Posts Tagged ‘Good shepherd’

True leadership – the Good Shepherd

April 19, 2024

Easter 4 – 2024

John 10:11-18

Marian Free

In the name of God who gives us life in abundance. Amen.

Over familiarity with anything – be it food, a certain style of literature, even scripture – can strip it of its power to satisfy and to surprise. Such could be said of today’s reading from John chapter 10 with its cosy imagery of the shepherd who will put his own life on the line to protect the sheep (us) from the intruder. Many of us of will have grown up with illustrations of low dry-stone sheepfolds with a gap through which the sheep can go in and out. Our Sunday school teachers will have told us that because there was no physical gate the shepherd will have slept in that space so that, should an intruder or wild beast try to enter, he would immediately awake and protect the sheep. 

There is nothing particularly wrong with this image, and it certainly fits with images of shepherding that we find in the Old Testament, especially in Psalm 23 and Ezekiel 34. However, when we place the reading in the context of John’s gospel as a whole we can see that it plays quite a different role.

At first glance the image of a shepherd does not neatly follow the healing of the blind man in chapter 9. It is only when we read verse 10:21 that we realise that the shepherd imagery is Jesus’ discourse on the events of chapter 9 in which Jesus heals a man born blind.  ‘Again the Jews were divided because of these words. Many of them were saying, “He has a demon and is out of his mind. Why listen to him?”  Others were saying, “These are not the words of one who has a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?”’  Chapter 9:1-10-21 is of a piece. The Shepherd imagery is not an interruption of Jesus’ thought, but an integral part of the narrative.

You will remember that, like the Synoptic gospels, John’s is carefully, though differently crafted. One of John’s techniques is that of the discourse, a question (Nicodemus), an encounter (the woman at the well) or an event (the feeding of the 5,000) becomes an opportunity for Jesus to have a dialogue with someone and then to speak at length on a particular topic. In this case Jesus’ comments in the first half of chapter 10 are a continuation of his commentary on Pharisees’ reaction to the sign (healing of a man born blind) in chapter 9. The Pharisees’ resistance to healing and wholeness, reveals that they are not the shepherds they claim to be. The openness of the man born blind enables him to hear Jesus’ voice and to become one of Jesus’ flock.

So, what does a discourse on the Good Shepherd (and the gate for the sheep) have to do with healing a man born blind? 

I’ll try to explain what I think is going on here. In the first instance, it is clear that the story of the healing of the blind man is more than a simple healing story.  It is really an account of someone gaining spiritual insight – as to the nature and role of Jesus – compared with those who though not physically blind cannot see Jesus for whom he is. 

The man born blind has absolutely no idea who healed him. When he is being harassed by the Pharisees he declares Jesus to be a prophet and finally, when he meets and sees Jesus and Jesus reveals that he is the Son of Man he professes faith in the Son of Man and worships Jesus. In contrast the Pharisees, whose antagonism to Jesus runs throughout this section, declare Jesus to be a sinner and thus reveal their intransigent spiritual blindness (not to mention their self-interestedness).

When the Pharisees try to defend themselves, Jesus points out that it is their belief that they can see that identifies them as sinners. Then, without taking breath, Jesus launches into his discourse on the sheepfold and the shepherd which suggests that rather than being metaphors intended to comfort the faithful, they are an exposè of the leadership style of and an attack on the Pharisees. This section which began in 9:1 comes to an end in 10-19-21 in which the narrative returns to the question as to who Jesus is which has been the undercurrent throughout the entire narrative[1].

Using the metaphors of the sheepfold and of the shepherd (familiar images leadership from the Old Testament), Jesus implies that the Pharisees are the thief and bandit, who do not enter by the gate and whom the sheep (in this instance the man born blind) do not follow. 

At the end of the first part of the discourse Jesus asserts: ”I have come that they might have life and have it abundantly.”  In contrast “the thief comes only to kill and destroy.” This statement leads nicely into Jesus raising of Lazarus which occurs in the following chapter. The contrast with the Pharisees, is clear. For all kinds of reasons, they are unable to rejoice with the man born blind, they would rather that he remain blind, that he continued dependent on others living some sort of half-life. They refuse to believe that Jesus is anything but a sinner, insisting that he has a demon.

Jesus is not finished. Not only has he come to give the life that the Pharisees are withholding, he states that he will give his own life so that the sheep might live. The Pharisees’ reaction to the healing and to Jesus reveals them as the hired hands. They are not interested in the well-being of the sheep, but only in protecting their notion of law and of shoring up their position in the community.

The pastoral imagery of a shepherd who puts the sheep before himself is comforting and assuring, but it is important that we do not forget the debate that lies behind it. What exemplifies good leadership? and How do we recognise one sent by God? 

As millions of people around the world go to the polls this year these issues may prove to be as important now as they ever have been.

