themselves as one- “that they may be one, even as we .”
Most of us have little experience with sheep, but we do know about dogs. Sheep and dogs are similar in many ways. A dog, like a sheep, will normally only listen to the voice of its master. Only the most docile dog will respond to a stranger’s voice. When Jesus says his sheep listen to his voice we can get a better idea of what he means if we think of our culture’s domesticated dogs. Then, we can appreciate the irony of what Jesus is saying. It is the seemingly docile, placid, easily controlled dog who “disobeys” and is “led astray” by the voice of strangers who want to steal it or otherwise hurt it. It is the docile dog who will “go with anybody.” The loyal dog would not think of listening to anyone else but its master. Such a dog recognizes that voice from afar and responds immediately and enthusiastically. So it should be with us when we hear the Word of God.
There should never be a question of listening to other voices, luring us into traps and dangerous territory, vying for our loyalty. We learn to recognize the Master’s voice in a very simple way: we listen to it. That’s how we become familiar with its tone and timbre. No matter what other distracting, muddling, drowning out sounds there may be, we can always discern amidst them the authentic voice of the Master. It has a certain ring to it, unmistakable, distinguishable by long years of listening and testing.
Every dog knows its master who feeds it, gives it life and protection, and loves it. These simple qualities are the ones Jesus expounds as he fleshes out what he means by being the “good” or “model” shepherd. He is the model because he loves his sheep so much that he will die for them and he knows them so well that he would miss one lost, one out of a hundred. Jesus does not promise to keep his sheep from any and all harm, just from the ultimate harm of being stolen by false shepherds, mimicking his voice. These are primarily the religious hucksters, selling a brand of religion superficially more appealing than what Jesus teaches. They are also the “false shepherds” within the flock who are less interested in the sheep than in themselves, their rank in the pack, their perquisites and their power.
When Jesus says that he and the Father are one he implies that we are one with the Father through him. That means we belong. We have a place in God’s family, at his table. We are servants, yes, but also sons and daughters. This is a permanent condition, not a temporary or tentative one, a permanency stretching beyond death into eternity. Yes, we may perish as far as this world is concerned, and we should perish to it long before we depart from it, but we shall never perish as far as eternity is concerned. No more than we can be stolen by the enemy, can we be lost to the enemy, unless we choose. The Good Shepherd will always protect us, unless we, and only we, prevent him. Nothing else and no one else can ruin our destiny but ourselves. We do not expect the Master to protect us from each and every harmful experience. First of all, they are learning experiences. Secondly, they are really not so important when compared to eternal experience. Thus we are willing to learn what God wants us to learn from the negatives of life, grow stronger in our loyalty to him, better at discerning his voice in any situation and let him protect us in his embrace as he sees fit.
Because he knows us so well and loves us so much he will come in search of us even should we deliberately let ourselves be lost, lured or snatched from his company. No matter where we might be he will call and keep calling. No matter how loud the other voices, philosophies, false promises, fancy explanations; he will call through them all. And because we have been well trained by years of listening to his voice, reading and studying his Word, we will recognize his familiar sound and cry out. He will be there as he always is. It is our hardness of heart, our willfulness that alone can keep us from being “one” with him and with our fellow “sheep.”
But how does one learn Jesus voice? A steady and daily diet of exposure to the written word of God attunes us to what God “sounds” like, his “voice” discernible through the clutter and noise of daily life.
Following his “voice” we can find our way out of chaotic, confusing and conflicting situations.
Jesus, by dying, has placed his “voice” within his sheep; it is the same as his life.
Jesus’ sheep can now enjoy the same quality of life as he enjoys, that is, eternal life.
No one or nothing can kill this life, except the decision and or behavior of the individual sheep.
The unity of life and behavior that Jesus and his sheep enjoy is the same as the unity of life and behavior that Jesus and his Father enjoy.
The Word of God: Scripture gives us the words of God, but they remain only words until and unless they become the Word of God. The Word is living; words are not. We can read Scripture and be unaffected by the words, as when we read history, poetry, or literature for mere factual knowledge or aesthetic enjoyment. When the words of Scripture come alive, then we are in contact with the Word behind the words. That Word is Christ, both human and divine. We might imagine, and it is only imagining, it this way: Reading Scripture is like rubbing the magic lamp containing a genie. Not every rubbing, as the story goes, causes the genie, present but otherwise inaccessible, to emerge. It must be rubbed with the accompanying correct formula, attitude, the attitude of trust or faith. Then, emerges the genie, Christ’s Spirit. Only the Christ, the Lord, does not merely remain exterior to the lucky, graced, human, but enters into the believing person and now, instead of residing within the lamp, the believing person becomes the lamp for the light within. Now, that person can be guided by the light and or the “voice” within and knows which way to go, heeds the warnings of what to avoid, and enjoys a continual conversation with the “voice,” the Presence within. The words of God, Scripture, evoke the Word and provide the words for the believer to speak back to and with the Word. Scripture becomes both the language of God and the language of the believer to speak with God. The language is not merely words any more it is also light and blood and food and life itself. It is Christ.
The Shepherd: Jesus begins his explanation of who he is, namely, the Shepherd from God, indeed God the Shepherd, by stressing the external relationship he has with his sheep. He starts by stressing the comparison between a human shepherd and his sheep: feeding, guiding, protecting, leading. Then, after we have understood what he means, he drops the metaphorical language and gets right to the core. He is also an internal Shepherd who brings life to us, the very life of God. When Jesus stopped inhabiting one human body, that is, when he physically died, he made available to all who accept him that very life and the benefits that flow from that life. When we get to this point we switch metaphors and no longer use the “shepherd” image. We use the “sheep” or more correctly, the “lamb” image. It is the dead lamb that humans eat in order to receive more life through its nourishment. It is the dead lamb’s skin and wool that protects humans from the elements. The death of the lamb gives life and protection to humans. The death of the Lamb does so, but even more so.
The Father and I are one: In another place Jesus says, “the Father is greater than I John14: 28.” Jesus is not contradicting himself but is speaking of the two different ways of relating to the Father. As a human Jesus can say that the Father is greater than he. As divine, Jesus can say that he and the Father are equal or one. It depends on what point Jesus wants to make. The really important matter for us is not the metaphysical relationship between God and God as Son, but the real mutual indwelling of God within human believers in Jesus. The unity of Christ and God or Christ in God or God in Christ is repeated and reflected in the unity of Christ and Christian or Christ in Christians or Christians in Christ. Jesus will expound on and expand upon this point in his Last Supper discourse. Amen.
