John 10:11-18, Shepherd Sunday
Ron’s Translation of John 10:11-18 (Show 3-1/2 minute multimedia presentation during the reading of the Gospel)
11 I am the Model Shepherd. The Model Shepherd lays down his life on behalf of the sheep;
12 and the hired servant is not a shepherd, not being the owner of the sheep, seeing the wolf coming and abandons the sheep and flees – and the wolf is attacking and scattering them --
13 because the hired servant does not himself even care about the sheep.
14 I am the Model Shepherd and I know my own and my own know me
15 - just as the Father knows me and I know the Father - and I lay down my life on behalf of the sheep.
16 And I have other sheep who are not in this fold; and it is necessary for me to lead those ones and they will hear my voice, so that they will make one sheep fold, a single shepherd.
17 On account of this, the Father loves me because I lay down my life, in order that I myself might take it up again.
18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again: this is the commandment I received from my Father.
Focus: Our One Shepherd, the Model Shepherd, Jesus, is able to completely care for the One sheep fold and he will never abandon us sheep.
Title: “I, too, am a sheep.”
When I was a young youth pastor, not long after BibleCollege, a young man came to me who was struggling with his sexual identity. He also admitted to me that he was suicidal. He promised me that he would not kill himself, but he swore me to secrecy, made me promise that I would tell no one. As a minister, I knew that I had to keep confidentiality. We met many times, I listened to his story – a dysfunctional home, abusive/alcoholic mother – and I prayed for him many times. Instead of getting better, he got worse. He was on an emotional roller coaster and finally came to the point one night he was out of control and he could no longer guarantee to me that he would not kill himself.
I struggled with what to do. Here he had trusted me and swore me to secrecy, but I was very scared for his safety. I called crisis counseling and explained the situation. They told me to get him to the hospital, even if you have to lie to him. To make a long story short, I was able to drive him to the hospital, but as soon as we got out of the car, he jumped and ran. I eventually found him after searching everywhere, he was buying a present for his loved ones – a “good bye” present. I was able to convince him into getting checked out – that I could no longer be the only one caring for him, it was beyond my ability to help him. He reluctantly agreed to talk to the crisis staff. After talking to him, they gave him a choice to either voluntarily commit himself or he would becommitted against his will.
He very grudgingly agreed to be admitted. I will never forget the look he gave me as they took him off. He felt abandoned by me. And, I felt that I had let him down, abandoned him, and broken my promise to be his pastor/shepherd. I was invited to meet with his psychiatrists and counselors, and while they appreciated how much time and effort I spent with him, that I had probably kept him from suicide, but at the same time they chastised me for trying to take it all on myself.
Since then I’ve learned that there are limits to what I can promise to;confidentiality ends when a person’s life is at risk, or if I suspect a child, elderly or handicapped person is being abused. I’ve since learned that I cannot be all things to all people. I have limitations. A trusted counselor that I went to told me, “At times people come to you with a need the size of the Grand Canyon, and what you have to offer them is only the size of a cup of tea.”
Abandonment is a huge issue that people deal often with in their relationships with parents, spouses, pastors and counselors. No one ever fully measures up. People fail us, not every time, but sooner or later we all mess up. Feeling abandoned is something almost all of us experience, and probably several times in our lives. And, there are even some people who chronically deal with this issue. There is a website for people suffering with this called “Abandonment.net.” It identifies a new psychological disorder: The website says: “You’ve heard of food-oholism, work-oholism, shop-oholism and, of course, alcoholism. Now here comes another, most insidious, addictive pattern – aband-oholism.”
“Abandoholism,” according to the website, “is a tendency to become attracted to unavailable partners.”
It goes on to say, “Abandoholism is similar to the other ‘oholisms, but instead of being addicted to a substance, you’re addicted to the emotional drama of heartbreak.” Abandaholics are apparently addicted to love-chemicals and stress hormones that flow through a person’s body when they are hopelessly in love with someone they have no hope of having a relationship with.
According “Abandonment.net,” this condition is caused by a fear of abandonment (which causes a person to be “so clingy and needy that their partner senses the abandaholic’s emotional suction cups aiming straight toward them and it scares them away.”). Or, abandaholism could be caused by a fear of engulfment, whichthe website says is on the other end of the spectrum. That is where “now that someone is pursuing you, you feel engulfed by that person’s desire to be with you. When fear of engulfment kicks in, you panic. You fear that the other person’s feelings will pressure you to abandon your own romantic needs.”
Love can get complicated, can’t it?! Whether or not you are an “abandaholic,” issues of abandonment strike at the core of some of the most important needs we all have as humans: the need to love and to be loved.
In John 10, Jesus claims to be the Good Shepherd – or perhaps more accurately – the Model Shepherd. “Model,” meaning, “beautiful, true, honest.” Jesus is theOne who loves and cares for us unlike anyone else can. You see, I have learned that I am not the model shepherd. I, too, am a sheep. I fall short. I don’t always know what to do.
