John 10:22-30
HEARING THE VOICE OF JESUS | EASTER IV | MAY 11, 2025 | John 10:22-30 (RCL) | David Zersen |
There are many good things worth remembering today. Today is traditionally Jubilate Sunday, named that because the Latin Introit in the historic liturgy began with “jubilate deo omnis terra,” “rejoice to God all the earth.” Today is also known as Good Shepherd Sunday, the Fourth Sunday in Easter, because the Gospel lesson deals with sheep and the shepherd. I find it interesting that this week also marks the birthday of Søren Kierkegaard, the great Danish Lutheran theologian and the father of the philosophical view known as “existentialism”. More about that later. Let’s begin, however, with sheep and shepherds, an obvious interest of first-century people in the Mediterranean world.
I’ve known people who are disgusted with the comparison of Christians to sheep. They want nothing to do with an image that robs them of their individuality, their interest in being independent and free. While such concerns are foreign to many of us because, apart from seeing sheep at the State Fair, in a zoo, or on a trip to Montana, we may know nothing about the relationship of sheep and shepherds. I am very much an urban/suburban person, but at one point in my life, I lived in a third-story apartment in a village outside the university city of Goettingen in Germany. Outside my windows was a spectacular view of grazing sheep on a hillside, moved along almost rhythmically by a good shepherd. On the periphery of the flock, some sheep enjoyed wandering as remembered in the great 18th-century hymn, “Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love.” The shepherd’s sheepdog, however, always corralled them and kept them in the fold. Surrounding the shepherd were those who very intentionally trusted that the shepherd knew where he was going, and they followed confidently and joyfully. There was no disgust at being a follower when the best choices in life were being mapped out for followers, and there was really no need to be independent and free.
One can make a case for blind-sighted disillusionment that can take place if one follows a “bad” shepherd, a friend or colleague, or even a parent who has chosen the wrong path, and following them can only lead to a dead end. Cinema has a history of remembering the gangs that led people astray. And politicians worry us with the threat that cartels and druggies may seduce our children if we’re not on guard. In the ancient world, there was talk about Sirens who populated the coasts and seduced sailors to rocky shores with songs few could resist. Who are the siren singers in our own world that suggest life might be more profitable or enjoyable were you to follow them? Craemer of Seinfeld fame calls his pal Newman when his gambling need has got the best of him again, and he needs $2500. Have you ever done something that ultimately was a snare, a trap, a mistake in which you shouldn’t have been involved—and now you try to cover it up? Following a “bad” shepherd is a mistake that has happened to all of us, and we have every right to believe that under such occasions we should stand tall, independent, and free—or look for another shepherd who has already scouted out the green pastures.
But if we’re fortunate enough to be following a legitimate path, why would we worry that we may be surrendering our freedom, our choice to be who we really want to be? Do we really want to meet a dead end in life because we exercised the freedom to choose? Is it really an embarrassment to follow Jesus because he offers choices that may offend some, but also set you free to be the real you that God intended at your baptism?
This is the month when, 1700 years ago, some 300 bishops or pastors in the Mediterranean world came together at Nicaea to agree on a formulation of the faith that many in the known world had affirmed. And for that many centuries, Christians around the world have gathered typically on Sundays to confess together the faith in the Triune God they worshipped together. Think of it! For 1700 years we have shared that conviction together with our ancestors and our brothers and sisters around the world. Now, however, some have asked the question: “How much of the creed do we need to believe?” “Is all of this still worthwhile?” “Do we follow the Good Sheperd only on Sundays, but not during the week?”
The Nicene Creed was formulated to assure us that Jesus, the good Shepherd, the one who goes before us to show the way, is also one with the Father and the Spirit, God with us, sharing our humanity, God’s presence among us. Those words are different verbal formulations from the one about the Good Shepherd, but we humans have no option but to deal with metaphors when we’re trying to understand the divine. The same Jesus who, with the staff of his words and actions, leads us over the rough paths in life is the one who also, because of Calvary and the Empty Tomb, forgives us and welcomes us into a life that in so many ways has lasting significance.
Kierkegaard whose 200th birthday we remember this week, believed that we are not pressured or forced by the church or creedal belief systems or parents to accept any of this. Rather, because of our precarious situation in life where many paths lead to dead ends, we very intentionally choose in faith the way that leads not to death, but to life. Kierkegaard believed that in our existential predicament, in our despair or struggle. we can freely say “yes” to the life and light that Jesus opens to all of us.
We are not forced to hear the voice of Jesus say, “Come unto me and rest”, but given the other choices we have in life, I want to. Don’t you? I want to follow him gladly. It is my choice. My intention. Won’t you join me today?
“Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for the courts above.
Hymn choice: “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing”
David Zersen, D.Min., Ed.D., FRHistS
President Emeritus, Concordia University Texas
414 727 3890