Is Jesus a Stranger?

Is Jesus a Stranger?
John 10:1-10; Acts 2:42-47; Psalm 23; 1 Peter 2:19-25

This is “Good Shepherd” Sunday. Each year on the 4th Sunday of Easter, we celebrate Christ as the Good Shepherd. The gospel reading for each of the three years comes from John 10. The other readings coordinate with it and always include Psalm 23, which we will use for our “Sending Out to Witness” at the close of worship.

The shepherd image for Jesus is one of the best loved images for Jesus. It has been the subject of church art glass, frescoes, sculpture, paintings, iconography, and with Psalm 23, church music.

The shepherd image has two sides. Everyone in Jesus’ time knew something about sheep, shepherds, and shepherding, but what that they knew was not always good or appreciated. Shepherds weren’t on people’s lists of BFFs (best Facebook friends). Shepherds were a necessary appendage to society. A ready supply of sheep were needed for religious sacrifices and for festival food. A lot of cloth came from wool. Shepherds were tolerated. Like wet sheep, they were filthy, stinky, matted, weather-worn.

Yet the divine sense of humor kept using the shepherd image. Shepherds got “This just in from Bethlehem” angel-sung bulletin when Jesus was born. The feast-giving householder who got a mess of last minute excuses and “no-shows” sent the houseman out to find people to fill the empty seats. Combing of the back alleys and by-ways probably resulted in soiled shepherds sitting at supper. Jesus was linked with David whose early career training was as a shepherd. The prophets of the exilic times likened the nation’s leaders to shepherds. The references weren’t complimentary.

So for Jesus to take up the shepherd imagery for himself was another parry in the escalating theological feud with the institutional religious leaders, especially the Pharisees.

Jesus’ discourse about shepherding God’s people comes immediately on the end of the story of the man whom Jesus healed of his life-long blindness. The Pharisees protest, “Surely we aren’t blind, are we?” Jesus responds, “If you were blind, you wouldn’t have any sin, but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains”(John 9:41). From there Jesus goes into getting into the sheep pen. Is this the seam of two conversations skillfully put together? Or is this all one piece of theological cloth? Either way, the implication is that the religious leaders are poor shepherds who can’t guard the sheep properly or that they are thieves and outlaws raiding the dignity and sanctity of God’s people.

I regret to say that sheep have earned their bad rap for being sheep. They have their own form of “Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.” They are early addicts of the “if it feels good, let’s do it” philosophy. It doesn’t take much to distract a sheep. Sheep are not physically swift, so they are easy prey.

So who is a thief and outlaw? Jesus often speaks on multiple levels. He may be thinking of a sheep rustler. He may also be thinking of disruptive, sneaky people within the community. If we take the imagery as parable, these are people who have entered the flock—but not through the proper entrance—not through Jesus, who is later pictured as the gate. Judas Iscariot, who was one of the “insiders” – the Twelve – will be called a “thief” in  a couple of chapters. Paul advised the Ephesian elders:

“Watch yourselves and the whole flock, in which the Holy Spirit has placed you as supervisors, to shepherd God’s church, which he obtained with the death of his own Son. I know that, after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you and won't spare the flock” (In Acts 20:28-29).

In a general sense the phrase “thief and outlaw’ may refer to any deceptive leader or people—people with hidden agendas. Sometimes church leaders, ruling elders as well as teaching elders, may not always be up-front, open and transparent about their plans or problems. They may be more concerned for themselves than for the group. Thieves and bandits are people who take for themselves without much thought about what others are losing.

The phrase may also refer to people who “pretend” to be part of the flock, but who haven’t entered through the proper “door.” You may remember that in the 1990s federal agents in Arizona and New Mexico “joined” churches and Bible study groups which were supporting sanctuary for Central American refugees. Did John’s church face a similar problem? Were anti-Christian people sneaking into Christian communities? Christianity was an illegal religion in the Roman Empire. Christians were considered “atheists” because they didn’t worship the Roman gods.

