WHO IS JESUS? finale

"I AM the gate and the good shepherd"
December 30, 2007
with Matt Johnson

I have a confession to make… One of my favorite movies is Babe the Pig. Yes, I know… it’s a children’s movie about a talking pig but I just like it. In the movie, Babe is a pig that farmer Hoggett wins and brings home to his farm. His prize shepherding dog, Fly, raises Babe as one of her pups. It doesn’t take long for Babe to find a special place in the Farmer’s heart when he saves the flock from thieves on Christmas Day. Soon he begins to be treated as one of the sheep dogs on the farm and learns that the best way to communicate with the sheep is not aggression, it’s kind words. One of the refrains that you hear early on in the movie is from the sheep, as they say “Pigs are definitely stupid…” It always cracked me up that of all animals, it was the sheep calling someone else stupid. For what it’s worth, sheep really are not the brightest animals on the farm.

I remember reading an excerpt from a book a few years ago from a man who describes shepherding from his experience as a Shepard in the Middle East. He tells of saving sheep after sheep from death. Not by fighting wolves, bears, or other wild beasts, but by saving them from their own saliva. That’s right, see sheep have a strange habit of finding a comfortable spot in the grass and getting so comfortable that its impossible for them to stand. They are paralyzed on their backs and eventually drown in their own saliva. As a Shepard, it was his job to keep these sheep upright and moving. When he would notice a sheep stuck on their back he would rush to them and turn them upright. Often times if one of the sheep had been in that position long they would have lost much of their circulation. The Shepard would have to hold the sheep close and massage its legs and body in order to get the blood flowing again. Rather than yelling and scolding the sheep, the Shepard speaks with a soft, comforting voice. “I wish you would learn, when are you going to realize that this is not good for you?” Then he’d put them down, go help another sheep, and look back to see that the same one was yet again settling down into a rut that would no doubt cause it to get stuck again.

I think more accurately, that it’s Sheep, not pigs, that are definitely stupid!

A lot of times the imagery of the bible is lost in our modern world. As Donald Miller speaks of scripture in Blue Like Jazz, “All the vocabulary about God seemed to come from ancient history, before video games, palm pilots, and the internet.” When is the last time you saw a shepherd roaming the countryside with a flock of sheep here in the Morrow area? It just doesn’t happen anymore, so how are we supposed to understand what God is talking about when the sheep / shepherd references are made so often in scripture?

Lets dive into the passage and see what we can figure out about sheep and their relationship to the shepherd.

We’re going to be looking at John 10 today, but I think to really “get” that chapter, we’ve gotta talk about John 9 first.

In John 9, Jesus heals a blind guy by spitting on the ground, making some mud, and wiping in on the guy’s eyes and then telling him to go wash it off in the nearby pool of water. When the man does, his sight is instantly restored. It doesn’t take long for word to spread to the neighbors and townsfolk that this guy can suddenly see. With the growing word of mouth, the Pharisees approach the man to find out what his story is. They call him into their chambers for questioning twice, and also approach his parents, hoping to find out some information which will help them to corner Jesus. In the end, after much questioning, the man tells them, “Look, I was blind, he healed me – that’s all I know to be true, and that’s enough… surely HE must be from God if God listened to him enough to heal my eyes.” At this, the Pharisees had their toes stepped on pretty hard as they were supposed to be the people of the time that had communication with God. They dismissed this man, possibly excommunicating him from the Jewish religion because of his threatening honesty.

The rub here is twofold – The first problem is this: Jesus healed the man on the Sabbath day, which according to Jewish laws at the time, was a big no-no. In fact, he broke the law in at least three ways.
First, He made clay – kinda. I never thought that some spit and a little dirt constituted clay, but it would have been enough to break the laws of the time. Here is a few examples of “work” that would have been illegal just how specific the laws were at the time… A man was not able to fill a dish with oil, put it next to a lamp, and set the wick into the oil. A man was not able to put out a lamp in order to save the wick or the oil, even if it’s usage was done for the night. A man could not wear sandals which had been repaired with nails because it would cause added labor to walk. A man could not trim his fingernails or pull out hair from his head or his beard.

