More Than a Failure to Communicate John 10:22-30 Dr. Christopher C. F. Chapman First Baptist Church, Raleigh April 17, 2016 Some conflict comes from inadequate communication, or at least is intensified by it, while other conflict is more substantive. In the former realm, years ago Dana and I parked at a restaurant where we were going to eat dinner and she reached over and put her finger through my hair like this. I pulled back, startling her, and then I thought she said, Don t you like your hair behind your ears? to which I replied rather adamantly, No! because I didn t. But apparently what she said was, Don t you like it when I run my fingers through your hair? And I said, No! but I was answering a different question. Nearly thirty years later, the tension has died down over this exchange. We can laugh about it now. We realize we were talking past each other. But at the time, it created conflict, it left us both feeling awkward. Sometimes conflict comes from inadequate communication. Other times conflict is more substantive. Married couples may struggle to communicate, but they may also have more serious concerns like different values, hopes and dreams, levels of commitment. Groups in a community may misunderstand each other, but they may also have more substantive disagreements, different beliefs and values, competing interests and needs. Poor communication may exacerbate problems between nations, but the problems may grow out of cultural differences. So, whether we are talking about a struggling marriage, tension in a community or international conflict, it is helpful to discern how much of the trouble is a function of inadequate communication and how much is more substantive. We may want to say with the Captain in Cool Hand 1
Luke, What we ve got here is failure to communicate! But if there is more to the conflict, we need to engage the more substantive issues. Consider the story we have read from John 10. It is part of a larger narrative wherein Jesus talks about himself as the gate through which the sheep enter the fold and the good shepherd who cares for the sheep. As we join the story, it is time for the festival of the Dedication, Hanukkah, as we know it, a feast that celebrates the Maccabean victory over a part of the Seleucid Empire in 164 BCE. Three years earlier, Antiochus Epiphanes IV had put a statue of Zeus in the holy of holies in the temple. This was referred to as a desolating sacrilege. The temple had to be cleansed, no matter what it took, and what it took was violence. This is the backdrop for our story. So, since the festival context always shapes the narrative in John, we know right from the start that this story will involve conflict. As the festival begins, Jesus walks though the temple. He enters the portico of Solomon and the Jews, John s way of referring to some Jewish leaders who are hostile to Jesus (clearly not all Jews are opposed to Jesus, as all of his disciples are Jewish like him), these leaders surround Jesus and say, How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly. The first part of this is more edgy in the Greek. It might be translated, How long will you keep bothering us? They want an answer to their question is Jesus the Messiah? He says he has told them; they just don t believe him. He has even shown them with his works of mercy and justice. But only his sheep who listen to his voice are able to believe, and they are not his sheep. But has Jesus told them? Has he answered the question they ve asked? John s Jesus is much more open than Mark s Jesus who wants to keep his identity a secret. But if these Jewish leaders are asking if Jesus is the Messiah, what they are asking is whether he is the anointed one who has come to set the people free from oppression, as in political oppression, as in Roman occupation. 2
As we know, this is not what he has come to do, this is not who he is. He redefines the meaning of the term Messiah in a way that is more in line with the suffering servant passages of Isaiah, which people do not connect to the role of Messiah at this time. Jesus could say, Yes, I am the Messiah, but not the Messiah you are expecting, but he doesn t. So, for all practical purposes, he answers a different question than the one they ask. What we ve got is failure to communicate. The question is about running fingers through hair while the answer is about liking hair behind ears. Jesus and the Jewish leaders are talking past each other, they have a communication problem, at least on one level. But on another level their disagreement is more substantive. What they are really asking is who Jesus thinks he is and his answer is more startling than a simple yes to the role of Messiah as they understand it. He is the shepherd of the sheep, one who has come to save all people from all that oppresses him, he and the Father, that is, God, are one! To say these leaders disagree with Jesus is an understatement. To say Jesus assertion creates tension doesn t begin to tell the story. This is the most blasphemous thing Jesus could say! Though we see him as cleansing the temple like the Maccabees, they see him as desecrating it like Antiochus Epiphanes IV. Claiming equality with God?! So, just after our reading ends, these leaders take up stones again to stone him. Again - they have thought about killing him before; they don t follow through, but eventually, the forces that oppose Jesus do. So, whatever else is going on here, there is a lot of tension and conflict, there is a profound and substantive disagreement, there is more than a failure to communicate, much more. We know what this means for Jesus, but what does it mean for us? It means that if we are his followers, we can expect tension and conflict to be part of our experience, even when we are being faithful to our calling; indeed, perhaps most of all, when we are being faithful. 3
And while the conflict may involve inadequate communication, or at least be exacerbated by it, it will involve more substantive issues as well. We tend to proceed as if all will be peaceful if we are doing what we ought and thus, any hint of tension or disagreement is a sign that we have strayed from Divine intent. And Jesus does call us to love each other and to seek peace and harmony. But Jesus meets resistance and not just with people who are not his sheep. His disciples struggle to hear what he has to say and to get along with each other. They argue with Jesus about his predictions of suffering and death, they argue with each other about who sits where, they experience conflict from the very beginning. Why would we assume that things will be different for us? Part of the conflict for Jesus grows out of who he is. He doesn t just teach and heal and try to bring in the reign of God by getting people to follow God s commandments more faithfully. He claims to be someone special, the good shepherd, some kind of Messiah, someone who is one with God. Anyone who hears this claim must agree or disagree. There isn t room for compromise. And where we stand on this question has implications for how we view the rest of his story. Some want to embrace the heart of Jesus teachings without buying into any claims of divinity, but as C. S. Lewis once said, either Jesus is who he says he is or he is a madman. He can't be just a good teacher who exaggerates his identity because such exaggeration would discredit his teachings. Either he is the good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep or he is not. It is a decisive and divisive claim. Some of the conflict is with outsiders to the faith, like the Jewish leaders in today s story. This kind of conflict is not violent or threatening for us, though it can be in other parts of the world, but it is conflict nonetheless. When we encounter people who refuse to accept our claims about Jesus identity, we may try to persuade them with rational arguments or live in such a way that might convince them. Francis of Assisi once said that we should proclaim the Gospel at all times, but only use words when necessary. It is a wise strategy! 4
