Moments to Ponder
Pondering is a lost practice today.
The idea that we might actually take a few moments to think deeply about anything seems indulgent in our busy, full schedules. Yet, our souls crave rest and space to breathe, process our lives, choices, and walk with Jesus. I invite you to join me fora few moments to take in Scripture and take away a few thoughts to ponder throughout your day.
Moments to Ponder
Episode 133: Listening to a Love Beyond Understanding (John 10:1-12)
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Imagine the tender moment when a newborn first recognizes their parent's voice—it's a beautiful reminder of how our hearts are tuned to love and familiarity. Join me as we explore this powerful connection to dive into the teachings of Jesus as the Good Shepherd. We'll look at how Jesus, much like a caring shepherd, guides us with trust and love through life's noise and confusion.
What if life's challenges could be met with a love that is both wild and sweet? Together, we'll explore the transformative music of a life led by the voice of the Good Shepherd—a voice that calls us to abundance and away from negative forces. Through careful reflection, we’ll discover the profound ways in which we are loved and known beyond our comprehension. As your week unfolds, I encourage you to find quiet moments to listen for this voice that speaks your name, offering solace, strength, and a sense of belonging in an often chaotic world.
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Hello friends, welcome to Moments to Ponder. This is a podcast designed to help you spend a few moments in God's Word, gain fresh perspectives and find meaningful takeaways to ponder throughout your week. I'm Betsy Marvin and this is episode 133. I'll never forget the moment when my daughter, just minutes old, was placed in the arms of my husband. She was making her voice heard, crying about being brought into this cold, bright world. My husband looked at her and said her name, just her name, and in that instant she stopped crying and she looked at the face of the one whose voice she knew but had never seen. It was one of those holy moments. It was one of those holy moments.
Speaker 1:There's something deep and tangible that happens when we hear the voice of someone we love, whether it's over the phone or face-to-face. Our hearts know that voice, we can pick it out of a crowd. It's one we know so well that we can hear the hesitancy or the excitement in just a few syllables. Just as my daughter knew her father's voice without ever having seen him, our hearts were created to know the voice of the one that loves us and, sadly, just as a voice can get lost as other noises drown it out, the same can happen to us with the voice of Jesus. This past year I've been diving more and more into listening to the voice of God. The intimacy, the closeness of it just draws me. I want to know his voice so well that it invades my thoughts and redirects my steps. Well, much like a shepherd leads and directs his sheep.
Speaker 1:This week we're in John 10, and Jesus is still at the temple. At the end of chapter 9, we heard the crowd asking Jesus straight up Are you from God or not? Chapter 10 is his answer. I tell you the truth. Anyone who sneaks over the wall of a sheepfold rather than going through the gate must surely be a thief and a robber. But the one who enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him and the sheep recognize his voice and come to him. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. After he has gathered his own flock, he walks ahead of them and they follow him because they know his voice. They won't follow a stranger. They will run from him because they don't know his voice. Those who heard Jesus use this illustration didn't understand what he meant.
Speaker 1:This little parable comes out of the blue a bit. They were just talking about if Jesus was the Messiah, and he answers with I tell you the truth and then speaks about sheep. It's a bit out there. He also mentions robbers and strangers.
Speaker 1:In those days, many shepherds would share the same sheepfold. At night, each shepherd would take their turn sleeping at the gate as gatekeeper to protect the sheep. In the morning, the shepherd would call his own sheep out of the crowded fold to follow him. Thus it was important for the sheep to know the voice of their own shepherd. Sheep aren't leaders they follow. So all the days spent together in the fields had created a bond of recognition between the sheep and the shepherd. So let's connect the dots.
Speaker 1:The crowd is asking are you the Messiah, are you the king we're waiting for? In Jewish culture at that time, the king was seen as a shepherd, david being the example. Jesus is basically saying you wonder if I'm the Messiah? Yet how will you tell God's appointed true king when he comes? He's inferring to them. You can tell the true king in the same way you know a true shepherd. You will know his voice.
Speaker 1:Yet the people were confused, so he explains it to them, verse 7. I tell you the truth. I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me were thieves and robbers, but the true sheep did not listen to them kill, steal and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life. Jesus is referring to some history here of past prophets and leaders that had tried to lead the Jews away from true God, and also some of the religious leaders that were right there in the crowd that had led people astray with their legalism.
Speaker 1:Now in this set of verses we hear another I am statement from Jesus I am the gate for the sheep. Now, remember, a shepherd would lay at the gate to keep the sheep in and the thieves and predators out, because his priority is the sheep, not himself. So, as the gate, jesus is telling them you are my priority, I am the way for rich and abundant life, my priority. I am the way for rich and abundant life. Those who come through me will be saved. And not only is Jesus the way in, but he continues in verse 11.
Speaker 1:I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd sacrifices his life for the sheep. A hired hand will run when he sees a wolf coming. He will abandon the sheep because they don't belong to him and he isn't their shepherd. And so the wolf attacks and scatters the flock, the hired hand runs away because he's only working for the money and doesn't really care about the sheep. We could talk a lot about the wolves, but we're going to stay focused on Jesus.
Speaker 1:Here's another I am statement. I am the good shepherd. The word good in English doesn't quite capture the word John uses here. He uses the Greek word kalos, which means beautiful, commendable, excellent, and he's not talking about what Jesus looks like. He's emphasizing the wonder and beauty of the sacrificial love of Jesus.
