Being Willing to Be ‘Sheep’ — Bible Reflection for Tuesday, January 3

Listen to the audio of today’s Reflection:

https://soundcloud.com/hapearce/reflection-for-january-3-2023

John 10:7-17

     ⁷ Therefore Jesus said again, “I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. ⁸ All who ever came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. ⁹ I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture.¹⁰ The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

     ¹¹ “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. ¹² The hired hand is not the shepherd who owns the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. ¹³ The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.

    ¹⁴ “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— ¹⁵ just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. ¹⁶ I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. ¹⁷ The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again.

In this reading, Jesus uses metaphors about the keeping of sheep to make several important points about his relationship to those of us who follow him. These metaphors communicate some important thoughts about what it means to be followers of Jesus, and the passage as a whole invites us to think a little about how the gospel of John was compiled.

Let’s start with how the gospel came together. And you might have noticed that I used the word compiled rather than written to describe the way it was produced. I use that word because it seems to me that this passage is actually a collection of things Jesus said on different occasions that used related metaphors about keeping sheep. I doubt that Jesus just said these things one after another on the same occasion, because likening himself to a shepherd and also a sheep gate at the same time would confuse his listeners – as it confuses modern readers even today.

Since the earliest days of the church, scholars have accepted that the compilers of Matthew, Mark and Luke took pains to report Jesus’ teachings accurately, but also that those teachings were not necessarily set down in the order in which they were delivered. And since the Gospel of John was compiled twenty to thirty years later, it seems likely that the apostle John and his disciples used the same practice. So what we probably have here is three different sayings using sheep-tending metaphors that Jesus said at different times.

Of course, the whole idea of followers of Jesus being his “sheep” probably doesn’t connect as well for modern Americans as it did for his first disciples.  In our culture, being called ‘a sheep’ is an insult. We value independent thought and action, and ‘going along with the flock’ is regarded as a character flaw – as a sign of weakness.

This individualistic streak is probably especially problematic for Protestant followers of Jesus. There’s a natural suspicion of authority in our part of the church. The reformers taught their followers that everyone should read the Bible for themselves and struggle to discern its meaning for their lives. They said people didn’t have to blindly accept and follow what they were told by the established church hierarchy.

Of course, the fact that Jesus consistently likens himself to a shepherd probably means we should consider the possibility that our Protestant “rugged individualism” might be a problem for those who really want to follow Jesus. For example, our belief that everyone should read and interpret the Bible for themselves was always based on the assumption that people would invest the time and effort to study the Bible seriously. The reformers would have been shocked at the suggestion that casual readers of the Bible could understand it just as well as scholars who spend a lifetime studying it carefully.

But unfortunately, since the days of the Reformation, lots of people who call themselves Christians have come to seize upon a handful of verses that reinforce their own opinions about “God’s will.” They’ll recite those verses at the drop of a hat, often taking them out of context and ignoring other passages that might contradict their personal “theology.”

Ironically, it seems likely that one reason Jesus used the metaphor of sheep for his followers is that sheep aren’t the brightest bulbs in the chandelier of the animal kingdom. Lots of times, they don’t know what’s good for them. Sheep need a shepherd.

To be the kind of faithful followers Jesus calls us to be, we need to foster in ourselves the spirit of humble obedience that allows us to recognize that we need to be listening to the voice of the good shepherd. That almost certainly requires faithfully studying his teachings in the gospels.

It’s also worth noting here that Jesus says his sheep know his voice and follow it, rejecting and even fleeing from the voice of a stranger. That suggests to me that faithfully studying the life and teachings of Jesus helps us to know when we’re really hearing his voice and when we’re actually hearing someone who claims to be speaking for him but is really promoting his or her own agenda. Obviously, not all followers of Jesus will agree about every issue, but if we really listen faithfully and with the love he calls us to, we can sometimes hear the voice of our shepherd, even in the midst of disagreements.

Jesus says that “the Good Shepherd” is the one who is willing to lay down his own life for the protection of the sheep. Certainly ,Jesus’ death on the cross bears witness to his deep commitment to protecting those who follow him. And for those of us who strive to follow him in our world today, that willingness to sacrifice himself for us gives great authority to the voice we hear through his teachings.

We could all do worse than making this our resolution for the new year: to listen more carefully for the voice of the Good Shepherd, and to let that voice lead us in all that we say and do.

Let’s pray. Lord, we confess that our individualistic hearts make us want to be ‘our own shepherds,’ and to follow our own opinions and agendas. But now we ask that you would open our hearts to hear your voice each day, and to be directed by that voice in all that we say and do. Amen.

Blessings,

Henry

(The other readings for today are Psalms 111 and 146; Genesis 28:10-22; and Hebrews 11:13-22. Our readings come from the NIV Bible, as posted on Biblica.com, the website of the International Bible Society.)