[1] I have been told that John writes in the style of a Hebrew writer – that is in a circular fashion. He circles back on themes introduced earlier. So, for example, we can take this narrative back to chapter 8 where the Pharisees declare that Jesus has a demon the same accusation that is made at the end of the section 10:21.

Tags:, , ,
Posted in Good shepherd, John's Gospel | Comments Off on True leadership – the Good Shepherd

Whose voice? – The Good Shepherd

April 29, 2023

Easter 4 – 2023
John 10:1-10
Marian Free

In the name of God in whom there is no deceit. Amen.

The internet is wonderful in that it gives us immediate access to all kinds of information and connects us with the world at the same time it has made us particularly vulnerable. Even the smartest among us can fall victim to a scam. Internet searches mean that our interests and shopping habits can be detected and preyed upon, and – at least it seems to me – there are ways for someone to discover if we have recently made an insurance claim, a mortgage application or if we have recently had a communication with a child that mentions money and to exploit these situations for their own advantage. During the last fortnight news channels have informed us that scammers are able to make a reasonable approximation of someone’s voice based on a relatively short recording of same.

It would be reassuring if we could be certain that it was only in the secular world that there were people who wanted to take advantage of us, but sadly, there are also charlatans who use religion to coerce the susceptible (and the idealists) into handing over control over their possessions, their relationships and even their daily lives. The documentary Gloriavale, details how one man (Neville Cooper or ‘Hopeful Christian”) convinced people to join his utopian, egalitarian Christian community. Over time, members of the community ceded more and more control to Hopeful, to the point that he dominated every aspect of their existence. Sadly, there are endless examples of charismatic leaders who have convinced their followers that they are messengers of God – often with catastrophic consequences. Jamestown, the Waco Branch Davidians and most recently the starvation cult of Kenya are just a few of the cults that come to mind. People seeking certainty are offered a clear definitive way to achieve salvation are drawn in by the confidence and assurance of the leader and, if and when, they begin to suspect something is wrong, they are so caught up in the propaganda that they are fearful that leaving will cost them their immortal soul – a price that only the brave are prepared to risk.

Religious cults are often exploitative, coercive, and constrictive and their leaders are frequently self-seeking, power-hungry and arrogant people who maintain control over their followers by stripping them of their self-confidence, their financial independence, and their sense of personal worth.

Whether in the secular or religious sphere, scammers and imposters seduce the willing with promises of love, riches, status, well-being or heavenly reward. For those truly. seeking the truth, it is sometimes difficult to determine the difference between the genuine and the false.

Discerning truth from lie, shepherd from thief is a theme that runs through John 9 and continues in John 10. In the gospel it is Jesus’ identity that is in question – is he an imposter or is he a truly sent by God? When Jesus heals the man born blind, the Pharisees (who are locked into their own idea of God) are determined to label Jesus as an interloper, a deceiver, a sinner, whereas the man born blind is willing to see Jesus for who he is – the Son of Man. In response to the Pharisee’s scepticism and their determination to destroy him, Jesus begins a long discourse on the sheepfold and the shepherd. It is a complex argument, and the imagery alternates between gate and shepherd, but at the heart of the argument is the distinction between shepherd and thief, between the one whose voice is genuine and those whose voices are filled with deceit.

In modern terms, the “thieves” (whom we are to assume are the scribes and the Pharisees) are those who try to lead the people of Israel astray, to lure them into danger with false promises and who use their knowledge of the people and the language of their faith to entice and then to control them. Jesus claims that he, not they, is the good shepherd. It is not his goal to coerce; “to steal and kill and destroy”. He has come: “that they might have life and have it abundantly”. Jesus does not demand obedience to outdated religious laws or observance of empty rituals. He is not seeking to control or to dominate, instead he will “lay down my life for my sheep.”

In life as in faith we will hear conflicting voices telling us that if only we do one thing or the other our happiness will be complete, our future will be assured, our salvation will be certain. If we are in any doubt as to whether the voice is of God or not we can be guided by this principle. A voice that is bullying, disrespectful, coercive, and self-seeking, that preaches a message that is alarming or worse, soul destroying, then we are safe to assume that that voice is malevolent and does not have our best interests at heart. On the other hand, a
voice that is humble, encouraging, liberating, and self-sacrificial and has at its heart a message that is uplifting and life-giving then we can be sure that the voice is holy and seeks our well-being above life itself.

The thieves and robbers (Pharisees and scribes) seek to control and coerce. The Good Shepherd (Jesus) seeks to empower and liberate.

Jesus came that we might have life and have it in abundance – nothing less will do.

Tags:, , , , ,
Posted in Good shepherd, John's Gospel | Comments Off on Whose voice? – The Good Shepherd

Gates – openings or barriers?

