John 10:22-33 New International Version (NIV)
22 Then came the Festival of Dedication at Jerusalem. It was winter, 23 and Jesus was in the temple courts walking in Solomon’s Colonnade. 24 The Jews who were there gathered around him, saying, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.”
25 Jesus answered, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The works I do in my Father’s name testify about me, 26 but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. 27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.”
31 Again his Jewish opponents picked up stones to stone him, 32 but Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?”
33 “We are not stoning you for any good work,” they replied, “but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.”
Today is designated as “Good Shepherd Sunday,” a day when we reflect on Jesus’s frequent reference to himself as one who cares for the sheep. I could be offended by Jesus calling us sheep, as sheep aren’t really the most intelligent of animals. But if I focused on that, I think we would be missing the point. Today I want to look at our passage from John’s Gospel to see who Jesus claims to be, and how we can discern our good shepherd from all those other would-be shepherds out there.
Our scripture begins by telling us that Jesus was walking along an open part of the Temple in Jerusalem known as Solomon’s portico, or some translations call it Solomon’s porch. This was a holiday for the Jewish people, John calls it the festival of Dedication. We know it better by its Hebrew name: Hanukkah. Hanukkah is the celebration of the Hebrew people overcoming the Greek/Seleucid army, who had taken possession of the temple. The leader of the Greeks, Antiochus Epiphanes IV, reportedly defiled the Temple by sacrificing a pig to the Greek God Zeus inside this holy structure.
But the Jews didn’t sit by and let the larger, more-powerful Greeks desecrate their temple. Led by Judas Maccabeus, the Jews fought back, driving the Greeks out of their land. And when they rededicated the temple to Yahweh, they could only find enough oil to burn one night. That is where the miracle of Hanukkah comes in. The oil burned for eight nights, the time required for sanctifying the space and making it appropriate to worship the God of the Jews again.
You may recall that a few weeks ago on Palm Sunday I mentioned that those events took place on the Passover, when the Jews were looking for a new Moses, one who would lead them against the Romans, like Moses led their forebearers against the Egyptians. On Hanukkah, the Jewish people were anxious for a leader to lead them like the Maccabees did against the Greeks. So in verse 24 we read, “The Jews who were there gathered around [Jesus], saying, ‘How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.’”
Come on, Jesus. No more riddles. No more parables. Just tell us, are you the Messiah or aren’t you?
This is when I want to say, just look at the transcript. Turn to what Jesus just said and what he just did. John chapter nine, the scripture right before ours, is dedicated to the story of Jesus healing a man who was born blind and the Pharisees investigating this experience. The chapter ends with the man claiming Jesus to be the Son of Man, or some versions say the Son of God. The man recognized this as a Messianic title, and he worshipped Jesus. And Jesus does this little word play with the situation, saying that it is interesting how the blind man can see who he really is, but the Pharisees seem to be blind to the fact.
Jump into chapter ten today and we find the “good shepherd discourse,” a section where Jesus compares his relationship to the people of Israel to that of a shepherd to his/her sheep. In verse 11 he comes right out and says, “I am the good shepherd.”
We can’t say for sure what Jesus had in mind, but when I hear him say that he is the good shepherd, I’m reminded of one of the best-known Psalms, Psalm 23. The 23rd Psalm starts with these familiar words, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.”
There are over twenty references to shepherds and how they relate to their sheep in the Bible, and in almost all of them, God plays the role of the shepherd, and the Israelites are in the role of the sheep. And now Jesus is calling himself the good shepherd, taking a reference that about 90% of the time is used to refer to God and his attributes and applying it to himself. It sounds to me like Jesus is making a bold statement.
Many scholars assume that our text for this morning comes just after Jesus calling himself the good shepherd because he continues to use this shepherding metaphor. So let’s put it all together: things are tense, it is Hanukkah after all, and you know how people can get around the holidays. They want Jesus to just say it plainly, are you or are you not the Messiah?
