My Sheep Hear My Voice
Treasuring the Voice of Jesus
Today, I’m thinking about what it means to treasure the voice of Jesus. The opportunity that we have at Trinity Western University to work and study in a Christian environment is very significant. Surrounding us are countless resources that can aid us in our growth as disciples of Jesus Christ: Christian professors, mentors and speakers, Christian co-workers and peers, books on every topic imaginable, and opportunities to explore the faith through service and ministry.
The same was true of the world that Jesus entered. There was a magnificent temple. There were rabbinical schools throughout Palestine, where you could study and discuss the Scriptures to your heart’s content. If you wanted to understand the Law, there were experts who could explain it for you. In fact, in Jesus, God Himself had shown up to explain it all to us.
Yet the presence of the Word of God did not guarantee that people actually heard Him. The Apostle John declares, “He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him” (John 1:11). Jesus told His disciples that it was possible to hear, and yet not hear – to see, and yet not see… echoing the words of Yahweh in the commissioning of Isaiah (Mark 4:12; Isaiah 6:9-10). This is why He spoke in parables – he wanted to see if people were really listening to Him. Facing the spiritual blindness and deafness of those who were plotting his demise, Jesus declared these words:
“He who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they know not the voice of strangers….
…I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, on shepherd…. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.”
John 10:2-5, 14-16, 27
Jesus is talking here about His true family, His true community of disciples. During his ministry he had many people who surrounded him. There were the crowds who just wanted to see Him do something cool – a healing or exorcism, perhaps. There were the Pharisees who wanted to catch him saying something that would give them a reason to kill him. There was even a close associate who was destined to betray Him. Even though they ‘followed’ him around, they were not His true disciples. Only some of those who surrounded him actually heard him and followed him as their leader.
What characterizes true disciples? First of all, they don’t just hear the teachings of Jesus as interesting historical artifacts. They hear them personally: “He calls his own sheep by name.” “You are Simon – from now on, I call you Peter. Follow me.” “Andrew, come and see where I’m staying.” “Philip, I saw you under the fig tree.” “James, John – Come fish for people.” “Mary – It is I.” “Martha, Martha, you are concerned with many things.” They have caught Jesus’ eye in the crowd, and can’t turn away from His gaze.
Second of all, they are familiar with the way He speaks: “the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.” His voice is not just any voice, one voice among the millions that bombard them from day to day. Just as I can recognize my children’s distant cries in the midst of a noisy crowd because I know them so well, so Jesus’ true disciples have their senses finely tuned to hear His voice above all others. How? Because they have spent enough intimate time with Him in private that His voice pierces through the crowds.
Third, they are able to discern when imposters show up to lead: “a stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they know not the voice of strangers.” Paul warned Timothy, “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths” (2 Timothy 4:3-4). True disciples are committed to feeding on sound teaching, not wasting their time on teachings that don’t reflect the voice of their shepherd.
Finally, true disciples realize that there are still others to be called: “I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice.” Surrounding Jesus was a crowd of people who believed that they were the chosen of God. Among that crowd were religious leaders who believed that they were God’s true elite, who had studied the Law and understood it well. The problem was, in all their study of the Law, they had missed Jesus – and when He showed up, they rejected Him instead of seeing Him as the fulfillment of the Law. Jesus says to them, “You think you’re God’s special people. But I’m telling you that the flock is going to grow beyond anything you expected. Are you going to be part of it?” True disciples realize that their goal is not to get so comfortable that they don’t make room in the sheepfold for others. They realize that the voice of Jesus is always calling them out into the pasture, where more sheep can join the community and come in behind their leader, the Good Shepherd.
So what does this mean for us, as worshippers in a Christian academic community? We need to have practices that attune us to the voice of Jesus. In the midst of all our busyness as students, teachers, researchers, and employees, we need to hear the voice of our Shepherd saying our name, and calling us into deeper intimacy and dependence on Him. We can’t be satisfied with proximity to Jesus; we must draw near to Him every day, treasuring His teachings as a way of life for us. We need to be developing our capacity to discern the truth, through a deepening familiarity with what Jesus taught. We can’t get comfortable, thinking that since we’re in, we don’t need to care about others. Instead, we need to follow our Good Shepherd into the world, where His voice is calling many others to join His community of disciples.
What practices and habits and disciplines are you building into your life this summer, and as you enter next year, that will help you keep attuned to the voice of Jesus?