Discerning Ears--February 8, 2024

Discerning Ears--February 8, 2024

[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]

Look, I'm not trying to demean any barnyard critter here, but I don't think sheep understand much of human language.  When a good shepherd leads the sheep out of the gate, say to go to the pasture, the shepherd doesn't give turn by turn directions to follow, like the GPS app on your smart-phone.  You won't hear shepherds calling out, "Okay now, fellas, after a hundred more yards we're going to make a sharp left!"  And yet, as Jesus rightly notes, sheep will recognize the voice of their shepherd, and they will recognize the names the shepherd has given them.  They might not know the meaning of the words coming from the shepherd's mouth, but they do know the sound of the voice that comes from it.  And that familiarity--the timbre of the voice, the cadence of the speech, the tone and lilt of the words, and the memory of at least their own names when that specific voice calls them--gives the sheep the faith to go where the shepherd leads.  

In other words, to the extent that we can really know the internal monologue of a sheep, I think it's fair to say that a sheep's thought process is something less like, "The shepherd told me to turn right at the big tree, and then I bet we'll make a left at the second patch of thistle," and more like, "The voice I know is calling me, and I will just go wherever he goes."  The sheep doesn't have to understand everything the voice says, but rather to know the voice is trustworthy.  

So, to let Jesus carry this little extended metaphor a bit further, the reason that the sheep will not listen to the voice of a stranger is not that the stranger gives obviously bad directions and the shepherd gives instructions the sheep already agree with, but rather that the sheep know the voice of the shepherd and will go wherever he leads them, simply because he is the one leading him.  They don't stop and ask for all the travel plans from both the shepherd and the stranger and then compare them to see which like the flock "likes" best; they trust the shepherd in a way that the stranger cannot pretend to have.  The thinking process for the flock is not, "Which of these routes to the still waters seems preferable and most efficient?  We'll listen to that voice!" but rather, "Which of these voices giving us directions is the one that we know? We will go with the one we have learned to trust."

And this, dear ones, is the crux of the Christian life, I believe.  In Jesus' figure of speech, his community of disciples are like sheep listening for the voice of the good shepherd, who recognize him when he calls each of us by name.  But that doesn't mean we understand what he has in mind for every step of the journey, much less that we get to offer Jesus travel suggestions.  We need to have discerning ears, but for the sake of distinguishing Jesus' voice from the pretenders and blustering loudmouths out there--not because our job is to decide which voice's plan sounds the most "reasonable" to our sheepish brains. 

That's because, to be honest, sometimes the way on which Jesus is leading us will not take us where we want to go, nor pass our tests for what is "efficient" or "logical" or "successful."  And sometimes the voices of strangers offer us a plan that sounds easier, faster, or greater.  And in those moments, the question we have to really wrestle with is, "Which way comes from the voice that I know?" not "Which one is telling me what I want to hear?"  The shepherd might be taking the flock the long way to a fresh pasture, and they might not like that it involves a trip into the dark valley. Meanwhile, the scheming stranger might just be luring the sheep only a short distance outside of the gate, but solely for the sake of stealing, slaughtering, and eating them.  The "easy" route is not necessarily the good one, and the difficult way is not necessarily bad.  It really does come down to a question of which of the voices calling to us for our attention is worthy of our trust.

We need to keep that in mind in our daily lives, because there will be plenty of times when Jesus directs his followers to do, or not do, things that run against the grain of conventional wisdom or what is comfortable.  And there will be plenty of times when the ones telling us what we want to hear are actually schemers and frauds trying to lead us astray or have us for dinner.  It's worth it to listen for Jesus nevertheless. 

Jesus will say things like, "Love your enemies," while others say, "That's nonsense! Only losers talk like that!"  Nevertheless, we listen to Jesus... and follow his lead.

Jesus will tell us, "Blessed are the poor, the lowly, and the people who are harassed for seeking Jesus," while others insist that having power, money, and influence are what make you "great"--and that only "greatness" matters.  Nevertheless, we believe Jesus.

Jesus will declare, "I was a foreigner and you welcomed me; I was a prisoner and you visited me!" while popular voices say, "You've got to look out only for you and your own kind--nobody else counts!"  Nevertheless, we recognize Jesus' voice as the one worthy of our trust.

It may not always be that Jesus leads us where we thought we wanted to go, but either he knows what he is talking about or he doesn't.  Either he is trustworthy or he is not.  Either his voice is the one to train our ears to follow, or we should give up and just go after the ones telling us what we wanted to hear.  But Jesus doesn't ever say, "Follow me as long as you think it's in your self-interest," or "Listen to my teachings as long as they don't stretch you out of your comfort zones." He knows that he is the shepherd and we are the sheep--he knows where we need to be, even if we don't.

Maybe the right question for us to ask on this day is, "How can I get better at recognizing Jesus' call among all the other noise around me?"  And then, it doesn't matter if Jesus' directions meet with our approval first--but rather only if we are willing to entrust our lives into his care.

It's worth it to listen to Jesus. May our ears be discerning enough to know his voice.

Lord Jesus, speak again in this day and give us the trust in you enough for our feet to be brave and lead us to follow you.