Ignoring the Impostors--April 30, 2026
[Jesus said:]"The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers." (John 10:2-5)
I cannot stress enough how vital it is to ask the question, "Does this actually sound like Jesus?" before deciding whether to follow someone's direction or accept what they say.
It might seem so obvious that it shouldn't even need to be said. And yet, Respectable Religious Folks like you and me quite often get hoodwinked into listening to voices who want our allegiance but who, honestly, sound nothing like Jesus. Sometimes folks use religious language, symbols, wording, or even imagery to make themselves seem "Jesus-ish," but when we actually listen to what they are say, it's clear that they aren't really aligned with the way of Jesus, the shepherd who lays his life down for his sheep. And the Real McCoy--the actual Jesus--summons us to listen well and discern whether those loud, often bloviating, voices out there are consistent with him, or whether they are the babble of fakers and counterfeits, thieves and bandits.
These words of Jesus, which many of us heard this past Sunday from John's Gospel, do have a way of making things pretty clear, don't they? We who have been following Jesus for very long at all should come to recognize what he sounds like--and what definitely does not sound like the voice and way of Jesus. The metaphor of sheep listening for the shepherd is so apt; the animals who have come to entrust their lives and well-being to the shepherd who cares for them will just know to move when that trusted voice calls to them. And despite the many ways that sheep are not the brightest of barnyard animals, their refusal to just take the direction of impostors is important. They can distinguish the cadence and timbre of the shepherd's voice from the sounds of strangers, thieves, and pretenders. They know when to stop in their tracks and say, "This doesn't sound like the voice of the one I know; and I don't have to obey just any old voice or follow any old directions given to me." Jesus calls us to have the same kind of wisdom as well.
Of course, for us, it's not simply the sound of a literal voice. We don't know, after all, what the human voice of Jesus of Nazareth sounded like--whether he was a tenor or a bass, slow and deliberate or nervous and frantic, monotonous or with a variety of tones and cadences. For that matter, very few of us would understand the ancient Aramaic that the historical rabbi would have spoken. So the litmus-test is not, "Whoever can do the best impression of a first-century Judean rabbi must be in line with Jesus' teachings." Rather, the question is, "Do the voices clamoring for our attention speak with the character of the living Christ?" Jesus is calling us to be discerning enough to know what sounds like his vision, his kind of love, his courageous truth-telling, and his daring way of reaching across boundaries to meet the outcast and restore the broken... and what sounds like the world's usual bluster dressed up in a bible-times costume. He doesn't want us to fall for that anymore.
And honestly, quite often the voice of Jesus is pretty easy to recognize and to distinguish from its opposite. What orients us toward love of God and love of others is definitely in line with the way of Jesus; what justifies selfishness with "Me and My Group First" logic is not. What looks to lift up the lowly, bind up the broken, welcome back in the outcast, and honor the least is consistent with the character of Jesus; what boasts about its own importance, belittles others, or treats outsiders with default suspicion feels out of character. What spurs us on to love that includes not only strangers but also enemies sounds like the voice of Jesus; what refuses to see the image of God even in our staunchest adversaries sounds like a counterfeit. What seeks to make peace and to do justice fits with the priorities of Jesus; what seeks to dominate, conquer, and exploit does not. In other words, if we are paying attention, we will know who to listen to... and who to ignore.
So maybe this is the critical thing for us to own up to today: often, we aren't really paying attention. We don't do the difficult work of listening to the actual voices that demand our ears and then asking, "Does this fit with the character of Jesus?" Without that critical discernment, we'll end up getting bamboozled into throwing our support for agendas and actions that are completely opposed to the priorities of Jesus, and we'll think we're being virtuous because the voices who fooled us knew just enough of how to dress themselves up in the trappings of piety. But this isn't meant to be difficult--Jesus seems to think that it will be as natural to us as it is for sheep to discern whose voice is calling them. And if they know not to go following after a fraud, we can be discerning enough to ignore the impostors vying for our ears, eyes, hearts, and minds, too.
They say that one of the best ways to become skilled at identifying counterfeits is to know the genuine thing so well that any deviation becomes obvious. So one of the ways we get better at recognizing Jesus' voice among the fakers and pretenders is to spend more time listening, reading, praying and getting familiar with the voice of Jesus, the Authentic Shepherd. The more we are immersed in his way of seeing the world, his way of treating neighbors, his way of relating to God, and his way of loving others, the better we'll be able to recognize the hucksters and hoaxes, no matter how much "religious" language they use.
Today, let's listen closely for the voice of Jesus, so we'll know which other voices we can disregard. And let's be ready to ask the vital question, "Does this actually sound like Jesus?"
Lord Jesus, help us to recognize your voice and follow it, and to distinguish it from the counterfeits that do not reflect your character.