Speaker 1:Jesus continues I am the good meaning, beautiful, excellent shepherd. I know my sheep and they me, just as my father knows me and I know the father. So I sacrifice my life for the sheep. I have other sheep too that are not in this sheepfold. I must bring them also. They will listen to my voice and there will be one flock with one shepherd. My father loves me because I sacrifice my life so I may take it back again. No one can take my life from me. I sacrifice it voluntarily, for I have the authority to lay it down when I want to and also to take it up again, for this is what my father has commanded up again, for this is what my father has commanded those words I know my sheep and they know me. That's the intimacy I was speaking of earlier. A shepherd of that day, and maybe even today, know their sheep so well. They would know their markings and their likes and their dislikes. They would even know them by name. And then you have this connection that isn't just for Jewish sheep. Jesus is telling them that there will be others, others that will come into the sheepfold and he will know their names, and he's referring to Gentiles, the non-Jewish people that would also be invited to join him as followers. The fact that Gentiles would no longer be an enemy but become one under Jesus would have been really confusing for these Jews. Verse 19.
Speaker 1:The people were again divided in their opinions about him. Some said he's demon-possessed and out of his mind. Why listen to a man like that? Others said this doesn't sound like a man possessed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind? Now, remember, this is all taking place within a certain amount of time, between all the things that Jesus said about water and then the blind man, and all of that with the Pharisees, and now we're coming to the end of this conversation and the people want to know is he crazy? Is he possessed? Is he really the Messiah? The confusion is real. And on top of that, jesus is telling them of his sacrifice to come, that he will willingly, voluntarily, give up his life and take it back. They can't get it. Jesus isn't what they were looking for. Yet he's saying the words that they were hoping to hear, and in that there's confusion. In his commentary on John, nt Wright shares this parable, and I wanted to share it with you.
Speaker 1:They found the music, a single manuscript copy, among the piles of unsorted paper the composer had left at the time of his death. It was clearly a piece for a solo violin, but it looked extraordinarily difficult, daring, probably unplayable. Above it was scrawled in his shaky hand To the City Guild of Violins. The City Guild was honored but embarrassed. None of them could play the piece. Copies were made and each member took one home to try it out. When they met later they tried to pass it off with excuses. Surely the old man couldn't have meant you to play these notes simultaneously. His mind must have been wandering. Anyway, it seemed very strange. Not much tune to it, though they couldn't deny that there were interesting passages. All of them declared that they'd give it a try One day. Some even wondered aloud whether the old man hadn't meant for it to be played at all. It was just a strange and impossible idea and they all quietly forgot about it, until one day, many years later.
Speaker 1:Until one day, many years later, there came to a city an old man with a long, straggly beard and a battered violin case. He hardly looked like a real musician, a gypsy people thought, or a traveling tradesman with a second line in music teaching. He took lodgings just by the main city square. Not long afterwards, rumors began to circulate of strange and beautiful music being heard after dark. Finally, some of the city guild gathered under the windows. There was no mistaking it. They were listening to the music that had been dedicated to them. It was indeed almost unplayable, almost, but not quite. He was playing it, making it dance and leap and swell and fall. It was wild and strange and headstrong and sweet, strong and sweet. As it died away, some of the city guild burst in spontaneous applause, but others were furious. That was our music, they said. He's not a member of the guild. What right has he got to come here and play it, trying to make us look stupid. The window opened and the old man looked out. I'm his son, he said. He taught me to play the piece and he made me a member of the guild. Before he died he was its honorary president. You know Rubbish, shouted the angry violinists in the square below. You have no business here. How dare you? The next morning the violinist was gone. The music was never heard in the city again. I think you can probably hear the connection.
Speaker 1:God left his people such an incredible wonder and they felt that they alone owned it. Yet they couldn't quite get it. This. Love your neighbor as yourself. Love God first. All of the things that God was asking them to do, they just felt it couldn't be done and many walked away. Others became professionals in what they had created that could be done. They missed the music. Jesus, the Son, the living example of the wonder of God's love. His life was one of beauty and strength, showing everyone what a life lived fully for God could be, and that was threatening to some people. Just like the guild members knew the music, the Pharisees knew the message of Jesus, but they didn't like the package. They saw a man doing all that they could not. And the people? The people were seeing a man that loved, as God had called them to, but they struggled with the cost and, rather than listen to the wonder of it all, they push him away, calling him crazy. It was easier to do than face the lacking in their own lives, and thus he left.
Speaker 1:Dear one, may you hear the music, his music, and may you know that it is meant to be played in your own life.
Speaker 1:Our good, beautiful and excellent shepherd showed us what's possible, that abundant life is real and, yes, it can be difficult and daring, but it also leaps and swells. His wonderful music of love is wild and strange, headstrong and sweet, and it can be played by any who enter his gate. All we need to do is follow that voice and he will teach us Hearing the music. It does take quiet, it takes time and closeness, but hearing His voice is a gift to all who choose to listen. Remember His sheep, know His voice and follow. I pray that you hear Him speak your name and, just as my daughter knew her father's voice, you will know his. It's the voice that speaks of a life abundant, not the voice of the thief who wants to kill, steal and destroy. Dear one, you are loved and known at a level that, honestly, we can't fully understand, but we can welcome him and his music if we choose to. As you go through your week, take the time to listen and I pray that you hear Amen.