My Sheep Hear My Voice

 John 10:22-30

May 11, 2025

Good Shepherd
Sieger Koder

 

In this gospel story,

we’re flashing back to a moment during Jesus ministry.

Jesus is walking through the portico of Solomon,

a covered walkway around the temple in Jerusalem.

and as usual, he’s attracting a crowd

People want to see him and talk to him.

 

This time some people want Jesus to tell them

exactly who he is and what the heck he’s doing.

They say “how long are you going to keep us in suspense.”

Some say that that phrase is better translated,

“How long are you going to annoy us?”

In other words, stop using all these metaphors

and stories and figures of speech.

Just tell us plainly if you’re the Messiah.

Give us an absolute sign now. Let us know now.

 

Now some of these people that want to know

might be trying to catch Jesus and trap him

and get him in trouble with the authorities.

Some of them might be hostile to what Jesus represents,

Some might be naturally skeptical,

and I’m sure that some of the people

asking Jesus are really searching and hoping

and wanting and waiting for the Messiah

and they want to hear that Jesus is the Messiah.

 

And in response to this request for certainty, Jesus tells them,

“My sheep hear my voice and they follow me.”

Another metaphor. But Jesus was never good at taking requests.

Jesus is saying that if they were one of his followers,

then they wouldn’t have to ask because they would

know his voice, just like a sheep knows a shepherds voice.

 

What he said is true. Real sheep actually do get to know

their own shepherd’s voice. Sheep and shepherds apparently

roamed around the area looking for vegetation to eat.

They weren’t all on one farm or in pens. They were nomadic.

Each shepherd would have a hundred or so sheep.

And there were always other shepherds and flocks of sheep around

and they tend to all look alike.

 

Sometimes the shepherds and their flocks

would meet to go to sleep in the same place,

and they would all get mixed up at night.

But in the morning, the shepherds

could call their flock and the sheep would instinctively

follow their own shepherds voice.

Sheep do know their shepherd’s voice.

 

So Jesus was saying that the ones who will be

Jesus followers will just know him.

They will hear his voice and follow.

They won’t need an absolute sign.

They will know who Jesus really is

and what he represents.

 

Today, there seem to be fewer people

that are following that voice.

Fewer people are being drawn to Jesus

and fewer people are being drawn to

worship Jesus in churches.

 

Some Christians are panicked by this change.

And lots of people who remember the “good old days”

when almost everyone identified as a Christian.

Some people blame the younger generation

and question their values.

  

I’ve thought about that. But I think that young people’s values are

strong and solid, and lots of people would want to follow Jesus,

but the voice they’re hearing as the voice of Christianity

doesn’t sound like Jesus at all.

 

The predominant voice of Christianity almost sounds the opposite

of what Jesus would sound like, so they’re not responding,

they’re not following, and they’re rejecting all the

institutions that claim to bear this voice.

 

Think about it, what is the most prevalent voice of Jesus

that most people hear these days?

 

From many Christians, we have heard hateful words

about immigrants and refugees, terrible assumptions about our

neighbors in Mexico, and Central and South America.

One religious station calling them repeatedly:

“felons, invaders, and illegals.”

They send up calls for hostile deportations.

Does that sound like the voice of Jesus?

Who was a refugee himself, fleeing to Egypt with his parents?

 

We’ve heard Christians who make and support laws

that make just living life difficult for

gay, lesbian, and transgender people,

under the guise of “religious freedom”

Does this voice sound like Jesus?

Who never said a word about sexuality,

and told us repeatedly to love one another.

 

We have heard from Christians who have said that empathy and compassion 

are not Christian values,

that they are evil and from the devil.

Now does this sound like Jesus voice,

who said like a thousand things that contradict this?

 

We’ve heard Christians who want to mandate Christian

teaching in every sector of public life. Who want to ban books,

and force religious teaching in the public school classrooms.

Who want to force their religious teachings on people

and penalize other. Does this sound like Jesus voice?

Who talked of servant leadership, who gained followers by

his actions and not his mandates?

 

The loudest Christian voices that tend to get amplified

in our world today are voices of anger, hate, suspicion, and fear.

They’re voices that don’t want to listen,

that don’t want to hear and feel for other people

The voices that would rather cling to prejudices, 

distrust and contempt Does this sound like Jesus voice?

It’s no wonder that people are not following.

 

I think that a lot of people outside the faith

have heard these messages of anger and contempt

so loudly and for so long that they believe that

these voices are Jesus only voice and they want no part of that.

 

And we who understand Jesus differently have been so quiet

about it. We’ve been so mealy mouth, and nice

and we try not offend anyone, so much so

that no one outside of our own circles can hear it.

And there doesn’t seem to be any alternative out there.

So people are just eager to avoid the whole thing.

 

I know a lot of my friends and family are actually in that boat.

And I can’t say that I blame them.

They can’t get around all the voices that are projected

so loudly to hear Jesus real voice.

They think that I must be the odd one out,

that there are no other Christians like me,

they see me as unique, they say they didn’t know there were

any Christians out there that thought like me. Which is just sad

I tell them – no there are a bunch of us out there.

You just can’t hear us projecting Jesus voice over that other noise.

 

We know that Jesus voice is not a voice of hostility

and not a voice of condemnation, or one that

discards people in order to defend institutions or ideologies.

 

Jesus voice is a voice of new life, forgiveness, resurrection,

of welcome at the table, of embracing those who are different,

of eating with sinners and tax collectors and prostitutes,

and even Scribes and Pharisees, his was a voice of

loving your enemies, and praying for those who persecute you,

and turning the other cheek.

 

Jesus got in trouble with the authorities, not because

of who he excluded from his circle, or who he scolded,

or for having such a rigid ideology, or for demanding 

that people follow him. He got in trouble because of all the ones he included.

And that was anyone who was hungry or lost or sick

or needed healing in body or soul.

He got in trouble because he sided with

the weak and poor and oppressed instead of the powerful.

 

This is the voice of the Good Shepherd.

The one that loves his sheep and cares for them.

 

This is the voice of Jesus that his followers responded to.

This is the voice that made the disciples drop their nets

and leave their homes and go out and share the gospel with others.

 

This voice was different than the other voices around,

the ones that were full of competition and fear and hate and suspicion of anyone different.  

The voices that talked about God’s anger instead of God’s love.

 

In Jesus voice, the disciples could hear another way forward,

a way to the restored world of peace and hope that they envisioned.

 

 

The good shepherd doesn’t demand that his sheep follow

He doesn’t get them to follow with intimidation, or being sneaky

with or threats of violence, or fear, or legal action,

or by being the loudest one in the room.

 

The good shepherd is good because

he offers words of hope and life.

The words of the good shepherd are the bread

that feeds forever and the water that will never run out.

The good shepherd has the words of eternal life.

 

We have heard Jesus voice,

we know what the Shepherd’s voice sounds like.

And I believe that people are waiting to hear that voice,

they are longing to know that shepherd.

 

One day, the true voice of Jesus will rise above the

din of hate and fear and contempt that sometimes

passes for Christianity.

 

And the good news today is that Jesus won’t stop calling

those sheep over and over again.

Jesus won’t stop just because someone didn’t hear the first time

or because the noise of the world is too loud,

or his followers don’t have the courage to speak up.

 

The good shepherd knows that there are lots of people

just waiting to hear that story, that message, and that voice.

The voice of the living word of God, the voice of forgiveness,

The voice that we have followed here this morning.

 

And Jesus won’t stop calling until all the sheep have come home.