Fulness of Life for Everyone

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Season 1, Episode 11: John 10:1-10. Lectionary A, Easter 4

Each week, we’ll be talking about the gospel lectionary reading for the upcoming weekend. We’ll be talking about each reading in the context of love, inclusion, and societal justice. Our hope is that our talking will be just talking (as in justice) and that during our brief conversations each week you’ll be inspired to also do more than just talking.

If you teach from the lectionary each week, or if you’re just looking for some thoughts on the Jesus story from a more progressive perspective within the context of social justice, check it out, you might like it.

You can find the latest show on YouTube at https://youtu.be/7Smif6b6Q_w

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Herb Montgomery | April 28, 2023

To listen to this week’s eSight as a podcast episode click here.

“How, then, do the ethics and values we encounter in the Jesus story inspire us to shape our present world into a just and safe home for all? It is important to remember that this abundant living doesn’t come at the cost of death for others. This kind of life isn’t “life” for any of us unless it is life for us all.”

Our reading this week is from the gospel of John.

“Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.” Jesus used this figure of speech, but the Pharisees did not understand what he was telling them.

Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:1-10*)

The language we encounter in this week’s reading, about shepherds, sheep, sheep pens, and gates, had a context in the Jewish scriptures. Let’s look at two examples as a foundation for our discussion this week.

“I will place over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he will tend them; he will tend them and be their shepherd. I the LORD will be their God, and my servant David will be prince among them. I the LORD have spoken. ‘I will make a covenant of peace with them and rid the land of savage beasts so that they may live in the wilderness and sleep in the forests in safety. I will make them and the places surrounding my hill a blessing. I will send down showers in season; there will be showers of blessing. The trees will yield their fruit and the ground will yield its crops; the people will be secure in their land. They will know that I am the LORD, when I break the bars of their yoke and rescue them from the hands of those who enslaved them. They will no longer be plundered by the nations, nor will wild animals devour them. They will live in safety, and no one will make them afraid. I will provide for them a land renowned for its crops, and they will no longer be victims of famine in the land or bear the scorn of the nations. Then they will know that I, the LORD their God, am with them and that they, the Israelites, are my people, declares the Sovereign LORD. You are my sheep, the sheep of my pasture, and I am your God, declares the Sovereign LORD.’” (Ezekiel 34:23-31)

What jumps out to me is the deeply political, concrete and material role the shepherd plays as a conduit of liberation and the means of governing and protecting the nation. The shepherd was not a private, individual, or spiritual image in the Jewish tradition as it has become in the Christian tradition.

We find the same in Micah:

“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.” Therefore Israel will be abandoned until the time when she who is in labor bears a son, and the rest of his brothers return to join the Israelites. He will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God. And they will live securely, for then his greatness will reach to the ends of the earth. And he will be our peace when the Assyrians invade our land and march through our fortresses. (Micah 5:2-5)

So how did the Jesus community come to spiritualize the image of the shepherd? In the gospel of John, whenever we bump into pejorative characterizations of the Pharisees, we are witnessing tensions and disagreements between the proto-Gnostic Johannine community and the Pharisees who were their contemporaries. The Pharisees later evolved into Rabbinic Judaism, while many of the narrative elements and themes in the gospel of John evolved into early Gnostic Christianity. Just as orthodox Christianity characterized Gnostic Christianity as heretical, Rabbinic Judaism opposed Jewish Gnosticism. In John’s gospel we see an early form of those tensions. 

Our reading this week is unique for the canonical gospels. It symbolizes Jesus as a “sheep gate” through which legitimate shepherds would have led people to knowledge (gnosis). For the Johannine community, Jesus is the gate through which Johannine followers of Jesus, not Pharisees, will lead people into the gnosis/knowledge that would in turn usher them into life. 

That is the theme of our reading. The Johannine community’s unique version of Jesus is the measure shepherds can be judged against: if one has the best interests of the sheep in mind, they are a shepherd; if they only have their own gain as their chief motive, they are a thief. Thieves “come only to steal, kill and destroy,” while Jesus has come to give life to the full.

As I’ve said before, this is an unfair and inaccurate characterization of the Pharisees. It’s just not true that the Pharisees were “thieves,” only motivated by killing, thieving and destroying. (Read Jesus the Pharisee: A New Look at the Jewishness of Jesus by Harvey Falk for a nuanced discussion of Jesus’ Jewish roots.) 

