The Shepherd's Voice
In a World of Endless, Fake and Misleading Messages, Only One Voice Can Be Trusted
In our noisy world, there are always numerous voices calling to us. Some are telling us to be afraid, very afraid. Others invite us to follow their programs, buy their products, or support their candidates. Still others give us strength and peace, even in the middle of dangerous situations.
Whose voice are you hearing? Who has your attention, right now?
Joan Trumpauer Mulholland grew up in Arlington, Virginia. There, she attended a Presbyterian church and Sunday School. In 1959, she went to college at Duke University. During her freshman year, she began to participate in sit-ins for civil rights.
When she was arrested, she was taken to jail, which was segregated by race. She kept a secret diary and wrote, “I think all the girls in here are gems, but I feel more in common with the [Black] girls … [I] wish I was locked in with them instead of these atheist Yankees.”
In the early 1960s, Mulholland became a Freedom Rider. She was part of a group of Blacks and whites who rode interstate buses in the South, challenging segregated seating laws. Freedom Riders faced racial violence, including the fire-bombing of a bus. At one point, Mulholland was convicted of “breach of peace,” and she served two months in the Mississippi State Penitentiary.
Was Joan Mulholland afraid? No. “You should not waste any time on fear,” she says, looking back on the experience. “Fear paralyzes your brain and keeps you from thinking what you need to be doing in a situation.”
According to Duke Magazine, Mulholland and several other civil rights workers were in a car near Conway, Mississippi, when they were waylaid by Klan members. “We just knew we were going to die,” says Mulholland. “We talked about it, and none of us were petrified.”
Why not? Because they were hearing the Shepherd’s voice.
Mulholland believes her confidence came from her Christian faith. “Jesus died on the cross,” she says. “We’re all going to die sooner or later. It’s just a matter of when and how.”
The voice of Jesus was speaking to her during her freshman year at Duke, when she attended Presbyterian meetings. “To me this whole concept of love thy neighbor as thyself” was central, she says, and the love commandment of Jesus could not be aligned with segregation. She says, “This whole double standard to me just went completely against the teachings of the church.”
In the middle of a life-threatening situation, she felt strength and peace. All because she was listening to the Shepherd’s voice.
The work of the Freedom Riders was successful. By November 1961, the Interstate Commerce Commission had banned segregation in interstate bus transportation and facilities. But the voice of Christ is still speaking to us today, 65 years later.
Are we listening? I am absolutely convinced that we need to be hearing the Shepherd’s voice, now more than ever. With war in Iran, cuts to the social safety net, breakdowns in families, an epidemic of isolation and loneliness, and social media that is constantly trying to engage us and enrage us, we need a better message. We need to hear the voice of Jesus.
When Jesus speaks to a group of Pharisees and other Jews in the gospel of John, he talks with them about shepherds, sheepfolds and sheep. They know that the Scriptures speak frequently of rulers and leaders as shepherds — both bad shepherds and good shepherds. We do not talk often about shepherds in America today, but it was a common image in ancient Jerusalem. To the bad leaders of his day, the prophet Ezekiel says, “Woe, you shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep?” (Ezekiel 34:2).
Ezekiel is talking about rulers of people, not shepherds of sheep. He criticizes them by saying, “You have not strengthened the weak; you have not healed the sick; you have not bound up the injured; you have not brought back the strays; you have not sought the lost, but with force and harshness you have ruled them” (v. 4).
Strengthening the weak, healing the sick, bringing back the strays, and seeking the lost are the responsibility of shepherd leaders. Because the rulers of Israel will not do this important work, God says through Ezekiel, “I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep. … I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strays, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak …. I will feed them with justice” (vv. 15-16).
Binding up the injured, strengthening the weak, and feeding people with justice. This was the mission of God in the time of Ezekiel, the mission of the Freedom Riders of the 1960s, and the mission of shepherd leaders today. It is the mission that Bill Reidway has been talking about his adult Christian formation class at Fairfax Presbyterian Church, “Faith and Resistance.” One week, he began the class by saying that “Scripture consistently refuses to accept the domination of the weak by the strong.” That’s why Christian resistance is not a political stance but a theological one. It is part of the way that we make sense of what God is doing in the world.
