John 10: 1-10
Have you ever had a miserable job --- one of those employment situations that drains all your energy and possibly your life? A poll from a year ago revealed that 55 percent of American employees hate their jobs. Work is not the only form of dissatisfaction. Relationships or ones health simmer as issues for many people. Unhappiness can span cultures and geography and ages.
Some simply throw up their hands, find blame, or look for a conspiracy as countless people do. Nevertheless this whole notion of discontent is important for us to consider as Christians. This is not only because of our task to follow Christ and live a new life forgiven and freed but because of what constitutes the opposite of discontent, "a full life." "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." While we can all seem to describe dissatisfaction, what is a "full life?"
We have many examples of skewed understandings of full life. You may recall hearing in the news back in August 2007 of New York billionaire Leona Helmsley's death. More likely you may remember the story that followed of her leaving $12 million to her Maltese dog to make sure that it was cared for … that amount was later decreased to $2 million. This is the same woman who, was convicted in 1988 of federal tax evasion for, among other things, fraudulently charging as business expenses her $1 million marble dance floor above a swimming pool and $45,000 silver clock. I remember thinking at the time that "living the good life" and "living a good life" are not the same thing --- a rich woman making sure that a dog lived out the good life rather than many people around her living a good life.
On the other hand, according to Christ, we were all made to enjoy a fulfilling and life-giving relationship with God and with others. We were all created to live with purpose and to measure our lives not in terms of the dollars we earn or the amount of stuff we own or produce but by the amount of love we give and receive. Jesus came "that they may have life, and have it to the full." So, if there are markers for a miserable life, Jesus offers a completely different set of signs to indicate a life that is ultimately fulfilled and fulfilling. So what are they?
Before we explore signs of a full life we need to remember that when John 10 opens, Jesus is still engaged in a rather heated conversation with the Pharisees --- a conversation sparked by Jesus' healing of the man born blind on a Sabbath in John 9. The Pharisees were acting like the ultimate bad boss, engaging in religious ruthlessness rather than in compassion and amazement at the man's healing. One thing to remember from John 9 and the healing of the blind man is that he is never named — he is anonymous, and the Pharisees seem to care less about the man himself than about the legality of him being healed on the Sabbath. In response, Jesus draws on a different vocational metaphor to counter the misery-making legalism of the Pharisees --- the image of the Good Shepherd.
This is an interesting image, because it would have been hard to imagine a more mundane first-century job than shepherding sheep. Besides the boredom of moving sheep back and forth from water to pasture to sheepfold, shepherds faced long periods of time away from home and family. Living most of the time in the open, they were often pounded by harsh weather. Besides that, they and their flocks were in constant danger from animal predators like lions, bears and wolves and human predators like sheep-stealing thieves. Furthermore, a shepherd's job was the least important in society and they were thus among the poorest of the poor. For example, you may remember when Samuel was told by God to go to the family of Jesse to anoint the next King of Israel. Jesse had many children, all of whom Samuel examined to see if they would be king. None made the grade for God until Samuel asked Jesse and was told there was one more… but he was out with the sheep!
Back up a bit to verses 1-10, though, and you see that Jesus is setting up a contrast between the good shepherd who cares for the flock and the "thieves and bandits" who come only to "steal and kill and destroy." The Pharisees may have seen themselves as the benevolent bosses of the people, but Jesus makes it clear that their oppressive religious posturing is bringing the people nothing but misery. The Pharisees are clueless managers who just don't get it. Jesus, on the other hand, understands the needs of his flock and is invested in bringing "full life" to those in his care. But that takes us back to the question of what are the signs of a full life. I think we find three signs in our gospel.
The first sign of the full life is being known. No anonymity here. We do not blend into the cubicle or street. We are not nameless office workers or faces on the street. The full life has everything to do with the relationship of the shepherd to the sheep. For Jesus, the first and foremost sign of an abundant life has to do with knowing and being known by the other. "He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out," says Jesus of the shepherd, "and his sheep follow him because they know his voice."
If a basic human need is to be valued by someone in authority, Jesus is all over this. We do not serve a dispassionate, disconnected God who sits in a divine corner office with big windows dispensing orders. In Jesus Christ, God knows us by name, values us, and cares for us. In a world that seems to always operate out of a sense of scarcity, where the operative principle is always wanting, doing or being more, Jesus offers an abundance of love, grace and hope.
The second sign of a full life found in our gospel is that love is not just a sentimental thought. God does not send cheap cards with a machine produced signature. Rather, Jesus would "lay down [his] life" and be the "gate" through whom all his sheep, his people, would "come in" and "be saved." Some Christians want Jesus as the gate to somehow become a "yes" to some and a "no" to others. But that is a total betrayal of today's words. The love and care of the Good Shepherd has a purpose. Every person is of value. We are not just saved from the dangers of life apart from God; we are also saved for the mission of sharing the abundant life in Christ with others. Jesus came to bring an abundant life and says to us, "As the Father has sent me, so I send you."
Our relevance in the world isn't based on our job title, on what we produce or how much we make. Rather a full life embraces a larger vision of life and our place in the world. No matter the life situation we find ourselves in, we find relevance when we see our connectedness to the purposes of God for the whole world.
The third sign of a full life is that we are not about measurement. Measuring the full life in Christ involves a different kind of math than the rest of the world uses. All the things that typically mark success in the world --- job, house, salary, car, the latest technological gadgets --- or whatever else you think it is, don't add up to a hill of beans in the eyes of Jesus. Rather the abundant life is always outwardly focused, always concerned about how much one gives rather than gets. If there is a measuring stick for the followers of Jesus, then it has to be Jesus himself. We measure ourselves by asking, "How well d0 we represent Jesus? How do I reflect his presence in my life?
Ultimately, it is not so important how you and I see or define the Good Shepherd. Rather what is ultimately important is how the Good Shepherd sees and defines us. Namely, we are all people who belong to God and are loved so much that Jesus would lay down his life for us, and for the whole world. In turn, knowing who we are and whose we are gives us freedom and energy to be like the members of the early church, to praise God, joyfully breaking bread together and sharing our resources with glad and generous hearts.
"The glory of God is the person fully alive," said a famous early Christian Irenaeus. Jesus has come that we might have life, and have it to the full and it is in doing just that --- living fully --- that God is glorified by each moment of our existence. In the words of a prominent British Christian, John Henry Newman: "Fear not that thy life shall come to an end, but rather fear that it shall never have a beginning." God loves us and we are loved for who we are. That is the only measure that matters. Let's us live out the full life. Amen.
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