B Cycle – 4^th Sunday of Easter 14

Jn. 10: 11-18

Years ago, a good friend om mine had a personal individual guided tour of the Holy Land.  On his way home, he stopped to visit me and for a few days of relaxation before the next leg of his journey home.  While we were together, he told me about a most interesting experience watching shepherds watering their flock.  His guide took him to the hill country where there are small independent sheep ranches.  Every day those shepherds drive their sheep each day to a large pond where the shepherds would sit and talk while the sheep drank and mingled together as one large flock.

He was not certain that the time they spent getting to that area was worth the trip. His guide told him to pay attention to the shepherds as they decided it was time to move their flock back to their pasture.  He watched and wondered how the ten different shepherds could know which sheep were theirs.  Then suddenly one shepherd whistled a loud whistle four times with a break in between each whistle.  At that whistle three dozen sheep raised their heads and began walking toward that whistle.  Then another shepherd shouted a sound that sounded like Wacker, Wacker, Wacker and another twenty sheep raised their heads and walked toward the shepherd.  

Each shepherd had a different sound and when they made their unique sound only the sheep of his flock followed him.  Jesus said, my sheep know my voice and they follow me.  That vivid description of what my friend saw and experienced was not just revealing but it drove home the point Jesus was making.  From the time of Jesus to now, every generation of sheep herders knew how important it was for your sheep to know your voice.  Which brings today’s gospel about sheep and shepherds to us who should be able to hear the voice of Jesus.  What I learned from his visit is why we are the sheep in every parable about sheep and shepherds. 

Jesus is the good shepherd, who tells us He will leave the ninety nine sheep to seek the one sheep that has gone astray.  But we as we sit in church, cannot just listen to the gospel and the homily without considering where we are going.   Is the place Jesus is leading us what we are seeking for ourselves?  Are we following or are we wandering just following along with the rest of the herd? 

We need to be attentive to where the shepherd is attempting to lead us.  But we are distracted by life. We struggle with our faith and often feel lost or without direction as we follow the rest of the flock.  But that is one of the issues about sheep, they easily go astray.  Typically, they feel secure and safe being in the herd, but they can easily lead astray.  They will follow another one off a cliff without ever stopping to realize the danger in front of them.  They will remain in a barren pasture nibbling on scrub grass when there is a lush field just beyond their sight.  Or they will drink from a shallow muddy hole when there is a clear running stream a short distance away. 

That is exactly why Jesus speaks about us as sheep and does so to wake us up.   

There is a reason Jesus used parables about sheep to describe us.  We are content to nibble on less than what God desires to give us.  We are followers who feel protected within the flock we call “church.” We will not even consider where we are going if we are doing it together.  The simple truth is we would rather remain in the flock because it is safe, and it is what we know.  We cannot recognize the voice of God calling us to something greater than we can imagine.  We ignore the invitation to follow Him, because we are blindly following the safe path of those who tell us that is the way to please God.

But as I learned from my friend, sheep have a remarkable ability to know the voice of their shepherd.  They seem to know he is their only means of protection from becoming a victim of predators. It is no wonder Jesus uses sheep as a symbol of ourselves.  We can learn a lot from those parables of sheep.  Sheep for all their weaknesses are loyal and stick together.  That is a problem for us humans. We often are not loyal and do not stick up for those we are closest to us: our friends and family.  We do not hear the voice of the shepherd because we have not communicated with Him in a manner that has speaking not listening.

We pray but as Paul tells us we do not pray as we should, but the Spirit (will) intercedes for us (Rom. 8:26).  What the Spirit will do is help us learn how to pray as Jesus prayed, from our hearts.  The Spirit will help us express ourselves, not just repeat some words we learned as children; prayers we can repeat without ever engaging our hearts.  Sheep can not only distinguish the voice of their shepherd, but they also recognize the voice of someone who tries to deceive them by mimicking the voice of their shepherd.  We often follow that deceitful voice and go astray following a voice that seeks to destroy our relationship with God and separate us from the flock of Christ. 

Did you ever consider the fact sheep were never a beast of burden, like a mule, horse, ox, or cow.  Sheep are not equipped to carry anything. Their legs are too weak, too short and they would be crushed by any burden placed on them.  Each of us are easily overcome by the burdens of life and should realize the reason Jesus said, “come to me all you who are heavy laden.” 

We were created by God to be in a place without burdens and yet we lost that and now face all kinds of burdens.  Loss of people we love, financial burdens, children’s issues, friendship burdens, rejection, addiction, betrayal.  You name it, we may have to endure it.  How many times have we been told to “suck it up” and move on. 

Well Jesus has a better solution, He wants to lead us to green pastures, where His rod and staff protect us.  Let us seek to become sheep who know and recognize the voice of Jesus.