May 6, 2017

Easter 4 – 2017

John 10:1-10

Marian Free

In the name of God who desires only what is best for us. Amen.

The first ten verses in chapter 10 of John’s gospel are rather puzzling. Is Jesus the gate, the door or the shepherd? Is Jesus both the gate and the shepherd? How does Jesus’ being the gate relate to having life in abundance? Who are the thieves and robbers? Part of the difficulty in understanding this passage is that the lectionary gives us only a small portion of the picture. Properly speaking, today’s gospel belongs in a section of John that begins at 9:39 and that concludes at 10:21. This becomes clear when we see that the passage begins and ends with a commentary on blindness and a reference to the division among the Jews as to the identity of Jesus. The Pharisees and their supporters claim that Jesus is an imposter, but those who can see clearly, recognise Jesus as the one sent by God.

In the previous chapter, Jesus healed a blind man on the Sabbath. This caused the Pharisees to be incensed not only because Jesus had broken the Sabbath law but because they were in danger of losing their place in society and the influence that they exerted over the people. In order shore up their position they tried to discredit both the blind man and Jesus. Jesus cannot have come from God because they know nothing about him! From their point of view Jesus (and the man who was healed) are making claims that cannot possibly be substantiated. Even so, there is something about Jesus that represents a threat to their authority and to their role. This is why it is so important that they convince the blind man that Jesus is an imposter.

Despite their best efforts the man born blind refuses to be swayed by their bullying and their insults. It is clear to him that Jesus must be from God – otherwise he could do nothing. He declares that Jesus is God and worships him.

It is in this context of conflict and division that Jesus uses the imagery of shepherding to describe the difference between himself and the Pharisees. Indirectly, Jesus is accusing the Pharisees of deceiving the people and of trying to manipulate them into believing what they, the Pharisees, want them to believe. The Pharisees are not true shepherds but are thieves and robbers who seek, not to benefit, but harm them. They are standing in the way of the fullness of life that belongs people of God. They are stifling and confining them, instead of nurturing and freeing them.

Jesus’ audience would have been familiar with the image of a shepherd. In the Old Testament the bad shepherds are those thoughtless, uncaring leaders who abandon their flock to the wolves. In contrast to them, God is the Good Shepherd, and God will establish over the people of Israel “one shepherd, my servant David, who shall feed them and be their shepherd”(Ezek 34:23-24). By claiming for himself the title of Good Shepherd, Jesus is identifying himself as the “one shepherd” sent by God.

When the Pharisees fail to recognise Jesus as the one sent by God and try to persuade others to their point of view the people they reveal their blindness and their self-centredness. They are devious and untrustworthy, but the sheep are not so easily deceived. As the man born blind has demonstrated, the people, despite the intimidation of the Pharisees, recognise Jesus and willingly follow him. It is this – the fact that the people respond to Jesus – that demonstrates that he, not the Pharisees is the shepherd of the sheep.

Just as they did not understand that they were blind, so now the Pharisees do not understand that Jesus is accusing them of being thieves and robbers. Jesus tries another image. He is, he says, the gate. it is through him that the sheep enter the security of salvation, and through him that they go out again to find pasture. Unlike the Pharisees who try to restrict and control the people by putting barriers in their way, Jesus opens the gate to free them to come and go as they please – to make up their own minds as to whom to follow.

Jesus continues this discourse by describing himself as the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep. At the conclusion of this section we return to where we began with the division between the people over the identity of Jesus. There are still those who believe that he has a demon and is out of his mind, but there are others who say: “These are not the words of one who has a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?”

When we have the whole picture, Jesus as both gate and shepherd makes sense. In the context of Jesus’ dispute with the Pharisees, Jesus uses the familiar imagery of the shepherd and the sheepfold to make two points. He exposes the dishonesty and deviousness of the Pharisees – false shepherds who don’t use the gate, but who try to get to the sheep by stealth and who constrain others to their narrow views. Jesus is the true shepherd and he is the gate. As the gate, Jesus does not confine or restrict, but provides access both in and out – not only admitting the sheep into the security of the sheepfold but also freeing them to go out to seek nourishing and sustaining pasture.

The Good Shepherd can easily be distinguished from the false shepherd, because the Good Shepherd does not seek to benefit himself or to dominate or control in the name of God. The Good Shepherd knows us by name and has our best interests at heart. Jesus the Good Shepherd who is also the gate, does not seek to manipulate or to constrain but frees us to live life the full, to have life and to have it abundantly.

 

Tags:, , , , ,
Posted in John's Gospel | Comments Off on Gates – openings or barriers?

Our life to live

April 25, 2015

Easter 4 – 2015

John 10:(1-10) 11-18

Marian Free

 

In the name of God, Shepherd, protector, liberator. Amen.

