Someone to Follow

John 10: 1-15

A woman took her young son to the beach on a bright and sunny day. They came upon the remains of a sea gull. “What happened to him?” the little boy asked. “He died and went to heaven,” Mom replied. They walked on, the little boy thinking about the sea gull and her answer. “Does God like birds?” he said. “He loves birds,” Mom said. “And this bird went to heaven?” he asked. “Yes,” she answered. The boy finally asked, “So why did God throw him back down?”

There’s plenty of metaphorical language and symbolism assigned to the characters in this pastoral painting from John 10. The thieves and bandits do not enter the sheepfold through the gate. Their intentions are clear. They come to steal, kill and destroy. The hired hands employed to care for and protect the sheep flee when they see the wolf because they don’t care about the sheep.

The wolves were decimating the farmers’ sheep in a region of the mid-west one year. So, the farmers’ association raised the bounty on wolf pelts to a hundred dollars apiece. Two hunters, Sam and Ed, decided they could use the money. So, they got their gear and headed out to the wide-open spaces to shoot some wolves and make themselves rich. They’d just fallen asleep out under the stars when a noise woke Ed. By the light of the campfire, he saw the eyes of a hundred wolves – teeth gleaming and mouths snarling. He shook his friend awake and whispered, “Sam, Sam, wake up! We’re rich!” 

Sheep appear to be vulnerable and need protection in this symbolic portrait in John. On the BBC Earth website, sheep are, first, characterized as having A REPUTATION of being “stupid, defenseless and harmless creatures that mope about on hillsides doing not very much. They are good for two things: being eaten and producing wool.” The article then advanced the REALITY OF SHEEP as being “surprisingly intelligent, with impressive memory and recognition skills. They build friendships, stick up for one another in fights, and feel sad when their friends are sent to slaughter.”

Biblically, the prophet Isaiah in the fifty-third chapter of the book of Isaiah wrote, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way” (53:6). The twenty-third psalm, which we are familiar with, was written by David who portrays himself as a sheep protected by the Lord portrayed as a shepherd. By virtue of the Lord’s leading, David, as if a sheep, lies down in green pastures, is led beside still waters and in right paths. He has no reason to fear evil because the Lord as his shepherd is with him; his rod and staff comfort him. Jesus in Matthew 10 sent his disciples out to minister to the lost sheep of the house of Israel (10:6). Earlier in Matthew 9, Jesus observed the crowds coming to him as harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd (9:36).

The Bible doesn’t illustrate sheep as mere dumb animals. They are loved, cared for and valuable. Jesus in John 10 is teaching some systematic theology. He teaches his learners and readers his perspective, a Biblical perspective, of humanity. Yes, we go astray and turn to our own way, but we are loved, cared for and treated as valuable by God. We are, so often, prone to be vulnerable and caught unaware because the thieves and bandits seek to steal, kill and destroy to their own advantage. Our own lack of discernment allows hired hands we employee to protect or care for us runaway at the slightest sign of approaching harm or difficulty.

All of that being a fair assessment of the human condition, we also hear of the role our Lord plays in our lives and in whom we can trust. The shepherd of the sheep, unlike the thief, enters through the gate, not under the cloak of darkness or hopping over a wall like a bandit. HE HAS NOTHING TO HIDE. The shepherd calls the sheep by name. They follow him because THEY KNOW HIS VOICE and will not follow the voice of a stranger. Do you recall the reality of sheep as described by the BBC? They are naturally intelligent with impressive memory and recognition skills so it’s probable sheep would recognize voices.

Going back to systematic theology, we learn some things about the nature of Jesus through two of the I Am statements found in the gospel of John in this lesson. First, Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd,” and it doesn’t depict sheep AS dumb animals. If we assume they are, that will lead us to assume God thinks of us in the same manner – stupid, defenseless creatures moping about doing little if anything important. The good shepherd calls us by name, leads us out. WE FOLLOW THEM BECAUSE WE KNOW HIS VOICE. And he willingly lays down his life for his sheep. It is in him we can trust. Alleluia.

Second, the Lord said, “I am the gate for the sheep.” Biblically, a gate is significant in two ways. First, in the Old Testament, a gate to a city or town was where the authority of the town would make decisions and rulings for the sake of the town. Second, a gate is always a transition point from one sphere of influence or realm of existence to another. One would go from inside a town of safety or familiarity to a broader existence or level of risk outside the town. Jesus is our gate. It is only through that gate do we transition from one world to the next. If not for that passage of transition that only Jesus provides, we would remain stationary and stagnant. Jesus is our gate for life and life more abundant. Again, alleluia.

In the early days of our country a weary traveler came to the banks of the Mississippi River for the first time. There was no bridge. It was early winter, and the surface of the river was covered with ice. Could he dare cross over? Would the uncertain ice be able to bear his weight? Night was falling, and he urgently wanted to make it to the other side. After much hesitation and many fears, he began to creep cautiously across the ice on his hands and knees. He thought he might distribute his weight as much as possible and keep the ice from breaking beneath him. About halfway over he heard the sound of singing behind him. Out of the dusk came a man driving a horse-drawn sleigh with a load of coal across the ice and singing merrily as he went his way. Here the traveler was, on his hands and knees, trembling lest the ice not be sturdy enough to bear him up. And there, as if whisked away by the winter’s wind, went the man, his horses, his sleigh full of coal upheld by the same ice on which the first man was creeping.

If he’d just waited a little while longer, he would have followed the horses and sleigh across the Mississippi without creeping along not looking human, without fear and full of confidence and appreciation to the man on the sleigh. How often in this life have we thought IF WE JUST HAD SOMEONE TO FOLLOW and not be afraid of what might happen in the moments ahead? Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd. I know my known, and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep.”  Alleluia.

(Preached at St Mark United Methodist Church in Anniston, AL, 4-21-24)