MORE POWER! MORE GLORY!! MORE SPIRIT!!!
SURVEYING THE SITE—John 10:11-21
This is Good Shepherd Sunday. We will talk about our Good
Shepherd, but, as Dr. Karoline Lewis points out, this is part of the Man Born
Blind in Chapter 9.
For years I have been trying to tell anyone who will listen that the reading of the man born blind is not about the blind man. It is about our relationship with Christ. It is about living with lost community and finding new communal living in relationship with Christ.
This week, at the end of the story of that reading, we hear Jesus telling the people that he is the door/gate of the sheepfold. The sheep hear his voice, and they follow him. The sheep will not follow a stranger but run from him. When the people don’t understand, Jesus tries again saying, “I am, I AM, the door/gate. Those who came before me are thieves and bandits, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am, I AM, the gate. Those who enter by me are saved and will come and go out and find pasture. The thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy, but I came that they might have life and have it abundantly.”
Noticing that the people still don’t understand, Jesus continues the metaphor saying, “I am the good shepherd.” Surely, the image of shepherd should be easier to understand than Jesus being a door/gate, but apparently not.
READING THE BLUEPRINT
“I am, I AM, the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down
his life for the sheep. The hired hand who is not the shepherd and does not own
the sheep sees the wolves coming, leaves the sheep, and runs away. The wolf
snatches them and scatters them. The hired hand runs away because he does not
care for them. I am, I AM, the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me,
just as the father knows me and I know the father. I lay down my life for the
sheep.
“I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So, there will be one flock and one shepherd. For this reason, the father loves me because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me. I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my father.
“Again, the Jewish authorities and the people were divided because of these words. Many of them were saying, ‘He has a demon! He is out of his mind! Why do you listen to him?’ Other were saying, ‘These are not the words of one who has a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?’”
ROUGHING IN THE HOUSE
I am sure that most of you have seen the picture or stained-glass
window with Jesus in the foreground walking with a lamb over his shoulders and
the flock of sheep in the background. Jesus looks so clean, doesn’t he?
The fact of the matter is that shepherding is a dirty, smelly job. And though the image of shepherd is initially attributed to royalty in Scripture, when Jesus uses this metaphor, the position of shepherd has fallen into disrepute. The testimony of a shepherd was not even allowed in the courts. In general, they were thought to be the lowest of the low.
Still, sheep were needed for sacrifices; the wool was still gathered; and, of course, the people still ate them; but the people’s dependence on them was not what it was when they were wandering in the wilderness before becoming urban dwellers. Those were the days when the life of the sheep and the livelihood of the people depended on one another. Clothing, food, milk, housing, carpets for the floor of the tents, manure for the fires all came from the sheep.
In those days, to be a shepherd meant something. David stood between the sheep and bears, wolves, and lions. In other words, he risked his life for the sheep. No wonder the position of king was associated with shepherding. David brought that job description with him.
This image of shepherd/king radically challenged the understanding of king in the world at the time. It is a lesson that Nebuchadnezzar is taught in the book of Daniel. We read that, in his humiliation, Nebuchadnezzar eats grass. He needs to learn the lesson of being a shepherd rather than potentate. In a world where the emperor is again claiming the place of potentate, Jesus comes reclaiming the title of shepherd/king; not the dishonest, degraded shepherd, but the Good Shepherd.
This position of shepherd is not the pristine shepherd of the stained-glass window. It is the dirty, sweaty, odoriferous working shepherd that is willing to give up his life for us. It is indeed, the beaten, bloody, thorns-crowned, cross-nailed, pierced-sided shepherd who makes salvation real for us. The one who opens our eyes to a new reality. It may be madness, but it is good madness.
PUTTING UP THE WALLS
This conclusion of this extended story of the man born blind
presents us with good lessons to learn. If we look to sin as the causation of our
desperate lives, we will find ways of blaming and shaming. But, if we look to
the circumstances of our lives as opportunities of seeing God’s work being
revealed to us, then we can live lives of surprising joy.
If we live, looking for the approval others, then we risk alienation and shunning. But in relationship in Christ, we find inclusion, wholeness, and peace. This relationship we have in Christ is liminal; that is, Jesus is the door/gate to a new reality of hope. There are those who wish to make that relationship a legalistic club of abuse, trapping ourselves and others in prisons of judgmentalism, but, when we hear the voice of the one on the the cross, offering forgiveness, we pass through the door/gate knowing our shepherd’s voice, finding the way to green pastures. Indeed, it is the voice of the Good Shepherd.
HANGING THE TRIM
In this Easter season, we declare the mystery of our faith.
“Christ has died. [acknowledging the historic death]
“Christ is risen. [we claim the ‘isness’ of Christ’s resurrection; the
presence of the Good Shepherd is among us today]
“Christ will come again. [it
is Christ’s ‘isness’ that gives us hope for the future coming]”
In this ‘isness’, we discover Christ’s business and follow
in his way.
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