Understanding Jesus
Theme: Understanding Jesus
Let us pray.
Most holy, Lord God, you sent your son to be as a shepherd to us; may we always recognize his voice and follow him where he may lead us, through the great shepherd of the sheep, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Isn’t it amazing how sometimes we get all tangled up with the words we speak and end up not being clear about what we’re trying to say? I used to have a poster in my cubicle at American Express that read, “I know you think you understand what you think I said, but what you heard is not what I meant.” Are you ever misunderstood? I’ve noticed that it happens everywhere, at work, at home, at school.
Believe it or not, it even happens at church. More than once I’ve had someone challenge me about what I said in a sermon, except I never said what they heard. It helps to have a text to back me up.
Every so often, Abigail Van Buren in her column, Dear Abby, runs a list of church bulletin misprints and church sign bloopers that prove that we in the church occasionally have problems saying what we mean. Here are some recent ones:
The bulletin of a church in Iowa announced: The Low Self-Esteem Support Group will meet Thursday from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Please use the back door.
Another church’s bulletin carried this announcement: Due to the Pastor’s illness, Wednesday’s healing services will be discontinued until further notice.
During a service one preacher made this announcement: This being Easter Sunday, we will now ask Mr. Vassilas to come forward and lay an egg on the altar.
Another church newsletter had this: At the evening service tonight, the topic will be “What is Hell?” Come early and hear our choir practice.
Not to pick on the choir, but an announcement in one church read: Eight new choir robes are currently needed, due to the addition of several new members and to the deterioration of some older ones.
In today’s Scripture we find that even Jesus sometimes had trouble speaking clearly enough for people to get what he was saying. Did you notice? Jesus is trying to make a point using symbolic figures of speech that his listeners just don’t get. The images he uses of sheepfolds, thieves, gates and gatekeepers were very familiar to these people, and yet, they didn’t understand.
Today’s gospel reading takes place right after Jesus restores the sight of the man born blind. Jesus is just finishing his conversation with the former blind man when a few Pharisees overhear him and ask Jesus if he thinks they are blind. Jesus tells them that because they claim to see, then their blindness remains.
Then immediately after that, Jesus talks to them about sheep and shepherds. Jesus is not giving up on the Pharisees. For one thing, a few Pharisees are identified as followers of Jesus in John’s gospel. Though these Pharisees may feel like Jesus has falsely accused them of blindness, Jesus wants to continue to teach them.
He wants to show them the way out of their blindness and a path to that goal is to be a good shepherd. Jesus says that anyone who climbs over the fence instead of going through the gate of the sheep is a thief. The gatekeeper recognizes the shepherd and allows the shepherd entrance to the sheepfold.
The sheep know the voice of their shepherd and the shepherd knows each and every sheep by name. The shepherd calls each one by name and leads them out of the sheepfold. Once all of the sheep are led out, the sheep follow the shepherd’s lead, because they know the shepherd’s voice.
Now if the sheep hear the voice of a stranger, they will flee, because they do not know the stranger’s voice. Having heard this, the Pharisees had no idea what Jesus was talking about. They are not only blind, but seemingly dull. They have not heard the shepherd’s voice and so they do not know Jesus. They listen to the thief. They claim religious knowledge, but are ignorant of God and God’s will. Not only do they listen to the thief, but they become thieves themselves. They are illegitimate religious leaders and that is why the sheep, or the people, do not listen to them.
Probably sensing the blank looks he was getting, Jesus explains that he is the gate for the sheep. Everyone who came before Jesus was a crook and a robber and sheep did not listen to them. Jesus is the gate.
George Adam Smith, the 19th century biblical scholar tells of traveling one day in the holy land and coming across a shepherd and his sheep. He fell into conversation with him and the man showed him the fold into which the sheep were led at night. It consisted of four walls, with a way in. Smith asked him, “This is where they go at night?” “Yes,” said the shepherd, “and when they are in there, they are perfectly safe.” “But there is no door,” said Smith. “I am the door,” said the shepherd.
He was not a Christian man and wasn’t speaking in the language of the New Testament. He was speaking from an Arab shepherd’s viewpoint. Smith looked and him and asked, “What do you mean you are the door?” “When the light has gone,” said the shepherd, “and all the sheep are inside, I lie in that open space, and no sheep ever goes out but across my body, and no wolf comes in unless he crosses my body; I am the door.”
Anyone who comes through Jesus will be saved. It is through Jesus that they will freely find pasture. A thief comes to rob, kill, and destroy. Jesus came so that everyone will have life and life to the fullest. Jesus, as the Good Shepherd, loves his sheep. We trust Jesus and we recognize his voice.
We do not know Jesus because we are particularly bright or holy, though some of us might be, it is because God has revealed to us our Good Shepherd, Jesus the Christ. We do not initiate our relationship with the shepherd. It is the shepherd who is in charge. “Let anyone who has ears, listen.”
We now pray: Gracious God and giver of all good gifts, give us the gift of discernment, through which we may hear and understand the words of our Good Shepherd; do not let us be led astray by thieves and rogues, but keep us on the path the Good Shepherd leads, your son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Text: John 10:1-10 (NRSV)
10 “Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. 2 The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.” 6 Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.
7 So again Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them. 9 I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.
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[1] The Holy Bible : New Revised Standard Version. 1989. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.