Second, He healed someone. It was forbidden to heal on the Sabbath. Any medical treatment which was not necessary to save a life was considered sinful on the Holy Day. Even then, only the minimal treatment to continue life was allowed. Nothing was allowed that would actually cause improvement in health or life, just the prevention of death. As this man’s blindness was clearly not a life and death situation, it was wrong for Jesus to heal him on this day.

Third, He broke the actual letter of the law, which read “As for fasting spittle, it is not lawful to put it so much as on the eyelids.” It doesn’t get much more blatant than that.

The second, and more glaring problem though, is that Jesus’ healing of this man ticked off the Pharisees because it was supposed to be them, not Jesus, who was in communication with God.

It’s with all this in mind that we’re going to pick up the scriptures…

Take the time to read all of John 9:35 through 10:18

There is a ton of sheep/shepherd imagery here. I read this passage, and I can’t help but hear the description of Mark over in Mark 6 as Jesus feeds the 5000 – they were like sheep without a shepherd so he took compassion on them and taught them many things.

Here again, Jesus has compassion on those that need it. I find it interesting that in both cases, he goes into his shepherding talk with the Pharisees around – the ones that are supposed to be the shepherds of god’s flock… As we unwrap this passage, lets look at the two I am statements that Jesus shapes his message around…

First, Jesus says that he is the gate. Again, this would have been imagery that the people would have picked up on immediately. There were two types of folds that shepherds would temporarily house their pigs in – a town fold and a thatch fold out amongst the pastures. In the evenings, the shepherds of the town would all bring their flocks back and would lead them into a large community fold where the sheep of the community – usually 6-10 flocks in each one – would be kept for the night. These typically were large stone walls, high enough to keep out animals and robbers – usually over 6 feet high. They had one big wooden door which was the only entrance and exit point. It would be guarded during the night to ensure that only the shepherds could have access to their sheep. This is the type of fold that Jesus speaks of in the first section. Each morning the shepherds would go to the fold and call out their sheep. Only their sheep would exit, knowing the voice of the shepherd and listening to him.

The second type of fold was typically a fold out in the open fields – perhaps built into a cave, sometimes just some thatch strung together to make a basic pen to hold the sheep. These did not have gates on them, as they were usually makeshift and temporary. Shepherds would lead their flocks into these each afternoon to provide the animals rest and protection. Since there was no door, the shepherd would place himself in that opening. This way nothing could get into or out of the pen without his knowledge. It’s this type of pen that Jesus speaks of when he refers to himself as the gate.

Jesus uses a unique Jewish saying when he says that the sheep will come and go freely. To come and go freely was a recognized term within the culture meaning to be at peace, to have security, to find safety. When Jesus says that he is the gate, those who come through him will find exactly this. The imagery is simple – Jesus is gate. The shepherd who allows passage into protection. What a stark contrast to the actions of the Pharisees in dealing with the blind man. It were they who were supposed to be the gatekeeper of the kingdom at the time, but they seemed much better at removing people from the kingdom than adding people to it.

Jesus speaks directly to the heart. His purposes and his priorities are not in setting laws which exclude people, but bring people into the fold and proving them with safety and a rich and satisfying life. How refreshing it must have been for the blind man to hear these words! Finally someone who loves me! Someone who really wants to take care of me!

Jesus goes on though, saying “I am the good shepherd”. The main characteristic of a good shepherd according to Jesus, is his willingness to lay down his life for his sheep. He wants to get this point across so much so that he says it three times.

I think most of the time when we think of shepherds, the closest imagery we can muster is that of a farmer. They may be the modern caretaker of sheep, but they are far from shepherds. Shepherds spend their entire lives in caring for the sheep. They are with them for days on end out to find pasture before returning back to the town for a night or two to restock food and such. Then they’re back out with their flock again. Shepherds have a great relationship with their sheep. The sheep recognize their voice. They heed their commands. The shepherd will do whatever it takes to keep his sheep safe. They protect the sheep from animals, burglars, and even themselves. In fact, it wouldn’t be uncommon for shepherds to die while trying to protect their flocks.

