My Sheep Hear My Voice May 11, 2025
“My Sheep Hear My Voice”
Psalm 23/ Psalm 100:1-5
Acts 9:36-43
John 10:22-30
Good morning and welcome one and all to this, the 4th Sunday of Easter. I guess we could call this “sheep Sunday,” Our readings begin with the 23rd Psalm Which couples well with the message from John’s gospel that Jesus delivered to the Jews there on Solomon’s Porch at the temple in Jerusalem. (vs 27) 27” My sheep hear My voice,” he told them, “ and I know them. They follow Me. 28 I give them life that lasts forever.”
“I give them life that lasts forever.” Unfortunately, we do not hold sheep in such high esteem nowadays. Our livelihoods are not dependent on the wool and meat that comes from these not-so-bright animals. However, scripture is full of comparisons and that tends to get under our skin sometimes. It is the prophet Isaiah who tells us, “All we like sheep have gone astray. ; we have turned—every one—to his own way.” (Is 53:6) I mean let’s face it-being constantly referred to as sheep is not the kind of thing that gives to us an overwhelming sense of joy. It is the writer named Julie Plagens who was able to make this point much better than I when she wrote: “Many people say sheep are stupid. Perhaps they are just “challenged.”
I’ll be nice.
For example, I read about a farmer who stretched a rope across the door of a barn and called the sheep out. He let a few sheep jump over the rope as they exited the barn door.
He then cut the rope. The remaining sheep continued to jump over (2)
the “invisible rope,” not thinking twice.
Here’s another true story: About 1,500 sheep were left unattended for a while. They got scared and started running until they ran off a cliff. The first 400 died while the other 1100 were saved. It turns out the first 400 broke the fall for the remaining 1100.
It’s funny to listen to stories about sheep—until we realize Jesus was talking about us. We are compared to sheep because we will follow anyone without thinking, we have no sense of direction, and we cannot defend ourselves in times of trouble.”
And now, speaking to our theme of the day, Ms. Plagens goes on to say that, “Sheep have a remarkable instinct for knowing the voice of their shepherd. Amazingly, they will sometimes fear a stranger’s voice and flee.
Since they are emotional creatures, they also have the ability to build friendships with other sheep. In fact, they can get anxious, distressed, or feel sad when their sheep friends have been taken away or have died.” Interesting stuff to say the least.
So, I hope you have enjoyed our little session of fun facts about sheep today. If it makes you feel any better, then try to remember that the production of sheep was an integral part of the Jewish economy in those days. Think of King David who spent the better part of his youth trying his best to keep these wooly critters from killing themselves or getting themselves killed; that’s 24 hours a day, every day, for weeks or months on end. It was a miserable job for a young man, complete with long periods of boredom and that special kind of misery that comes from living out in the elements. The sheep become your life & your life becomes sheep.
So, Needless to say, most all the population of Israel at this (3)
time were quite familiar with the greater and lesser qualities of these animals. But you know, they would not have taken offense to any sort of comparison that Jesus might make. They understood. They understood all too well. With that being said, let’s look again at the conversation between Jesus and some Jewish people who were hanging out on the porch at Solomon’s temple. (vs 24): The Jews gathered around Him. They said, “How long are You going to keep us in doubt? If You are the Christ, tell us.” Now, I can’t say for certain, but I think I detected some whining in their voices as they asked this rather rude question.
And so Jesus answered, saying, “I told you and you do not believe. The works I do in My Father’s name speak of Me. 26 You do not believe because you are not My sheep. 27 My sheep hear My voice and I know them. They follow Me. 28 I give them life that lasts forever. They will never be punished. No one is able to take them out of My hand. 29 My Father Who gave them to Me is greater than all. No one is able to take them out of My Father’s hand. 30 My Father and I are one!”
So, there you have it. When the Jewish whiners demanded, “If you are the Christ, tell us,” Jesus could have told them simply, “My father and I are one,” And that would have been the end of it-or would it ? It’s hard to say, but thankfully, Jesus chose to make this chance encounter a teachable moment, as he so often did , And that it is what makes this passage from the gospel of John as valuable today as it could ever have been some 2000 years ago,
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So how are we to understand? How are we to interpret, or somehow relate to what it means to’ hear’ the shepherd’s voice? Is this some sort of mystical phenomena that only happens once in a lifetime if we’re lucky? Or does the master’s voice only become clear in times of tragedy or overwhelming stress? You know, I’m thinking that really, this can’t be how it all works. Once again, from the gospel of John, verse 25: ““I told you and you do not believe. The works I do in My Father’s name speak of Me. 26 You do not believe because you are not My sheep. 27 My sheep hear My voice and I know them. They follow Me. 28 I give them life that lasts forever.”
