“A sheepish look at reality”

By Rev. Michael Stonhouse

Meditation – Wednesday, March 29, 2023

John 10:1-18 (Forward, p. 59) CEV p. 1114

We are told, in verse 6, that the common people, the crowds, did not understand what Jesus was talking about. Now, we know for sure that Jesus used mixed metaphors in this passage, which may have prompted a certain amount of the confusion. Or, on the other hand, maybe Jesus, like the skilled communicator that He was, chose to use various metaphors in order to, by one means or another, get His message across.

So, to aid our understanding, and ‘get’ what Jesus was saying, let us look at the metaphors in turn:

a) In verses 1-5, Jesus speaks primarily of the sheepfold, its gatekeeper, and its shepherd. (The other characters in the account, and its setting, are somewhat subsidiary.)

-the sheepfold, never identified as to location, is a place of safety, security and rest for the sheep. It has walls to protect the sheep and a gate or entrance to restrict just who has access to them;

-it is the gatekeeper that controls who goes in and out, and is the one who lets in the shepherd; anyone who does not come in via this route obviously has some questionable motives, i.e. a thief or a robber;

-in this section, the gatekeeper might well be thought of as being a person like John the Baptist, who prepared the way of the shepherd--or one of the prophets of old, who spoke of his coming;

-the key person who goes in and out is the shepherd of that particular flock of sheep. What is said about him is most noteworthy:

-the sheep know his voice;

-he obviously knows them as well, as he calls each one of them by name. Furthermore, because they know his voice, they follow him;

-he leads them out of the sheepfold and then leads the way for them;

-they won’t follow strangers, because they don’t know their voices. Indeed, they will run away from them in fright;

-to a Christian hearer, and reader, this shepherd is obviously Jesus, and says a lot about our relationship with Him:

-we should recognize that He knows us inside and out, and that He knows us, and calls us, by name. There is something very caring—and very intimate about this;

-we should learn to recognize His voice and recognize His direction in our lives—and follow it.

b) In verses 7-9, He switches the metaphor, and instead of someone else being the gate, He announces that He is the gate. Anyone who came before Him was a thief or a robber, and not the true shepherd of the sheep. (He cannot mean this in any absolute sense, for surely neither John the Baptist nor Moses or the prophets of old were thieves or robbers. (But, once again, the key person is the gate.)

-those who come in through the gate, that is, Jesus, will be saved;

-those who go out through that gate will find good, nourishing pasture;

-the thief comes only to rob, kill and destroy. Jesus has come to bring life and life in all its fulness;

c) And, in verses 10-16, He switches the metaphor a second time, this time going back to His original image, and describing Himself once more as the Shepherd:

-He knows His sheep and they know Him;

-furthermore, He lays down His life for the sheep, as Jesus would certainly do;

-Jesus is not like a hireling, a hired servant or employee, who has no real care for the sheep, and no real sense of ownership towards them. For such people, it is simply a job, take it or leave it, with no real or lasting or personal commitment to the sheep. With Jesus, however, there is the commitment and we belong to Him and He to us.

Taken all together, these three sets of images tell us a great deal about our intended relationship with Jesus:

-it is to be a relationship of intimacy and knowing and trust;

-it is to be a relationship that leads to wholeness and life in its fulness;

-it is to be a relationship where He is absolutely committed to us and to our well-being, so much so that He does what is necessary for our salvation and lays down His life for us

This is what our reality, our reality in Christ, our life in Christ, is all about. Amen.

Forward notes: “I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me” (verse 14).

“At historic St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Chestertown, Maryland, where I served years back, someone installed an oversized window with an image of Jesus carrying a sheep around his neck. I never liked that window. It did not fit the space stylistically, historically, or size-wise, but also, I had never been a fan of the passive image of Jesus as Good Shepherd.

“That was the case until I visited the sheep ranch of close friends. They invited me to watch the annual sheep branding, which you will be relieved to know is by spray paint. The sheep also receive oral inoculations for various diseases. The shepherds funnel the sheep from a holding pen through chutes, but because sheep are antsy, the shepherds sometimes must wrestle a few. The sheep will fight and buck and wriggle and strain.

“The passive sheep around Jesus’s shoulders has surrendered, given himself over to a shepherd that he trusts will lead and guide and even carry when necessary.”

Moving Forward: “Have you surrendered or do you still fight and buck and wiggle?”