Every congregation has had members who join because of the social status it gives them or because of family pressure. Church sociologist Bill Easum thinks that church membership should bring with it obligations rather than privileges. The example he used was parochial schools. Why do churches give members a discount? Why don’t they charge them more, so that children who are unchurched and poor might be able to attend for free or at a reduced rate? (1)

Who are the “thieves and bandits” who sneak into the flock today? If we listen to them, is Jesus a stranger?

Jesus uses a second image in these ten verses. He has been talking about himself as the shepherd or the gatekeeper. Now he shifts to the image of “gate.” Who are thieves and bandits who came before Jesus? Surely they aren’t all the people who came before him. That would include John the Baptist, the prophets, Moses, and Abraham—people who were servants of God and who pointed to Jesus.

The Greek word we translate as “before” doesn’t have to mean “precede.” It can also mean “in front of.” With that sense it could refer to those who opposed Jesus to his face. The thieves and bandits could be contemporaries with Jesus. They are the ones who refuse to come to Jesus so they can have life (John 5:40). They are the ones who are blind to see where Jesus has come from (John 9:29, 41). By refusing to see Jesus as the revelation from God, they are trying to enter the sheepfold by some other means.

These thieves and bandits are contemporaries of Jesus because he tells us, “The sheep didn’t listen to them.” If “sheep” refers to the believers in Christ, they would have had to “not listen to” the thieves and bandits during the ministry of Jesus. The people they did not listen to were those who denied Jesus as the revelation of God. The “sheep” believed that he was. They entered the sheepfold through Jesus. The promise was given to them: They will be saved. They will come in. They will go out. They will find pasture.

When does this happen? Is it our heavenly existence or is it part of our living the abundant life now? Whenever it happens, Jesus is both the way in and the way out. Finding pasture in Psalm 23 happens after going out. Could this imply that coming in and being huddled together in church is not finding pasture? There is safety in coming into the sheepfold, yet we are also promised safety in our going out. Even though the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy, Jesus promises to keep us safe.

In the Greek grammar, the thieves and outlaws will keep on coming in the present tense. Jesus has come once for all time. His abundant life is Spirit driven in us forever. Yet the thieves and outlaws of the world are constantly trying to break in and steal it away. Is Jesus a stranger to us when we fail to listen to him and are conned by religious sounding bafflegab that pilfers his precious gift of grace from us?

Pastor Rich Mayfield thinks that “Jesus was a teller of stories rather than an issuer of edicts. Jesus invited us to use our imagination as we ventured forth on our spiritual journey”(2) He makes a contrast between the factual accuracy of fundamentalism and “hyperbole of the heart,” which he finds in scriptures. An example:

“A husband looks deeply into the big blue eyes of his wife of many years. He sees the accumulating wrinkles, the sprinkling of gray, the passage of time. And yet still he boldly and truthfully proclaims, ‘You are the most beautiful woman in the world.’ It is the truth. Now, it may not be factually verifiable. She might not actually win the Miss America contest that year. But there is no question in his mind that what he is saying is the truth. What he is doing is offering up a ‘hyperbole of the heart.’ He is sharing what really matters to him. He is confessing his love.”(3)

A hyperbole is a figure a speech. It is an exaggeration, but even more so, it is something that is not meant to be taken literally. That is true of our text. Jesus is not a literal shepherd. In today’s world hi might have used the image of a webmaster or an activities director. We are not literal sheep. He isn’t talking about literal thieves and bandits. At the same time, Jesus is speaking the truth. His truth is so big that it can only be communicated figuratively. Some who hear it will be captured by and share in the truth of the figurative speech. Others who hear it will be lost—blind and deaf to his truths.

Is Jesus a stranger? Or are you hearing his word?

(1) Cited by Brian Stoffregen, Gospel Notes for Next Week, “John 10:1-10,” Wed, Apr 30, 2014 at 11:30 AM.
(2) Ibid.
(3) Ibid.

Unless noted otherwise, all scripture references are from The Common English Bible, © 2011 www.commonenglishbible.com 
Copyright 2014 First Presbyterian Church of Waverly, Ohio. Reprinted by permission.