Sunday 3 May 2020

LISTEN TO THE VOICE

A Meditation for the Fourth Sunday of Easter (May 2, 2020)

John 10:1-10

The theme of the Good Shepherd is generally a very popular one for Christians. In that regard, the shepherd psalm (23) is perhaps one of, it not the most best known of all the psalms - No doubt, this psalm is being quoted quite a lot as persons seek comfort and assurance as the world in general and persons individually, seek to navigate the uncharted waters, this time of uncertainty in which we now live.

Similarly, the passage from John 10: 1-10 is also quite familiar although, perhaps not quite as well known as the psalm.

Having pointed the Pharisees to their spiritual blindness, Jesus refers to refer to himself in two ways: first he is a Shepherd who enters the gate and then as the door by which the sheep enters. And states that whoever enters other than by the gate are the thieves and bandits in the context in which Jesus made that statement, it is clearly a reference to the Pharisees who seeking to oppose and destroy the works of Jesus.

In this meditation we want to focus on the words of Jesus in verse 3;

The passage is a part of the record from the previous chapter (9), in which Jesus healed the blind man. John records that the Pharisees investigated the healing. It was not because they had a genuine interest in the man’s wellbeing, but because they were seeking for ways to accuse and condemn Jesus.

The Pharisees were being anything but good shepherds. Their intentions were suspect, to say the least. They had no real interest in the wellbeing of the people over whom they were seeking to exercise influence. Their main interest was to show themselves as keepers of the law. A good example is found in Luke 8 where the pharisee boastingly declared

of

One can well imagine that their attitude toward Jesus and by extension toward his work was somewhat like that of Saul before he was converted and renamed Paul. He wrote in I Philippians 3 4-6:

or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth

he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel,

I want to

familiar, and we are called to listen to that voice. Hear his words again in verse 1: “

voice that brings a message of hope, it is

the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his

own sheep by name and leads them out. 4

When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and

his sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5

But they will never follow a stranger;

'God, I thank you that I am not like other people-robbers, evildoers, adulterers-

all I get.'

If anyone else thinks

of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church;

as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

suggest that while the voice of God through Jesus Christ comes to us in various ways, the

fundamental message of the shepherd is always the same. It is the

Anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate but climbs in by some

other way, is a thief and a robber”. For emphasis he repeats the thought in verse 8: All who have come before

me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them”.

The question to be asked and for us to ponder is this: Whose voice are we listening to?

There are many voices clamoring for attention in today’s world, each claiming in some way to be the authentic voice that the world needs at a time such as this. The truth is, as we can glean from what Jesus is saying in our text, not all are genuine and not all have the best interest of people at the heart.

As we seek to understand how the Good Shepherd is speaking to us let us keep a few things in mind. (They are not in any particular order)

The first thing is that the Shepherd calls his sheep by name. This indicates a personal relationship. For those who have been around animals (pets) we know that they respond to the voice of their “master” and those that are well trained are obedient to the voice. The personal relationship of which we speak here means that we know the shepherd and there is that readiness to follow with the confidence that we will not be led astray.

The voice of the Shepherd speaks truth: Truth is sometimes difficult or painful to accept, especially when it runs against our expectations, even against what we deem to be common sense. St Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 1:27

God’s truth is revealed in unusual ways at times. We have to be able to understand that truth.

That was not Paul’s plan, but the Shepherd had other plans for this man. He went on to become an Apostle of the same Lord Jesus... Like Paul let us follow the voice and leading of the Good Shepherd even when he is leading in ways completely different to what we may have in mind.

“God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to

shame the strong”. So, when Jesus spat on the ground, made some mud, put is onto the man’s eyes and then

sent him to wash, he was able to see. However, The Pharisees could not accept the truth of what happened.

It made no sense to them. They questioned the man and his family relentlessly, until he said looks guys, "I

have told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his

disciples too?"

The voice of the good shepherd tells what we need to hear and leads where we need to be not what we want

to hear and where we want to go to do what we want to do.
As recorded in chapter 9 of the Acts of the Apostles, when Saul was blinded on the road to Damascus as he

was going to persecute the Christians, he asked “Who are you, Lord?”

The answer came: “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.. Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus.

The Good Shepherd is focused on the well being the well being of others, whatever the condition. It could be

persecution, earthquake, famine, pandemics such as CCOVID 19, or in any man made situation. In the proverbial calm before the storm, we can hear the warning of coming danger. In the storms of life he is to be heard directing, comforting and assuring in his own way and as he works through those we call first responders and caregivers, civil authorities, security personnel and importantly through His Body, the fellowship of believers, the Church. The hymn writer puts it this way in the final stanza of the hymn, Dear Lord and Father of Mankind:

Breathe through the heats of our desire
your coolness and your balm;
let sense be dumb, let flesh retire,
speak through the earthquake, wind and fire, O still small voice of calm.

The voice we listen to should be the voice of the Shepherd of our Souls, Jesus Christ, speaking through each occurrence in life as he seek to lead

Surely, goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

AMEN !