Jesus speaks of sheep and shepherds when he says, “Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate [is] a thief and a bandit” (John 10:1). According to Jesus, the people of Israel are a flock of sheep, gathered in God’s sheepfold or sheep pen. They are safe in the pen unless a bad shepherd — a thief or a bandit — climbs over the fence to make trouble.
By contrast, says Jesus, the “one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers” (vv. 2-5).
Jesus is making clear that the sheep know the voice of the good shepherd, and they follow him when he leads them out. He knows them by name, and they trust him when he calls. The sheep will not follow a stranger, since they do not know the stranger’s voice.
There is nothing more important for us than hearing our Shepherd’s voice and following when he calls. That’s what Joan Mulholland did. She heard Jesus say, “love your neighbor as yourself,” and then she followed him (Matthew 22:39). She joined Black students for a sit-in at a counter at a five-and-dime store in North Carolina. She and another white student sat among the Black students in the “whites-only” area and refused to leave until the Blacks were served. For taking this stand, she was arrested and jailed.
She was listening to the Shepherd’s voice.
When Jesus first talks about shepherds and sheep, his hearers do not understand. So, he makes his words more personal by saying, “Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and bandits …. I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved and will come in and go out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (vv. 7-10).
Here, Jesus describes himself as the gate for the sheep. He is the passage to abundant life, pictured in Psalm 23 as “green pastures … still waters … right paths” (vv. 2-3). Abundant life is a gift of the Risen Jesus, celebrated with particular joy during this Easter Season. By contrast, Jesus says, the thief “comes only to steal and kill” — that’s abundant death, not life (John 10:10).
Pay special attention to this – Jesus wants to lead us to abundant life. He does not speak to us to make us feel guilty, or ashamed, or unworthy. No, he leads us on the right path to life-giving green pastures. If we listen to other voices, we might end up on the wrong path, on the path to death.
Joan Mulholland found abundant life by following Jesus. But first she had to deal with bad shepherds along the way. The Dean of Women pressured her to stop her activism, so she dropped out of Duke. When she took part in a sit-in at a drugstore in Arlington, she was abused by members of the American Nazi Party. When she did a sit-in in Mississippi, a thug manhandled her. After being dragged outside, a police officer finally helped her.
To avoid confusion, Jesus concludes by saying, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (v. 11). Clearly, Jesus follows God by binding up the injured, strengthening the weak, and feeding people with justice. Jesus also commands us to “love one another” (13:34), to feed his lambs and tend his sheep (21:15-16). He even goes so far as to lay down his life for his us, so that we can enjoy forgiveness and everlasting life. Jesus wants us all to “have life and have it abundantly” (10:10).
The journey begins by hearing his voice and following him. Are you listening … today?
We live in a world of competing voices, and many of them want to steal or kill or destroy. Some are trying to scare us, while others want to seduce us. Many promise that happiness will come through a brighter smile, a slimmer waistline, or a dream vacation. Still others want our votes, our political loyalty, or a donation to a particular candidate.
Some of the voices are not even real. Using the tools of artificial intelligence, people are creating fake images and messages that are hard to distinguish from accurate information. “From elections to wars,” says a professor at the University of Florida, “those with ill intentions can mass-produce and disseminate propaganda on social media.”
The voices are endless, fake and misleading. But only one is real and can be trusted: The voice of the Shepherd.
We are challenged to hear the Shepherd’s voice and follow his teachings. Rather than wasting our time on fear, we can love our neighbors, pray for those who persecute us, strengthen the weak, and feed people with justice. We can follow the Shepherd in our homes, schools, workplaces, congregations and communities. As we walk this path, we will gain courage and strength. We will find that Jesus is leading us to new and abundant life.
The challenge is to hear and to follow. The Shepherd is always ahead of us, leading us on the right path. Let us listen to him … today.