The Model Shepherd’s plan is for the sheep to be of One fold, not necessarily in one location, but sheep who follow the lead of the One Shepherd. We don’t know who the “other sheep” are in this text, it may have been a reference to the Gentiles(“Gentile” means those who were from other nations, the non-Jews), because after the Jews, reaching the Gentiles with the Gospel was the next big mission. In any case, the plan is for there to be “One Sheep Fold, One Shepherd.” We are to be one big, happy sheep fold.
As sheep, one of the most dangerous things we do is to become isolated, to separate ourselves off from the flock. Now, there are times we all need to be alone. Some people need their privacy, it is an important part of recharging their batteries. But there comes a point when too much privacy leads to isolation and being cut-off from community. As Karl Barth wrote, “there is no legitimate private Christianity.” You see, we are meant to live in community, to be interdependent, not independent, to share our gifts with one another and with the world that God loves.
We, as sheep, sometimes take advantage of the Shepherd’s passion to care for the sheep. We wander off, thinking, “I don’t need the church, I can just spend time with God on my own. God can find me wherever I go.” As my two-year-old says, “I do it myself!” The problem with isolation is that it is a killer, especially for sheep – that is the plan of the wolf – to scatter the sheep when it attacks so it can kill the defenseless, weak sheep who are alone and cut off from the protection of the herd and the shepherd. The wolf in this story can represent anything or anyone who wants to destroy and attack the sheep, such as sin, the evil one, or even false sheep – wolves in sheep clothing.
As much as we are called to be in community, One Sheep Fold, no where in our text does it say that the sheep take the place of the Model Shepherd. We are to love one another as God loves us, we are to serve each other and forgive each other. But more than ever, we need the Model Shepherd, we are to have only ONE Shepherd. As St. Augustine said,"You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in you." I wonder how many of us would struggle with abandonment issues if we turned to Jesus rather than to other people in order to meet the deep needs for security and unconditional love we have as people, er, sheep – whatever we are.
And, no person can replace voice of our Model Shepherd, Jesus. In John 10, Jesus says that his sheep hear his voice, they know the sound of his voice. I am told that shepherds can put their sheep into the same fold and by the sound of their voice the sheep will know who to follow when it is time to leave the next day to go out to pasture. Listening and hearing Jesus’ voice speaks of intimacy. Jesus said, “I know my own and my own know me.” The word “know” in the original Greek, ginosko, according to one theologian, refers to a “reciprocal knowledge that is not superficial, but intimate.”
My cousin Debi is a caretaker for race horses. They are beautiful horses, coming from the same bloodline as the great champion “Seattle Slue.” It is hard for me to tell these horses apart, but Debi knows her horses personally and intimately. She knows their personalities, likes, dislikes, what bothers them, she can tell when they are sick, hurt or acting silly. At times she will sleep with them when they are sick or lonely. She plays and exercises them. She cares for them, putting medicine on their wounds, giving them just the right grains and feed to keep them healthy. I would think this would be a smelly, hard job, but Debi loves her horses and would do anything for them – it is her passion.
I’m sure the relationship is reciprocal; any horse blessed enough to have Debi as a caretaker loves to see her coming. When they are hurting they will let her touch them. They know that she cares for them and would never hurt them.
Now sheep are quite a bit different than horses. And, we,like sheep, don’t make things easy on our Shepherd. We may know his voice, but we often ignore his voice, we go astray, our disobedience and sin stinks to high heaven. Yet, we have a Shepherd who cares for us and wants to be with us. Our loving Shepherd will take care of us. In spite of how undesirable as we can all be as sheep, our Shepherd will take the fangs of the wolves – even to the point of death – for us. But he won’t ever abandon us or forget us. He will even comes back from death to be with us.
Jesus lays down his life and also has the power to take it back up again. Why is that important? If the shepherd lays down his life for his sheep and stays dead, then the sheep are abandoned and completely vulnerable to wolves and predators. Thanks be to God that Jesus laid his life down and then picked it up again. We are led by a Shepherd who is Jesus wasn’t murdered. His death wasn’t a mistake. The cross did not spoil Jesus’ ministry – it was one of his main reasons for coming: “to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mt 20:28).
Having a Model Shepherd does not mean we will never experience pain or suffer losses or that our lives won’t ever be in danger. Even our Model Shepherd never promises that. In fact, we can be certain that as sheep following our Shepherd Jesus, we will most certainly be called to go in compassion to dark valleys where others are harassed and helpless, sheep without a shepherd. It will mean very often if we hear his voice that we will deny ourselves and go where we do not wish to be led if we are following our Shepherd Jesus.
The promise we cling to is that our Shepherd Jesus will feed us with a food that will satisfy us like no other food. We shall drink of a drink that will satisfy us like no other drink. We shall be led through dark valleys of death, and we never need to be afraid because our Shepherd, Jesus is with us guiding us all the way. And in the end, we shall live in the house of the Lord with our Shepherd, Jesus forever. We will never be forgotten or abandoned, by the One Shepherd, the Model Shepherd, Jesus.
And all of God’s sheep say, “Aaaah –men!”