Jesus Sheep Know

 John 10:22-30

May 8, 2022

 

In this gospel story,

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

Jesus is walking through the portico of Solomon

a covered walk way 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 him to tell them

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 the absolute sign. Let us know.

 

Now, undoubtedly, some of these people

are trying to catch Jesus and trap him

and get him in trouble with the authorities.

Some of them are probably hostile to what Jesus represents,

And some might be naturally skeptical,

But I’m sure that some of the people

asking Jesus are really searching and hoping

and wanting and waiting for the Messiah

they want to hear that Jesus is the Messiah.

 

And in response, 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,

Sheep
Delilah Smith

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 know their shepherd’s voice.

 

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, it seems to be that fewer people

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 believe.

Some people blame the younger generation

and question their values.

 
I’ve thought about that. And I think that young people’s values are in line, 

and lots of people would want to follow Jesus,

but they’re realizing 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 even rejecting 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 over the years

about immigrants and refugees, terrible assumptions about our

neighbors in Mexico, and Central America.

One religious station calling them repeatedly:

“felons, invaders, and illegals.”

Does that sound like the voice of Jesus?

 

We’ve heard about Christians who refuse services to

gay, lesbian, and transgender people,

even interracial couples and are defending it by claiming their

“religious freedom” to discriminate.

And we’ve seen Christian politicians working to block

adoptions by gay and lesbian people.

Does this voice sound like Jesus?

 

We’ve heard about church bodies that have

ignored the abuse that people have received at the

hands of clergy for decades, sexual and other abuses.

This is the Catholic church, and Protestant churches too.

They have ignored the victims and swept the abuse under the rug, 

moved the offenders to other congregations

instead of getting them help or letting the law deal with them.

They have ostracized victims and anyone speaking

about their experience.

Does this sound like the voice of Jesus?

This week we have heard about a possible landmark ruling

about abortion this week. The most prominent voices

in Christianity won’t even allow conversation about abortion.

Won’t even hear other sides of the conversation.

The say that there is only one position possible position

on this as a Christian. The reality is that good, believing people

are all over the place on this issue, there are lots of nuances,

and there is no clear biblical guidance about the issue.

But the most prominent voices that people hear from

Christians is the one that calls anyone that isn’t absolutely,

positively against all abortion murders, baby haters, and unchristian.

There is no room even for discussion or understanding

of other thoughts or understandings. Does this sound like the voice of Jesus?

 

The loudest Christian voices that tend to get amplified

in our world today are voices of anger.

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

The voices that cling to their beliefs and institutions

instead of Jesus’s forgiveness.

 

Rachel Held Evans who was a young, theological writer who

came out of the Evangelical tradition, and who

sadly died this week three years ago at 37 wrote this:

 

“Two-thousand years ago, Jesus hung from that cross, 

looked out on the people who put him there and said, "Father, forgive them."

Jesus served sinners all the way to the cross.

The truth is, evangelical Christians have already "lost" the culture wars.

And it's not because the "other side" won or because evangelicals have 

failed to protect our own religious liberties.

Evangelicals lost the culture wars the moment they committed to fighting them, 

the moment they decided to stop washing feet and start waging war."

 

She was writing out of an Evangelical background,
all Christians should hear that and take it to heart.

Are we amplifying the other voices or Jesus voice?

Are we following Jesus way, or the way of the world?

 

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.

I know a lot of my friends are in that boat right now.

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 must be an oddball out, that there are no other Christians

like me, they call me “refreshing” and that is just sad.

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

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

 

We know that Jesus 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,

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

lifting up the poor and sick and unfortunate.

 

Jesus got in trouble with the authorities, not because

of who he excluded from his circle, or for having such a 

rigid ideology that he wouldn’t let any other voices in.

He got in trouble because of everyone he included.

And that was anyone who was hungry or lost or

sick or needed healing in body or soul, even Pharisees.

He got in trouble because he sided with

the weak and poor and oppressed instead of the powerful.

 

 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 voices around that were full of 

competition and fear and hate and suspicion of anyone different

In Jesus voice they could hear another way forward,

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

 

The good shepherd doesn’t win his sheep

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

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 creation has come home.