Sheep Hear the Shepherd's Voice

Vicar Matthew Lorfeld

John 10:1-10

Easter 4 - April 13, 2008

In the name of Jesus.

Sometimes when we hear a reading from Scripture in Church, we pick up in the middle of a conversation. This week, our Gospel reading is one such case.

To find out who Jesus is talking to and why he is saying what he is saying, we have to go back all the way to the beginning of John Chapter 9.

Here we find a man who was born blind. Everyone had assumed that this man was blind because of some sin that he or his parents had committed. The religious leaders of his day and even Jesus’s own disciples had written this man off as a sinner who was beyond help. They thought this man had made his own bed and he had better sleep there.

Jesus, on the other hand said that through this man, the work of God, bringing light to a dark world would be made manifest. Jesus then made mud and placed it on the man’s eyes and told him to go wash in the pool of Siloam, and the man was healed.

This formerly blind man then went and showed himself to the Pharisees and instead of praising God for healing this man, they cast this formerly blind man out as a “sinner.” For the blind man, this must have been a huge crisis of faith. Here he had finally gained sight, which must have been the work of God, and now his own religious leaders were telling him that he was a sinner and that God pays no attention to sinners.

When Jesus hears of this, He finds the formerly blind man with the Pharisees and reveals that he is the one who healed the ex-blind man. Jesus’ rebuke of the Pharisees is harsh, this blind man can see the work of God and yet you-seeing religious leaders-are blind to the work of God, and “your” guilt remains.

This is finally where our reading picks up. His next words are both a rebuke of the Pharisees and also words that bring comfort to this ex-blind man who must have been wondering where he stood with God.

It’s actually a question, I bet, that many of us have had. How do I know if I am a Christian? Do I have enough faith? These kind of questions, can drive one to despair.

Jesus’ response is a parable:

"Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers."

Here Jesus uses a story, as He often does, to teach. But when the crowd heard this story, they were confused and they did not understand what Jesus was telling them.

This is actually very important as sometimes, Jesus’ parables are not told so that everyone will understand. Jesus explains this in Mark 4:11-12 when He quotes Isaiah 6:9-10: “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables, so that ‘they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven.’”

This is a hard saying to swallow. It is hard because we would like to have at least some of the credit when it comes to understanding and believing the things of God. But this is why Jesus used a story about sheep. You see, sheep are dumb animals. If you have picked up the Easter Reflections booklet in the back of the church, you would have read about sheep this week. Here’s what the author says about sheep:

“[Sheep] will wander off and remain oblivious to the most obvious danger; they need to be herded around for they don’t know any better. When they are led to slaughter, they dumbly walk up the plank and into the Slaughterhouse. They don’t know what they are doing.”

But that is why sheep have a shepherd. A shepherd will lead his sheep, and the sheep will follow his voice. Unlike thieves and robbers, the shepherd looks out for his flock and puts their interests ahead of his own. The shepherd also seeks out his lost sheep even while they are content to walk right into danger.

And so Jesus, the Good Shepherd gives sight to his blind sheep. He explains this parable:

"Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

There is a warning here. There are thieves and robbers. For the ex-blind man, these Pharisees were a bunch of thieves trying to cast this man out and get between him and his Shepherd. It is also a warning for our day and age. There are thieves and robbers among us as well. Do you want to know where to find them? Just walk into a Christian book store. You will see them there on posters with a perfect white smile. Their books will greet you and their music is being played on the speakers as you shop. Some of them have familiar names, Rick Warren, Joel Osteen, Joyce Meyer, Max Lucado… the list can go on.

You see it is easy to point out the dangers of atheists like Richard Dawkins who says God is a delusion or of those like Oprah who would push a new age spiritualism… but notice that Jesus is not attacking Caesar or any other Roman pagan… He is going after the religious leaders from within. Just because you see a book in a Christian bookstore, hear something on a Christian radio, or see something on a Christian TV show or website doesn’t mean that you are hearing the voice of the Shepherd. These thieves preach another way to climb into the sheep fold.

This may seem overly harsh to some of you, and I understand. But this is the burden of the one who teaches. Their false teachings, whether it is almost every word that they say, or just a little bit of false doctrine mixed in with that which is true, is dangerous.

Note what Jesus says here, the thieves do not come in through the door, that is they do not come in through Him. Here we have the image of the shepherd who would lay in the doorway as the actual door, protecting his sheep. The consequence of the thieves’ actions isn’t just the confusion of the flock, but death and destruction for the sheep.

People of God, look out! The books you read, the music you hear, the things you see, be discerning. When the Gospel is presented as something that you have to do, and not a free gift of God, you are hearing a thief. When you hear things like “Jesus stopped being God,” or “God will give you all the possessions you want if you have enough faith,” you are hearing the lies of a thief.

But sheep do not listen to the voices of thieves and robbers. They turn and flee from them. People loved by God, you are sheep and you can be absolutely sure of this because You hear the voice of the Shepherd, the Word of God, and you trust in it. Robbers and thieves will try to cut you off, will spread their lies, but you have a Shepherd who calls to you, who lays in the doorway as the gate, who makes sure that you will be safe, and who leads you into the sheep-fold, the church, to be fed and nourished, and He leads you out into the pastures of your lives where you continue to reflect on and digest the Word of God at work, at home, in your community.

There is no length which our Shepherd would not go to for you. Just as Isaiah says in chapter 53, that while all we like sheep were gone astray, we have turned aside into our own way; the Lord laid on Him, [the Good Shepherd], the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, He was afflicted, yet He opened not his mouth; like a Lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that is before His sheerers is silent, so He opened not His mouth. The Good Shepherd became a Sheep for you.

He willingly laid down His life for you, in your place. That cross… that should have been your cross and my own cross. The punishment… the death that our Good Shepherd bore, was so that through Him, we might have life, and have it abundantly.

When Jesus speaks of living an abundant life, He isn’t talking about nice cars, fancy homes, wealth or even health… all of these things will pass away. The abundant life which Jesus promises is eternal life with Him. That life has already begun. A life lived in His Word as a child of God, a life fed by His Body and His Blood. And that life will be abundant even in the face of death. Just as you were united with Christ’s death on the cross in your Baptism, you were also united with Christ in His resurrection. This abundant life has taken the sting of death away. The grave will not hold you, on that last day your body will be raised, and then… then you will have life abundantly eternally praising the Good Shepherd who laid down His life for you, His beloved Sheep.

And now the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, the Good Shepherd. Amen.