“27 My sheep hear My voice and I know them. They follow Me. 28 I give them life that lasts forever.”
I had a conversation some time ago about belief: belief in the good news of the gospel, belief in God manifested in the flesh, belief in the God of Israel. We got off on a tangent trying to imagine what it would be like if Jesus returned in this day and age; right now, for example. Would he use television? Would he be busy posting on social media all day and all night? It was fun to think about this tricky hypothetical situation . The possibilities were endless. I couldn’t help but mention that it might not end well at all. I said something like, “Wouldn’t it be sad if people still couldn’t believe in the Christ even though he was there in plain sight? I mean, history and the scriptures tell us that sometimes, seeing with our own eyes just ain’t enough.”
“Yea,” he said. “Folks always say ‘I’ll believe it when I see it.” but, when it comes to our faith and when it comes to our love of God and our God’s incredible love for us, we ought to be thinking, “when I believe it, then I’ll see it. That’s the ticket . That’s the way.
that’s the way our heartfelt beliefs and our faith work together to make (5)
it all happen.” I’ve considered this a lot over time: ‘seeing is believing’ and ‘believing is seeing. Is this just an interesting anecdote it is fun to say, or is there something to it? Of course, the incident with Thomas comes to mind. If you remember correctly, Thomas couldn’t believe that the other disciples had seen Christ resurrected. It wasn’t until he placed his hand into the wounds of the Lord’s body that he finally cried out, “my Lord and my God.” Jesus chastised him for his disbelief and then he said, “do you believe because you see me? Happy are those who don’t see and yet believe.”
So, here’s a thought: when Jesus spoke on the porch of Solomon, he was facing a group who wanted imperial evidence. Forget the fact that they had witnessed many remarkable things Jesus had done in his father’s name. They wanted… they wanted… well, it’s hard to say what they wanted. They had seen the healings of the sick, they had seen sight restored to the blind. They had seen imperial evidence that death is not necessarily the final act in this life. Yet they complained, ““How long are You going to keep us in doubt? If You are the Christ, tell us.” Jesus answered them saying, “, “I told you and you do not believe. The works I do in My Father’s name speak of Me. 26 You do not believe because you are not My sheep. 27 My sheep hear My voice and I know them. They follow Me. 28 I give them life that lasts forever.”
At this point, it appears this conversation is going nowhere, which prompts me to ask the question again, “What do they want?” These men of Israel were curious and frustrated and confused all at once. So, what did they want? Did they want justification or some kind of personal endorsement?
Or maybe they just liked picking on this man who called himself the (6)
king of the Jews . So, what did they want? Well, if we operate on the premise that Jesus sees into our hearts And judging by his response that “my sheep know my voice,” I’m inclined to think that these Jewish folks on the porch of the House of God wanted to believe. That’s all. They wanted to believe, but this was too far fetched and too new and all the prophecies and promises they had learned their whole life weren’t sufficient to convince them to take that first step: that first step to truly believe that this man who had healed many: that this man who had brought Lazarus back from the dead: that this man who preached of justice and compassion and of feeding the hungry and living in an attitude of praise to their God; they couldn’t believe that he might be- that he could be- the son of God.
“My sheep hear My voice and I know them.” Jesus said. “They follow Me. 28 I give them life that lasts forever.” You know, I don’t think that I will take offense at being compared to a sheep. Not anymore; I’m over that. I don’t know, but I might even learn a thing or two from these woolly critters. Like how to listen; and I mean to really listen. The Good Shepherd calls out to me – calls out to all of us – every day . The key is to listen. The key is to shut down the noise and the blabbering of this world and really, really listen. He is the Good Shepherd who makes us to lie down in green pastures; who leads us beside still waters. He is the Good Shepherd who restores our souls. He is the Good Shepherd, and oh what joy is ours if when he speaks we might hear his voice; that we might hear his voice and rejoice.
Amen & Shalom
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