Most of us would, I think, agree that the Internet is a marvelous tool. That said, we cannot ignore the darker side of this form of mass communication. Just week I heard about a social media site on which Year 8 girls can post pictures of themselves wearing bikinis. Innocent enough you might think until you learn that the photo only stays on the site if enough other girls vote for it to stay. It makes you wonder what sort of arrogance would lead to someone setting up the site and what sort of insecurities would lead to twelve and thirteen year old girls exposing themselves to the sort of large-scale rejection that might follow. That, of course is only one of many sites. There is, in the United States at least, a site called “Revenge”. Men, who have persuaded girlfriends to send photos of themselves in various stages of undress, upload those photos on to the site when the relationship goes sour. The young women discover that they are recognised wherever they go and are mortified to realise that they whole world has seen them naked. Then there are those who use the internet to prey on young people with promises of love, but whose real intention is to use and abuse them.

The Internet is wonderful, but it can be a minefield for the vulnerable, the inexperienced and the naive. It offers fame and fortune but can be sordid and soul-destroying. It can provide a sense of belonging yet also be the source of the most awful social exclusion. People, like sheep, are not always discerning about whom they follow whether it be fellow teens, an over-bearing boyfriend, an employer who plays fast and loose with the law, a Hitler, or an Idi Amin. The human need for affirmation and approval is sufficiently strong that it is possible for some to ignore the small twinges of disquiet that alert them to the fact that all is not well – that they are being used, bullied or taken advantage of. When people are desperate to fit in, they do not always notice the warning signs. They take risks that may have disastrous consequences and they place their trust in those who are only interested in exploiting or taking advantage of them, of using them for their own gain or gratification. They follow people who in the end are not interested in the personal, emotional or social needs of those whom they ensnare but come – as do the thieves in today’s gospel, to steal, kill and destroy.

Sadly, some people are so deafened by the din of the world around them and so anxious to belong to that world that they are either unable or unwilling to listen to their own hearts. Instead of being true to themselves they follow those who offer false hopes and a false sense security. Instead of finding freedom and wholeness they discover that they are constrained and they remain unsatisfied, unfulfilled.

It is in contrast to the thieves, and robbers, (the hired hands, those who exploit), that Jesus describes himself as the “good shepherd.’ The good shepherd does not seek followers to use for his own nefarious means and he does not want to exploit those who follow him in order to achieve his own purposes. The good shepherd has no regard for his own needs, In fact, rather than demand anything of those who choose to follow, the good shepherd wants only what is the best for the sheep to the extent that the shepherd would lay down his life to ensure the well-being of the sheep. In the context of the verse that precedes today’s passage, the good shepherd has come so that the sheep may have life and have it abundantly. This is not a half-life in the shadow of the shepherd, but a life that is rich and full, in which every opportunity is provided for the sheep to achieve their own potential. In other words, the good shepherd does not entrap or limit, but liberates and encourages those who follow to be confident in themselves and to live their own lives.

The good shepherd is selfless – the sheep always come first. The good shepherd is also inclusive. No one has to behave or dress in a certain way to belong. To be part of this flock does not require compromise or a willingness to bend the rules in order to fit in. In fact, so far from being selective, the good shepherd is clear that there are other sheep who do not yet belong – those who live in fear, those who are lost and defenseless, those who are trapped in unhealthy ways of perceiving themselves, those who are enslaved to fads and fashions, those who are struggling to fit in and in so doing become what they are not. The good shepherd wants to bring these into the flock so that they too might “have life and have it abundantly”.

Hearing and responding to Jesus’ voice does not mean being bound by rigid rules or being forced to behave in particular ways. It does mean means hearing the shepherd above the cacophony and demands of the world, it means understanding that we can rise above the need or desire to conform to trends and fashions and it means having the courage to be our own selves knowing that we are so precious, that Jesus would rather give up his life than see us put upon or used,or be what we are not.

The good shepherd wants us to hear his voice, to draw us into his fold, not because he wants us to conform to certain ways of behaving, not because he wants full churches, not because he afraid that we will be condemned at the judgement, but purely and simply because he loves us. Jesus loves us unreservedly and unconditionally and longs for us to make decisions that will lead to our wholeness. Jesus wants all people to know that there is no need to conform to external, worldly measures. It doesn’t matter whether a person is beautiful or plain, clever or not so clever in the eyes of the world, in Jesus’ eyes they are unique and valued.

Thirteen year olds who know that they are precious and loved will not need to expose themselves to rejection, young women will know that their bodies are their own will not be coerced to share them in ways that make them uncomfortable, young men will not need to boast of their conquests in order to impress their mates. Those who follow the good shepherd will discover that the world and it values will lose its hold on them and they will know that their life is their own to live. They will know as Jesus knew that their life is theirs to give and to take up and that no one can take it from them.

Tags:, , , , , , , ,
Posted in John's Gospel | Comments Off on Our life to live