I Am a Sheep of the Lord

I Am a Sheep of the Lord
John 10:22-30

Christian Community Presbyterian Church, Bowie, Maryland

May 8, 2022

 

We have arrived at the fourth Sunday of the Season of Easter. We go beyond the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus and turn to some of his teachings that help us think about being his people in the world today. Today is traditionally “Good Shepherd Sunday,” when we reflect on his words about his role as the shepherd of God’s people, a role of comfort, support, guidance, protection.
    In today’s reading Jesus is at Solomon’s porch during the Festival of Dedication which celebrated the liberation of Jerusalem from the Seleucid Empire, a political entity that evolved following the death of Alexander the Great and the breakup of his empire. The Seleucid king, Antiochus Epiphanes, had defiled the Temple nearly two centuries before Jesus came on the scene by building an altar to his own gods within the Temple’s main sanctuary. Two years later Judas Maccabeus and his brothers regained control of the Temple and rededicated it to God.
    As we heard in the reading, the religious authorities are not excited about Jesus’ presence in the Temple precincts. His teaching was unorthodox because it contradicted the official Temple theology. The people were getting excited about what Jesus was teaching. That would undermine the religious leaders’ authority and could lead to social instability threatening the fragile relations between the closely-held religious junta and the Roman occupiers. We saw the makings of that dramatically played out on Palm Sunday as Pilate rode into Jerusalem from the west on an imperial horse in front of his legion and Jesus rode in from the east on a lowly donkey accompanied by the “hosanna” chanting crowd of followers.
    Confronting Jesus at the temple, the leaders ask, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.” They were feigning suspense. As far as they were concerned Jesus was not the Messiah. The perceived messianic pretensions were wearing very thin with them. He had become a huge annoyance. They had wanted to arrest Jesus on three different occasions and were on the verge of yet another attempt. However, as another gospel writer noted, the leaders were afraid of the people.
    Their minds were made up. Their hostility was escalating. Yet, this is the only place in the Gospel of John where someone directly asks the question: “Are you the Messiah (Christ, anointed one)?” Jesus has not claimed this title for himself, although others were giving it to him. 

• John the Baptist openly claimed not to be the Messiah. 
• After meeting Jesus, Andrew told Simon, “We have found the Messiah.” 
• The Samaritan woman at the well confessed, “I know that Messiah is coming.” Jesus responded, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.” She was skeptical and asked her neighbors, “He cannot be the Messiah, can he?” 
• The gospel writer John reported that the blind man’s parents did not respond to the probing of the authorities “because they were afraid of the [religious leaders]; for [they] had already agreed that anyone who confessed Jesus to be the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue.”

One of the main themes of John’s Gospel revolves around belief in the messiahship of Jesus. The gospel’s first conclusion (chapter 20) states in part: “These are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah.” Belief that Jesus is the Messiah was for John -- and is for us -- one of the beginning points of being a Christian. In John’s time that could bring expulsion from the synagogue for anyone affirming Jesus’ messiahship. What are the consequences for us today to confess and believe that Jesus is the Messiah? If anything, the reaction today is one of ho-hum boredom: “Yeah? So what?”
    The religious authorities do not believe that Jesus is the Messiah. The reason they do not believe is that they are not among Jesus’ sheep. The first half of John chapter 10 has three different comments by Jesus about his being the shepherd of God’s sheep. In them he makes six statements about his sheep:

1. My sheep listen to my voice.
2. I know them.
3. They [the sheep] follow me.
4. I give them eternal life.
5. They will never perish.
6. No one will snatch them out of my hand.
   

    From this we know that sheep listen, follow, will not perish, and are of great importance. What the sheep do is dependent upon Jesus. Listening requires a speaker; following requires a leader.
    Jesus knows the sheep and he gives them eternal life. These are on-going actions of Jesus. Jesus does not know the sheep as we know bits of information. Jesus knows what is in people through an intimacy that we are not able to replicate.
    Some of what Jesus says about the sheep has to do with God. It is God the Father who gives the sheep to Jesus. The concept of the Father giving us to Jesus is one of the hardest concepts for us to grasp. We are part of Jesus’ flock because of what God has done, not because of anything we do. We can’t enlist in Jesus’ flock. As he told the people, “You did not choose me but I chose you.” Can we refuse to be God’s gift to Jesus? Jesus is clear that the temple authorities to whom he is speaking do not belong to his sheep. Why not? They refuse to listen. They refuse to follow. The word they refuse to hear is, “God has given you to Jesus.” 

The purpose of the church is to proclaim over and over again to its people: “You have been chosen by God. You are part of Jesus’ flock. You belong to Jesus. You are a sheep of God.” Hearers can choose to believe or not believe these words. Hearers can choose whether or not to follow up on what God has done for them.

    Jesus says that no one will snatch the sheep from Jesus’ hand or from the Father’s hand. The Father who gives us to Jesus is greater than any other power. There is nothing that can snatch us away from Jesus or from the Father. Our sheep-hood eludes all the forces and powers that would seek to snatch us away from Jesus – most notably our own sinfulness, the many forms of suffering we experience, and our ultimate deaths. God is more powerful than any of these. God may not make any suffering go away, but we know for certain that these sufferings are not strong enough to separate us from Jesus. Paul affirmed that when he wrote the Roman believers that “nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

    Hannah was a 21 year-old who suffered with cancer. When she relapsed, she had to start treatment all over again. We say that a person battles diseases like cancer. Hannah said that there was a war being waged, but it was in her mind, not her body. One side was saying, “Cancer is the worst thing that ever happened to me.” The other side was saying, “Cancer is the best thing that ever happened to me.” Her response was this: “Cancer sucks.” We know what she meant. Friends, family members, even ourselves, have been down that road. The treatments cause sickness and weakness; tastes and smells change; weight is lost; hair falls out – not a pleasant event for a young woman fond of her hair. Chemotherapy physically alters the body until it is practically unrecognizable.

    In the force field analysis, Hannah also listed the good things: She said, “Cancer has given me opportunities to become an actress, a model, and a nurse!” She acted in a show that helped people understand the effects of cancer through drawing their stories out of them. She became a model because the local professional hockey team sponsored a style show for pediatric cancer patients at the city’s Children’s Hospital. And Hannah chose to become a nurse because of the people who cared for her.

    Hannah never forgot the words of two younger cancer friends who died from the disease. A 13-year-old said, “Courage is not the absence of fear.” And an 11-year-old said, “God brought you to it; God shall get you through it.” Hannah’s take away was this: we are to try to live with courage and believe that God doesn't bring us situations to watch us suffer. God brings us opportunities to enable us to become stronger.

Being a listening, known-by-name, following sheep which possesses eternal life and imperishability, and is safe from being snatched out of God’s care by any foe, is the courageous strength that Hannah wrote about. Salvation is solely dependent upon God and Jesus, not our individual faith or love or knowledge. Salvation is rooted in the Word of God which proclaims: 

• You have been chosen by God."
• You are part of Jesus’ flock.
  
• You belong to Jesus.
  
• You are a sheep of God.

    The good news is not that we are sheep, dwelling on the bad press that sheep so often get. The good news is that we are not just anyone’s sheep. The good news is that each of us is a sheep which has been created and called by God and given by God to Jesus Christ for our eternal safe-keeping. That news is greater than anything else. That’s why Christ was raised from the dead, to care eternally for us sheep. That is why Christ reigns as Lord of lords and King of kings and why we are to give blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might to our God forever and ever.
    You are a sheep of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
    Alleluia! Amen.