Voices and faces

‘… And I lay down my life’. (John 10:15)

John 10:11-18 (Year B: Easter 4)

A kind face..

Have you ever undergone a general anaesthetic? If you have, you might recall the face of the anaesthetist who kindly looked at you before you don’t remember anything.  And then, some time later, you remember first, a sound, a voice and then a face – this time a new face that looks kindly at you.  It is the recovery ward.

Faces, voices and sounds are important. We listen and look for kindness in the face of another.  The first face, or one of the first faces, a new-born baby sees is that of its mother. As a baby grows and develops the face and voice of its mother continues to be its safety and strength. Other faces and voices also arrive and are very important. 

At the other end of the life-cycle it is not uncommon that a person completing this phase of life is focussed on a face or voice. Perhaps, sounds are the last signals a dying person is aware of? Or, perhaps, they ‘see’ faces of loved ones long departed from this phase of life.  In our own case, we shall have to see!

Assuming that we have the gift of sight and hearing, knowing and recognising a face or a voice is central to how we connect to others throughout life.  In deciding how to live our lives and move onwards and upwards we listen out and look out. A kindly light leads us as a familiar poem-hymn says. We can recognise the voice of the Good Shepherd because it has three enduring qualities.  These are:

-       Kindness;

-       Gentleness; and

-       An inviting tone.

Tone and context are important. The eyes are the window of the soul and behind a wrinkled face and a few greys hairs may lie a very kind, gentle and wise spirit inviting others to peace.  The beauty is primarily within and from there flows kind actions and words.  A kind, gentle and inviting look and gesture says a thousand words. Sometimes, no word is necessary. Looks say it all.  When the Gospel of John reveals Jesus as the Good Shepherd it is reminding us that we are bound together and to the Good Shepherd because we are called, respected, affirmed, appreciated, cherished and loved as children belonging to the Good shepherd. 

The servant leader..

However, images of animal submission, passivity and docility may not sit easily for many modern-day readers.  We can understand the metaphor of the Good Shepherd and the sheep for what it is – a loving relationship founded on trust, mutual recognition and following. Our leader and shepherd is not a despot. He is the One who is ready to lay down his life for us (and the greatest love we can have is to lay down our lives for our fiends and not just those on Facebook ! – John 15:13). 

Servant leadership puts those served first. This is not the typical pattern of leadership in many organisations including at times, sadly, those professing to follow Jesus. What is it about such leadership and watching over us? It is the deep, deep care of the one who watches over us like a mother gazing at her baby. It is a gaze and a solicitude that says: ‘I care for you’.

Jesus our good shepherd guides our way forward (Psalm 36:23: ‘The Lord guides the steps of a man and makes safe the path of one he loves.’). The saying of Jesus on the good shepherd is rooted in the Hebrew scriptures that Jesus was all too familiar with. For example, the prophet Ezekiel (chapter 34) speaks of a covenant between the Lord who is Shepherd and his people Israel. He will take care of his people where the shepherds have failed. The latter never cared. What was it about the true shepherd of Israel that marked him out from the false shepherds? What model of shepherding is Jesus implementing in John’s gospel? Let’s take Ezekiel 34:3-6 and recall the characteristics of the false shepherds:

you do not take care of the flock.  You have not strengthened the weak or healed those who are ill or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally.  So they were scattered because there was no shepherd, and when they were scattered they became food for all the wild animals.  My sheep wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. They were scattered over the whole earth, and no one searched or looked for them.

And best-practice shepherding..

So, the Good shepherd does 7 things:

1.      takes care of the flock.  

2.      strengthens the weak.

3.      heals the ill.

4.      binds up the injured.

5.      brings back the strays

6.      searches and looks for the lost.

O and not only that but

7.      gathers in sheep not of this flock (in other words all are welcome regardless of who the insiders think is worthy).

With room for others not like us..

Psalm 22 is very familiar to us: The Lord is my Shepherd; there is nothing I shall want ….’.  And in the prophecy of Isaiah there are a number of references to the role of a loving shepherd (Isaiah 40:11 and 56:8). We note that Isaiah (40:11) speaks of the Lord tending ‘his flock like a shepherd:’ as ‘he gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart’. He ‘gently leads those that have young’. It is a matter of overwhelming loving kindness (hesed in Hebrew), gentleness and inviting. And, in 56:8 of Isaiah, there is mention of still others ‘besides those already gathered’. John 10:16 with its reference to ‘other sheep that are not of this sheepfold’ who will brought along and who ‘will listen to my voice’ so that ‘there shall be one flock and one shepherd.’ The Johannine vision of a united world and a single love uniting all peoples and uniting one another to the source of life, love and unity runs through that entire gospel from start to finish (John 17:20-22). God calls not just the religiously inclined or ritually pure elect but everyone – everyone.

And it is over to us..

We have a sure foundation in Jesus who cares for each of us deeply and continuously as a mother does for a new born baby and as a dying person does for those whom we have loved.  But, if we recognise the light and the life of God in the gentle, kind and inviting voice and face of Jesus who is the Face of God (another take on ‘Son of God’) then we, too, can be a gentle, kind and inviting voice and face for others who seek life and light.  We can chose to radiate kindness if we want and if we are serious about doing so.