Reflection on John 10:1-10

Jesus has confidence in you. 

Really, truly, he does.  Jesus is confident that you recognize his voice whenever he calls.  Jesus is confident that you will follow where he leads.  And, Jesus is also confident that you, his followers, will have life…and have it abundantly.

Now, that is a little different than how we usually envision our relationship with Jesus.  Usually, we see ourselves as placing our confidence in him. 

Jesus is the shepherd who knows us…who calls us by name.  We trust that Jesus will not forget even a single hair on our heads. 

Jesus is the one who leads us out of our shelters, through dark valleys, and keeps us safe until we reach the lush grasses and still waters. We trust in his leading. 

Jesus is the door to the sheepfold, the gate to our fenced in area of safety, and Jesus will not let the thieves who view human life as disposable and something to be exploited to enter in, search us out, and feast upon us.  We trust that Jesus has our backs.

But, the remarkable thing to me about these promises in the holy gospel of John is not only that we trust in Jesus’ promises, but like I said before, Jesus trusts in us. 

In John 10:4 Jesus says, “The sheep follow him because they know his voice.”  These words hold a deep confidence in our ability to know our Lord’s voice and distinguish it from all of the other voices in the world. 

And, further in John 10: Jesus says, “Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them.”  That is right.  Jesus has confidence that you will not listen to the other competing voices in the world.  You are Jesus’ sheep.  You are the people of God.  You are the ones who believe in Jesus Christ…the ones who trust in the Lord.

Now, even a cursory look into the personal details of my life would reveal that this trust in me is vastly misplaced.  I preach a lot about following the Lord with love and forgiveness in your hearts, but I will be the first to admit that love and forgiveness is probably pretty hard to see after having to tell the children to go to bed for the tenth time!  The children hear my voice all right, but for some reason, they do not follow. 

I am pretty sure that I do not follow the Lord all that much better than my children follow me.

But, Jesus is no dummy.  He knows all of this.  He knows my failings.  He knows my wanderings.  He knows my betrayals, my hatred, my dismissive partisanship, my closed cliques, and my hardness of heart.  He knows it all; yet he still trusts that I will come when he calls out.  How?

Isaac, my two year old, has been testing his distance from us lately.  He has been wander further and further away from us in the yard, discovering new, two year old territory further and further away.  Very soon in his wanderings, fear sets in and he runs back. 

Little Isaac is safe of course as he ventures out.  I am there in the yard, watching him the entire time, knowing that I could be there in a matter of seconds if need be, but I also trust him.  I trust that he will hear me when I call him back.  And, though he may get confused where to go if he slips behind a bush as he returns, he still tries to work his way forward because he trusts that I am there.  I can trust that he wants to return.

And, as a close friend once relayed to me, though the alcohol seemed to steal away his soul, and though he acted as if the alcohol would save his life, he still, in his heart of hearts, knew where he would find his true salvation.  

On the day when he was at his lowest, literally on the floor because the alcohol had failed him, the depths of his soul knew the sound of Jesus’ voice.  And the friend had never forgotten how to rise up and stumble toward the saving hands of Jesus. 

His story certainly is not unique.  All of us are tempted by the voices that would seek to lure us away from the sheepfold.  All of us have the capability of getting ourselves lost when trying to follow the Lord toward the still waters and lush grasses. 

Apparently contradicting Jesus’ promise that we will run away from strangers, we do trust in the wrong people and wander away from the Lord.  That much is certain.  We will listen to the voices of those who do not properly respect life because they have convincing arguments.  The thief will come, and break in, and sometimes we will follow the thief out because the thief talks a good talk. 

But, Jesus trusts that when he calls out to our lost souls, we will know it is him.  And, not only will we know that it is him; we will make our way back toward his voice.

After-all, the Lord has formed a close bond with you.  Jesus will not be able to forget you, and you will not be able to forget his voice. 

You are the Lord’s.  Yes, yes sometimes you may be messed up.  Sometimes I am messed up…Ok, more than sometimes…but we are none-the-less, the Lord’s.

In other words, no matter what is going on in our lives, Jesus has confidence in us and encourages us by saying, “You got this.”  But, that is only after he has told us: “I got you.”

People of God, you got this.  The Apostle Paul tells you as much in Romans 8, “Who will separate us from the love of Christ?  Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?”  I might add, will distance, or disease, or alcohol, or plague separate us from the love of Christ? 

Paul continues, “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” 

You are the Lord’s and the Lord is yours.  And, that is good news people of God!

You got this. 

You will be Jesus’ follower no matter the situation in which you find yourself. 

You will walk in his ways no matter what path you take. 

How can I be so certain?  Because, the Lord has a grasp upon you.  

If the Lord has you, you cannot help but belong to the Lord.