But in the story we have read from John 10, Jesus tries to convince the Jewish leaders who he is through words and deeds and neither is effective. Some people simply close their ears and minds. They do not listen like sheep to a shepherd, Jesus says. Only his sheep can respond to his voice, which means that it takes a measure of faith to hear and believe. So, we try to persuade others but often they choose not to believe and we experience tension because of who Jesus is. But we also experience conflict with people inside the church because of this question of Jesus identity. We are all Jesus sheep who try to listen to his voice, but none of us listens perfectly. None of us understands all that he is. As there is always more to know about who God is, and thus multiple images are needed to stretch our understanding, there is always more to learn about the identity of Christ, and thus we have differences of opinion. Even if we embrace at some level the basic claims of incarnation, crucifixion and resurrection, how we understand each of these audacious claims can vary immensely and lead to tension between us. This is what early church councils were about, sorting out what we believe about Jesus. Even those whose lives are transformed by him have different views. And though certain basic claims have been established as orthodox, there is still much to ponder. Consider all the books that have been written about Jesus by people inside and outside the church; by Christians, Jews and Muslims; by scholars and lay people. Our understanding of Christ is not fixed, it is still growing, and that is a good thing even if it leaves us open to disagreement. But while part of the conflict for Jesus grows out of who he is, another part grows out of what he does. Jesus does all sorts of things to stir up trouble. He eats with known sinners. He heals on the Sabbath. He turns over the money tables in the temple. He tells stories that point out the deficits of the religious leaders of the day and make it sound like the people with the means to keep the temple running are going to have 5
a difficult time making it to heaven. Jesus says he has come not to do away with the law, but to fulfill it. So, in this way, we might label him a conservative. But everything he does screams for a different label - liberal, progressive, radical! How does all of this go together? In part, he defies all of our labels. But the heart of the matter is this - he believes the purpose of the law is to help people love God and neighbor. So, he preserves this purpose every way he can. Whenever people try to use the law in a way that furthers neither the love of God nor the love of neighbor, he speaks up, no matter who the people are and no matter what the consequences. If Jesus is the one we follow, then not only do we sometimes experience conflict over who Jesus is, we sometimes experience conflict over what he does and thus, what he calls us to do - which is to preserve the teachings of the law, but only when they are being used to increase the love of God and neighbor. It is possible to have different views on how this plays out on issues like immigration, war and peace, religious pluralism and HB2, all of which concern the love of neighbor. People of faith can differ on what Jesus would have them do. But that these issues call for some word from Jesus followers, even at the risk of conflict, cannot be disputed in light of the biblical witness. That there are political implications cannot be used as a rationale for avoidance. Almost everything Jesus says and does has political implications. To strip his story of all things political is to sanitize his life beyond recognition. I have shared with some of you before the words of Dr. William Holmes Borders, as quoted by civil rights leader Fred Shuttlesworth. He said that the book of Acts is an action book. The gospel will get you in trouble; but God will get you out. That s a true statement, Shuttlesworth said, and if you aren t... running over somebody s feeling, making and overcoming enemies, then it s not the gospel (A Fire You Can t Put Out, Andrew M. Manis, 220)." 6
It s not exactly what we teach our children in Sunday School. But it is the truth, the gospel truth. How can a person who claims to follow Jesus see people suffering and in need and fail to speak up when it matters just because there may be different opinions and thus conflict? Conflict comes with the calling. It s part of what comes with baptism. The only word of grace we have in the story is this final word of Jesus that if we are his sheep, nothing can snatch us out of his hand. We may know hardship because of our faithfulness. We may not have an easy path in this life. But nothing can separate us from the love of the Christ who claims us and calls to us to travel this difficult road. Somehow this knowledge makes all the difference. It s what enabled Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to stay on the path of justice that led to his death. It s what empowered Archbishop Oscar Romero to speak out against poverty, injustice and torture in El Salvador until he was killed. It s what led Clarence and Florence Jordan and Martin and Mable England to found an intentional interracial community in Americus, Georgia, and to keep it open through all the threats the Ku Klux Klan hurled their way It s what fueled Mother Teresa s compassion for the poor, even though there were always more poor people. If we are Christ s sheep and we listen to the Good Shepherd s voice and do what he calls us to do, nothing can snatch us out of his loving embrace, not even death itself. What s a little conflict under these conditions? The safest place to be is in Jesus arms. A predecessor of mine in another setting knew this. It was during the civil rights movement and the pastor preached a sermon on the brotherhood of all men. After the service, a prominent member of the church, a political leader in our state, said to the pastor, Preacher, you said something today I don t ever want to hear you say again. You said that n is my brother. I don t ever want to hear you say that again. Well, said the pastor, the way I see it, you have two choices, you can convince me I am wrong, which I don't think you can do, or you can quit 7
coming to church here. The man was taken aback, but he kept coming to church as often as before. I don t know if he changed his views. It was a risky sermon in that day and an even more risky comment. The politician intended to threaten the preacher. He just happened to fear the politician less than he feared God. So, he was willing to live with the tension and conflict. So should we be willing to live. 8