Jesus simply says, Look at my resume and see what I’ve done. If you don’t believe that I am the Messiah yet, no words from me are going to convince you.
Last Saturday we found ourselves in one of the older churches downtown as we attended our daughter’s viola recital. I’m finding myself inside other churches more frequently these days, some local United Methodist and Episcopal churches, to be precise. Now I for one am glad that we have a relatively simple sanctuary. Our walls are bare, our pulpit is simple. We don’t have a lot of upkeep, and perhaps most important to me is that we didn’t invest millions of dollars. I do think that the kingdom of God is better served when we invest in the lives of people rather than a building that is in use for a couple of hours each week.
But here’s my confession: I really like stained glass windows. When the sun is coming in through the windows just so, I could sit there and look at the windows for hours. The windows at the local Methodist and Episcopal churches that I’ve been in are nothing short of beautiful works of art.
But the original purpose of stained-glass windows isn’t just to be pretty. Stained-glass windows became popular in the 10th century as the church began constructing cathedrals around Europe. This is during the time known as the Middle Ages, or Dark Ages, a period when education was minimal, and very few people could read. The stained glass was used to tell a story, to serve as a reminder to those who gathered to worship of some aspect of the biblical story.
Here’s the point I’m trying to make: if you just look at stained-glass windows for the beauty of the art, that’s great. But you are also missing the point. These aren’t just windows to the outside world, and they aren’t just pieces of art. No, these are windows to the divine. Yes, they are beautiful, but they are meant to reveal God and his kingdom. When you look at a stained-glass window, you are meant to see God.
This is how I understand the miracles that Jesus performs in the Gospels. The miracles their selves are pretty amazing. I’ve never healed a man born blind, have you? Last time I walked on water…was in January. But that was because it was really cold out. I’ve never fed the multitudes from a little boy’s lunch of loaves and fish. It is amazing that Jesus did these things! And if that’s all you get from these stories, they are still beautiful stories! But the people who were fed got hungry again. The people who were healed eventually died. These miracles are more than just neat events. Like the stained-glass windows in an old cathedral, these miracles are beautiful, but they are meant to reveal something else. They are meant to reveal to us the kingdom of God and show us just who Jesus really is.
John’s Gospel is often divided into four parts: the prologue (John 1:1-1:18), the Book of Signs (1:19-12:50), the Book of Glory (or Exaltation) (13:1-20:31) and the epilogue (chapter 21). Today’s passage is a part of the Book of Signs. There are seven different signs in these chapters, each one is identified by John as such (σημεῖον). But this isn’t just a sign like a stop sign or other road sign. The definition for a semeion is “a sign, mark, token; that by which a person or a thing is distinguished from others and is known.” These seven signs begin with Jesus turning water into wine in John 2, where in verse 11 we read, “Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.” The final sign is the raising of Lazarus. After this event, the religious leaders say, “Here is this man performing many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him.” (47b-48a).
Here’s a list of the seven signs of Jesus found in John’s Gospel:
Turning Water into Wine (John 2:1–11); Cleansing the Temple (John 2:12–17); Healing the Nobleman’s Son (John 4:46–54); Healing the Lame Man (John 5:1–15); Feeding the Multitude (John 6:1–15); Healing the Blind Man (John 9); Raising Lazarus (John 11)
All of these things are in and of their selves good things! But they are more. They are signs of who Jesus is. He is the Messiah, the anointed one from God. These signs show us who Jesus is and what his kingdom is like. And that is why I think we as Christians are called to heal the sick, care for the poor, and love the outcast. It is good to do these things, but we do them as signs. So many hospitals bear the name of Christians and saints because they were started by churches and denominations. We heal the sick because one day there will be no more sickness. We continue to raise money and provide goods for the Valley Mission because one day there will be no hunger, there will be no need. We love the outcast because one day every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord. We embody the kingdom of God today because in doing so we reveal who Jesus is and we make his kingdom known now. We proleptically embody that which we believe is coming.