Farmers, on the other hand, are more likely to build a pen around their animals to keep them enclosed and leave them be. Sure, they will feed and care for the animals as needed, but their involvement in the animals life is minimal compared to a shepherd. And when is the last time you heard of a farmer dying to try and protect his animals? It just doesn’t happen too often.

Jesus came speaking to a world filled with religious farmers known at the time as Pharisees. They built up walls of legalism to contain the flock and left them to fend for themselves. Jesus came as a Shepherd to bring freedom. To live amongst the sheep, not above the sheep. How freeing it must have been for the blind man to hear that Jesus was willing to be his Shepherd! That Jesus was not about containment, but about freedom. That Jesus was willing to even sacrifice himself to protect his flock!

I think too often we get used to being part of a religion which regularly sets laws to exclude people. We hear constantly what Christianity is against… homosexuality, drugs, alcohol, abortion, smoking, sex… the list goes on and on from the biblically sinful to the culturally questionable. If we can label it sin, we’re going to, because that’s what Christianity is all about right? The Pharisees have come and gone, but the mentality remains. We create religion in efforts to do what we think is right, but often times hit far off the target. Now don’t get me wrong, I believe that there are many things in life which are worth fighting for. Unfortunately, not all of them are flown under the flag of Christianity. More so, there are many battles being fought under the flag of Christianity that I doubt Christ would really care to be a part of. In the end, I think we’ve done a pretty bang up job in becoming religious farmers and letting the world know that our walls our built nice and sturdy.

But Jesus didn’t come to be a farmer, he came to be a Shepherd. He didn’t come to establish a religion – that was man’s doing… he came to establish a relationship. To live among his sheep. To build a relationship with them so that they could hear his voice, so that they could heed his words, so that he could protect and save them at all costs – even his own life. Jesus didn’t come to build walls – he came to tear them down. He came to bring freedom. To bring safety, to bring security, to bring peace. He came to give a rich and satisfying life!

Being a sheep on a farm is boring. Being a sheep with a shepherd though, is an adventure. Why would we ever choose life on the religious farm when Jesus is willing to be our Shepherd?

Prayer…

I was reading this week about this sheep/shepherd imagery, and came across a story of a missionary who recants a story of trying to share the Gospel with a nomadic shepherding tribe in the Middle East. He worked so hard to try and get them to understand what God was all about, but he couldn’t find a way to break into their worlds. He got to know the language, and found words which translated well to both love and mercy, but couldn’t find a word that related well the concept of Grace. He kept telling them that God wanted to come live in their tents with them, to dwell among them… but the people just didn’t seem to get it.

One day as he was reading scripture he came across the passage of the lost sheep, and excitedly took it to one of the tribe leaders, thinking surely this will get the point across in their world. He retold the story to the leader, explaining to him how one sheep of the 100 had strayed and the shepherd left the 99 to find the one to bring it back safely. He explained that this is why Jesus is the good shepherd.

The tribe leader paused for a short time, thinking through the story, and then replied – that’s not a good shepherd, that’s a stupid shepherd. If one of my sheep were to stray, there’s no way I’d go looking for it. It’s shown itself ignorant and even if I saved it, it would only take off tomorrow and I’d have to go after it again.

It wasn’t until the missionary pointed out that he would relate better to the sheep than to the shepherd that the man understood grace.

It’s true – to many, Jesus is not wisdom, but folly. We’ve spent the last month examining the claims of Jesus. What does he have to say for himself? Who does he claim to be? Is he for real? Who is this Jesus guy?

There comes a point where a decision must be made about what you believe about Jesus. Is he all the things he says he is, or is he just a stupid shepherd? As we sing one last song we ask that you take the time to examine Christ and choose for yourself who you think he really is.