Queen Valley Community Lutheran Church
April 29th 2012
John 10:11-18
Knowing and Being Known
Jesus says, “I am the Good Shepherd,” and then He describes what makes for a good shepherd. From His description we can see the characteristics that make for a good pastor, a good father or mother, a good husband, and a good leader of any kind.
But all of us are imperfect in our imitation of Christ, and this passage isn’t really about us. Let’s see first of all what Jesus is saying about Himself.
The main characteristic that Jesus points to, is that “the Good Shepherd lays down His life for his sheep.” Nothing less than a total commitment to and care for the sheep that God has placed in His care makes Him the Good Shepherd. For the Good Shepherd, the lives and the safety and the well-being of His sheep are more important that His own life, safety, well-being and comfort.
Another characteristic that He points out - and this is just as crucial - is that He is the Good Shepherd because the sheep are His own sheep. He isn’t just a hired hand with nothing invested in the sheep, the sheep are his own and He cares about them, each one. In fact, He points out that He has a relationship with each one. He knows them and they know Him.
And that is what I want to talk about today; being one of Jesus’ sheep, being known by Him personally - and knowing Him personally.
We often say that Christianity is not a religion but a relationship. It isn’t so much about getting our doctrine right and obeying the rules and commandments of God, as it is about knowing Jesus and being known by Him. It isn’t that those things aren’t important, in fact they can help us to see whether we are getting the other part right. But the important thing is that relationship with Jesus, not our perfect comprehension of doctrine or our perfect obedience to His commandments.
You see, we have all sinned, and we all sin in many ways still. Sometimes we sin out of ignorance, not knowing, or not understanding, or misunderstanding the Word of God, so that we do what displeases God. Other times we know perfectly well what God wants and expects and even demands of us as His children and we still disobey, because frankly, we want what we want and not what He wants.
We usually try to rationalize it and convince ourselves that it’s the right thing to do, even though we know in our hearts that it’s wrong, because we want what we want, and not what God wants. We even latch on to some verse of Scripture and use that to “prove” that we’re doing the right thing, even when it’s so very wrong.
The Christian life isn’t supposed to be that way, but if we’re honest, we have to admit that sometimes it happens. When the Holy Spirit convicts us of that sin later on, breaks through all our resistance and our eyes are finally opened to truly see what we have done and how terrible a thing it was and the consequences of it, we feel bad. Sometimes we repent in tears, and we can’t imagine how we could have been so wrong-headed, all the while convincing ourselves that we were in the right. But many times, repentance and all, the damage is done and the consequences remain and we have to live with them.
But our Good Shepherd knows us so well. He sees all of this happening. He is constantly calling us back, calling us to walk more closely with Him, even while we are going off and doing foolish, harmful, terrible things. He never quits loving us. He never quits desiring our best good. His commitment to us and to our salvation is never diminished.
He not only knows everything that we do and every thought in our heads and every motive of our hearts, no matter how pure or impure; He sees it all as it’s happening and He still loves us and keeps looking out for our best good.
Now the flip side of this relationship is this: Jesus says, “I know my sheep, and am known by my own.” Earlier in this chapter He says, “...the sheep hear His voice; and He calls His own sheep by name and leads them out... and the sheep follow Him, for they know His voice.”
Have you ever seen how sheep follow their shepherd? Do they follow him steadfastly, never taking their eyes off of him, always concentrating on staying as close to him as possible, even trying to anticipate what he wants and doing it before they’re asked, the way a dog might?
No! They sort of wander along behind the shepherd, snatching at bits of grass, distracted by every little thing along the way. Of all the animals I have ever seen, sheep are probably the best examples of Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) in the entire animal kingdom.
It isn’t really a compliment to be called sheep. Sheep are stubborn, and willful, and easily distracted, and forever wandering off and having to be rescued. They fall down and can’t get up again. They decide they want something that’s out of their reach and probably bad for them and they forget all about following the Shepherd and wander off after it... until they get into trouble and then they bawl and cry and make noise until He comes and untangles them again.
Even though the sheep know that their safety and security and health and well-being and everything good in life is bound up in staying as close as possible to the shepherd, they get so easily distracted by what they want at any given moment that they will quit listening to his voice and go wandering off again and getting into trouble. They never seem to learn. Even though they sometimes get a good scare that drives them closer to the shepherd for a while, it doesn’t seem to last. They soon seem to wander off again and get into trouble.
Does all of this sound uncomfortably familiar?
Our knowledge of our Shepherd is imperfect, but we know Him. We know that He is our peace. We know that everything good in life is bound up in staying as close to Jesus as we possibly can. And yet we get foolish ideas in our heads and we behave selfishly and wander away from Him for the most incredibly meaningless moments of pleasure. We want what we want at any moment, and not what He wants for us.
Concentrate on knowing Jesus the way He knows you. Concentrate on hearing His voice. Don’t let yourself be distracted by all “the foolish things that charm us most” in this world. Stay close to the Shepherd. There is safety and peace and provision and blessing of every kind with Him.
And know that even when you have failed to do that and reverted to behaving like a sheep, Jesus, the Good Shepherd, who also happens to be God of the Universe, still loves you and is still committed to you. He will pick you up, untangle you from the mess you have gotten yourself into, clean you up and cure your hurts. And then He will set you back on your feet and say once again, calling you by name, “Come. Follow Me!”
Stay close to Jesus this Summer.