Alright, back to the text. The people ask Jesus to tell them clearly if he is the Messiah. He says that he has been telling them through the signs he has been performing. Then Jesus returns to the shepherding metaphor in verses 26-27: “But you do not believe because you are not my sheep. My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.”
These verses can be used to argue for both predestination and freewill. The people don’t believe because they aren’t already Jesus’s sheep, but yet there is a hearing and response to the call embedded in this text. Either way, I don’t think that was Jesus’s point. What Jesus seems to me to be saying is that his followers are the ones who knew what to listen for.
I grew up around many different animals: dogs, cats, dairy cattle, pigs, chickens, sheep, and two brothers. Cows run when you yell at them, pigs come when they think they are going to be fed. Our dogs always came any time they heard someone, and the cats never really cared what we were doing. So my experiences with animals knowing my voice dodn’t really translate to a good sermon illustration. But what I did think of is my niece and nephew in Ohio.
I don’t see Max and Grace very often, usually twice a year. That’s the challenge with living 400 miles away from your farming family. Max and Grace are four-years-old, and my mother watches them a couple days each week. I call my mother 2x every week, and it is common for me to call my mother while she is watching the twins. They are inquisitive and of course, any time the phone rings, they want to know who it is. I can always hear them in the background as my mother answers the phone, asking, “Who is it, Grammy? Who’s on the phone? Who are you talking to?”
My mother always puts them on speakerphone, and I say hello. Without fail, they say, “It’s Uncle Kevin!” We then have a ten-minute-long conversation about tractors and baby dolls.
Jesus says in verse 27, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” Max and Grace know my voice because we talk frequently. They know what I sound like, and they know what doesn’t sound like me. They don’t follow me, yet. But I’m working on that!
I titled my sermon today “Read the Red.” That is a reference to the words written in red in some of our Bibles. I grew up with a King James Bible where the words of Jesus were written in red ink. I’m among those Christians who believes that we are to put the life, death, and resurrection Jesus first. If you want to know what God is like, look at Jesus. If you want to know how we should live, look at Jesus. If you want to know how to treat others, look at Jesus. Read the red. Yes, read all the words of your Bible, but Jesus himself said that all the other parts are pointing to him.
We can’t hear Jesus’s actual voice like his disciples did, or like my niece and nephew hear my voice over the phone. But what we can do is read the words of Jesus, study his life and his death, and discern what is his voice. We need to do this, because there are other voices out there that would like to lead us. There are other would-be shepherds.
I mentioned last Sunday that the young man who entered the Jewish synagogue in California just over two weeks ago and began to shoot worshippers was a Christian. I just found out this week that before he went on his shooting spree, he penned a seven-page document outlining his faith in Jesus Christ and his accusations against the Jews. In this document, the 19-year-old shooter claimed that Jews deserved to die, and that by killing these worshippers at the synagogue he was bringing glory to God.
Many white nationalists who marched in Charlottesville two years ago claimed to be doing the work of God, just as many of the KKK members of generations past also did.
My friends, that is not the message of Jesus Christ. And yes, you can find ethnic cleansing and mass murders in the Bible, but you won’t find them in the words written in red. Jesus said that he is the good shepherd, and his sheep know his voice and they follow him. If we are Jesus’s sheep, we too must know his voice. We too must follow him.
When we hear the voice of the shepherd calling us to love our enemies, that is Jesus. When we hear the voice of the shepherd calling us to forgive those who have wronged us, that is Jesus. When we hear the voice of the shepherd calling us to care for the sick, the needy, the orphan and the widow, that is the voice of Jesus.
Jesus, the good shepherd, the one who performed the signs and wonders, the one who proclaimed to be one with the Father, is the voice we must listen to. And to discern the voice of Jesus from other would-be shepherds, we must read the red.
Staunton Mennonite Weblog 