The Pharisees’ characterization in this week’s reading is the product of the antisemitism that had become full-blown in Christianity by the time John was written. This gospel has inspired much harm to our Jewish friends and neighbors. Christians can and must do better today.

What I love about this passage, and where I agree with the Johannine community about Jesus, is that Jesus came to show us the path to life and life abundant, not just surviving, but thriving. I also add: he didn’t just come to show the way to a full, ethereal afterlife. He came to show us life in the here and now, especially for those whom the present systems of our society push to the margins and undersides of our communities.

This Easter season, I’ve been finding a lot of life in the works of Delores Williams. Jesus coming to give us life and life more abundant brings to mind one of my favorite passages from Williams:

“It seems more intelligent and more scriptural to understand that redemption had to do with God, through Jesus, giving humankind new vision to see the resources for positive, abundant relational life. Redemption had to do with God, through the ministerial vision, giving humankind the ethical thought and practice upon which to build positive, productive quality of life. Hence, the kingdom of God theme in the ministerial vision of Jesus does not point to death; it is not something one has to die to reach. Rather, the kingdom of God is a metaphor of hope God gives those attempting to right the relations between self and self, between self and others, between self and God as prescribed in the sermon on the mount, in the golden rule and in the commandment to show love above all else.” (Sisters in the Wilderness: The Challenge of Womanist God-Talk, pp. 130-131) 

This is a gospel, not about life after death, but abundant life in the here and now. It’s about shaping a re-iteration of our present world. As Elisabeth Fiorenza writes in In Memory of Her A Feminist Theological Reconstruction of Christian Origins (RHM’s recommended reading for April):

“This gospel of the basileia [the kingdom] envisioned an alternative world free of hunger, poverty, and domination.” (p. 63)

The picture of Jesus we usually get in the gospels is of a Jesus coming to give us life now, here, today. How, then, do the ethics and values we encounter in the Jesus story inspire us to shape our present world into a just and safe home for all? It is important to remember that this abundant living doesn’t come at the cost of death for others. This kind of life isn’t “life” for any of us unless it is life for us all. 

HeartGroup Application

1. Share something that spoke to you from this week’s eSight/Podcast episode with your HeartGroup.

2. How do the ethics and values we encounter in the Jesus story inspire us to shape our present world into a just and safe home for all? Share with your group.

3. What can you do this week, big or small, to continue setting in motion the work of shaping our world into a safe, compassionate, just home for everyone?

Thanks for checking in with us, today.

You can find Renewed Heart Ministries on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. If you haven’t done so already, please follow us on your chosen social media platforms for our daily posts. Also, if you enjoy listening to the Jesus for Everyone podcast, please like and subscribe to the JFE podcast through the podcast platform you use and consider taking some time to give us a review. This helps others find our podcast as well.

Also I want to share that we are partnering in a new weekly YouTube show called “Just Talking.” Each week, Todd Leonard and I will be talking about the gospel lectionary reading for the upcoming weekend. We’ll be talking about each reading in the context of love, inclusion, and societal justice. Our hope is that our talking will be just talking (as in justice) and that during our brief conversations each week you’ll be inspired to also do more than just talking.

If you teach from the lectionary each week, or if you’re just looking for some thoughts on the Jesus story from a more progressive perspective within the context of social justice, check it out, you might like it. You can find JustTalking each week on YouTube at youtube.com/@herbandtoddjusttalking. Please Like, Subscribe, hit the Notification button, and leave us a comment.

And if you’d like to reach us here at Renewed Heart Ministries through email, you can reach us at info@renewedheartministries.com.

My new book, Finding Jesus: A story of a fundamentalist preacher who unexpectedly discovered the social, political, and economic teachings of the Gospels is now also available at renewedheartministries.com

Right where you are, keep living in love, choosing compassion, taking action, and working toward justice.

I love each of you dearly,

I’ll see you next week.

*Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

Now Available at Renewed Heart Ministries!

Herb’s new book Finding Jesus: A story of a fundamentalist preacher who unexpectedly discovered the social, political, and economic teachings of the Gospels, is available at renewedheartministries.com.

Get your copy today at renewedheartministries.com

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