John 10:1-10
May 15, 2011 / Fourth Sunday of Easter
Jesus opened the eyes of a man born blind. He spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva and then spread the mud on the man’s eyes, saying to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (Jn 9:6-7). We’ve heard the stories of Jesus healing the blind so often that we miss just how radical this miracle is. There are no stories of those who are blind receiving their sight in the Old Testament. None! It is only through Jesus that anyone can say, “I once was blind, but now I see.” The prophet Isaiah pointed to that day in the future when things would be different – “Then (then!) shall the eyes of the blind be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy” (Isa 35:5-6). And now that day has come – it has come in Jesus! Jesus, as the gospel of Luke recounts, has been sent “to bring good news to the poor... release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind” (Luke 4:18). In Jesus something brand new is happening, and it is leaving the Jewish leaders in a complete uproar.
It’s as if, in a world where one plus one has always equaled two, one plus one suddenly equals three! In the 9th chapter of John’s gospel, the Jewish leaders, stretching for explanations, call Jesus a sinner because he healed the blind man on the Sabbath. The parents of the man born blind, fearful of being put out of the synagogue, acknowledge that the man is their son but refuse to answer the Pharisee’s questions. The man who was previously blind is so thankful that he can see that he doesn’t seem particularly upset to be driven out of the synagogue; he is glad when he finds Jesus and can call him Lord. The predictable world has been replaced by this odd world where the blind can see and the Pharisees are considered to be blind to the truth. Jesus has upset all notions that blindness is linked to sin and established a new truth – the kingdom of God is breaking in right now, through Jesus. The evidence is right before your eyes – a man born blind can see!
It is in this place of blindness and new vision that Jesus seemingly changes the subject and starts talking about sheep. The Pharisees are so caught up with the images of blindness and sin that Jesus chooses to provide a parable and a metaphor in order to help the Pharisees see! Hear the word of the Lord from John 10, verses 1 through 10:
1‘Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. 2The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.’ 6Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.
7 So again Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. 8All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them. 9I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. 10The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.
Jesus talks about shepherds and thieves and bandits – familiar topics to those in the Middle East, even today. A good shepherd names his sheep, he counts every sheep every day, he lays hands on each sheep, checking for wounds and pulling out burrs. A good shepherd knows his sheep, and his sheep know his voice. Furthermore, a good shepherd is quite literally the gate for the sheep – once all the sheep are in the sheepfold for the night the good shepherd lays down in front of the gate. No one enters into the sheepfold through the gate without encountering the shepherd. A good shepherd lines the walls of the sheepfold with pebbles and branches so that a thief or a bandit will be heard trying to get into the sheepfold. A good shepherd always looks out for his sheep.
We all recognize that Jesus is the good shepherd. “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” We understand that Jesus is the good shepherd who knows all of his sheep, he knows every hair on our heads, he knows when we lie down and when we wake up, he knows our joys and our sorrows. It makes sense that Jesus is the gate – he protects the sheep, keeping the thieves and bandits out, and even laying his life down for the sheep in order that they – that we! – may have life and have it abundantly.
But what does this have to do with sin and blindness? What does this have to do with a man born blind who can now see and Pharisees who can see but do not really see? And why is it that the Pharisees do not understand what Jesus is saying to them when he is speaking about sheep and shepherds and thieves and bandits – topics familiar to everyone?
Jesus is turning the world upside down. The Pharisees would think that they were the shepherds – after all they are the leaders of the Jews. They are the ones who know and follow all the laws of Moses. They are the ones who claim that Jesus is a sinner because he healed the blind man on the Sabbath. The Pharisees would not even consider the man born blind to be one of the sheep of the sheepfold because his blindness is equated with sin. He is an outsider, not worthy of the fold. And yet, here is this parable – this figure of speech. And this metaphor, where Jesus says, “I am the gate for the sheep.” This parable leaves the Pharisees as the thieves and bandits and they certainly don’t want to hear that. This parable invites the man born blind into the sheepfold, and this doesn’t fit with any of their preconceived notions either.
Let me put this in a more modern context. The man born blind is a bit like a homeless person. So often there’s this nagging question at the back of our mind about sin – how did the homeless person sin to end up in this situation? Or perhaps the man born blind is a bit like an unwed mother. There are always people who will question her behavior. Too often we blame the individual for systemic problems: We fail to see that homelessness is but one symptom of much larger problems in our society, like greed and consumerism. We fail to consider the pressures and expectations placed on young people today by our culture. Too often we are shortsighted when we judge the individual, just as the Pharisees and disciples were when they judged the man born blind. There are larger forces at work here. Sin is in the world – powers greater than any one person shape events in ways we do not understand.
Jesus is the light that shines into this darkness. Jesus gives sight to the man born blind. Jesus gives hope to the homeless. Jesus was born to an unwed mother! Jesus is telling the Pharisees that the man born blind is one of the sheep – as are the homeless and the unwed and the lame and the poor and the imprisoned. The Pharisees see the sheep of God’s sheepfold as those without blemish; Jesus points out that every sheep has a blemish – all have sinned.
And the Pharisees are the thieves and bandits who are trying to enter the sheepfold by another way. They cling to the laws of Moses, to the traditions, to the things they know. They think God’s vision of a future time when the eyes of the blind will be opened will come by another way. But there is no other way into the sheepfold except through the gate – except through Jesus. And this just doesn’t sit right with the Pharisees.
Sometimes we are like the Pharisees. We cling to images of how the world should be, what the church should look like, traditions of who the sheep should be, policies of how things should be done. And when we do, even though we can see, we are blind to the truth.
The truth is that Jesus is the gate to the sheepfold – the head of the church – the way to the Father. And Jesus invites people we would never notice to be a part of his kingdom. The man who was born blind. The woman who suffered from hemorrhages for twelve years. Zacchaeus the tax collector, who was short, so he climbed a tree to see Jesus. The Samaritan woman at the well who had five husbands and was now living with a sixth man. The prodigal son who had squandered all of his inheritance. Jesus invites all of them, and others, to be a part of his kingdom.
Perhaps, like the Pharisees, we don’t understand – or we don’t want to understand – what Jesus is saying to us about the world. Or maybe we understand only too well and it scares us. Jesus looks at all of His sheep and says “I love you.” He sees the blemishes on all his creatures – he sees humanity’s sinful ways – and says “I am the gate.” He sees the blemishes his children carry and still calls each child by name and invites each one into the sheepfold. My friends, that is grace.
A couple years ago I spent four days at the Women’s Prison in Raleigh sharing God’s love with the women and guiding them into a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ. I worked closely with six women. Two had committed murder; the other four were in prison for various issues surrounding drugs, sex, and abuse. They were like the man born blind – outcasts in society. On that weekend they found that Jesus really is the gate – Jesus calls them by name, forgives them, and brings them into the sheepfold.
One of the women’s favorite songs is Amazing Grace sung to a different tune: “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me-e! I once was lost, but now I’m found, was blind, but now I see.”
On that weekend God showed up and turned the world upside down. The kingdom of God broke into that prison and women who had been blind could see. Jesus was the gate to freedom for all these lost sheep, both the prisoners and those coming in from the outside, like me! And the thieves and bandits were noticeably absent. And the good news is that by God’s grace this can happen anywhere! Jesus came that all may have life, and have it abundantly. Thanks be to God!
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