Sermon on John 10:1-30
Pastor Jennifer Garcia
“How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.”
Just looking at this story, it might sound like there are some Jewish people at the Temple who are curious about Jesus and want to remove their doubts about him.
In this case, and pretty much whenever the Gospel of John talks about
“the Jews,” it means the Jewish religious authorities—the Pharisees, the scribes, the elders.
And again, it might sound like these religious leaders are earnestly asking Jesus to confirm his identity so that they can believe in him.
If that’s the case, then Jesus’ response sounds pretty harsh: “you do not believe because you do not belong to my sheep.”
It might sound like they’re dealing with doubts and that Jesus is being downright mean.
Doubt has kind of a bad reputation in church.
Sometimes we get the message that to be secure in our faith, to be “good” Christians, we have to know all the answers, we can’t have questions, and we can’t wonder if things we’ve been taught aren’t true or aren’t the whole story.
So, sometimes we slap a smile on our faces, answer every “how are you?” with “fine!” and swallow the questions that are sticking in our throats.
We think:
· Maybe if we have doubts, it means our faith isn’t strong enough.
· Maybe if we ask too many questions, people will wonder if we’re really “Christian enough.”
· Maybe if we’re honest about our misgivings, God might say to us, “you do not believe because you do not belong to my sheep.”
That’s a heavy and terrifying load to bear.
But we can find examples of doubt from Jesus’ own disciples in the Easter stories.
Jesus’ disciples hid after Jesus’ death. They were afraid of suffering the same fate as Jesus if the authorities found them.
Then, Jesus appears to them—all except poor Thomas.
Thomas missed out on seeing Jesus and was so grief-stricken that he couldn’t muster enough hope to believe his friends when they told him they had seen Jesus. He told them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.” (John 20:25)
And thus, he got the reputation of being “Doubting Thomas.”
But, Jesus made a special appearance again to the disciples, not to tell Thomas, “You do not believe because you do not belong to my sheep. ”No. Jesus made a special appearance to the disciples just so that Thomas could touch him.
And then, there’s Peter.
· Peter, who denied not just being a follower of Jesus, but denied knowing him at all.
· Peter, who did this not just once, but three times in a single night.
· Peter, who swore up and down that he would die for Jesus.
When the resurrected Jesus appeared to the disciples on the beach in last week’s Gospel reading, he didn’t tell Peter, “You do not believe because you do not belong to my sheep.”
No. Jesus asked Peter three times if he loved him, giving Peter the chance to tell him, “Yes, I love you.” Jesus gave Peter the opportunity to make amends for what he had done, and together, they repaired their relationship.
Jesus’ own disciples show us that there is room in our faith tradition for doubt. Our doubts do not disqualify us
· from following Jesus,
· from being in relationship with the Holy Spirit,
· or from being loved by our loving Shepherd who is Father, Mother, and so much more to us.
So, why did Jesus tell the religious leaders, “You do not believe because you do not belong to my sheep”?
Their request doesn’t sound that different from the doubts of Thomas or Peter: “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.”
But what looks like doubt in this story at first glance is not doubt.
They were looking for proof, or more accurately, evidence.
The Pharisees, the scribes, the elders were invested in keeping their institution free of people like Jesus: a popular, but unconventional, rabbi who might start trouble. If we’re being charitable, we can say they wanted to protect the orthodoxy of their religious practice. If we’re being less charitable, we might say that they wanted to protect their power.
Either way, the religious leaders wanted a simple yes or no answer from Jesus about whether he was the Messiah. Not because they earnestly wanted to follow him if he said he was, but so that they could get him to either undermine his own authority or say something that would get him arrested.
And, as usual, Jesus wouldn’t play their games.
He wasn’t barring people with genuine curiosity from his sheepfold. He was making sure he’d be able to care for his sheep a bit longer.
And after his resurrection and he was preparing for his ascension, when he would no longer be physically present on earth with us, he made sure someone would be looking after his sheep.
Each time after Peter affirmed that he did love Jesus, Jesus told him: “Feed my lambs,” “tend my sheep,” and “feed my sheep.” (John 21:15-17)
Jesus was entrusting Peter, who in his fear and doubt had denied Jesus,—Jesus entrusted the care of his people to Peter, doubts, failings, and all.
Jesus didn’t give Peter a list of truths to affirm—a creed of beliefs to assent to. He simply asked Peter if he loved him. And then, he gave him the responsibility to care for others.
Just as Jesus told the religious authorities that they should have known he was the Messiah by looking at what he had been doing, Jesus gave his followers a charge to care for others—an act that would let people know they were followers of Jesus. He also, on the night before he died, instructed his disciples to love one another, because “by this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:35)
Jesus was concerned with how people treated others, not whether they had doubts or questions.
So, if you have doubts or questions or frustrations about faith, you are in good company—with Peter and Thomas and me and so many of the Psalms and pretty much, if not absolutely, everybody who has ever tried to follow Jesus.
Doubting is faithful. It means we’re paying attention. It means we’re not settling for what we’re told. It means we’re thinking critically and that we’re curious. We don’t have questions about things that don’t matter to us.
One of my favorite writers, Madeleine L’Engle, had a lot of thoughts about doubt. Here is one:
“The value of doubt is to keep you open to God’s revelations. If you don’t doubt, you don’t change. You don’t ask questions. You stay stuck wherever you were. If you have to have finite answers to infinite questions, you’re not going to move… Faith is not reasonable. Faith is marvelous.”
May you be blessed and frustrated by infinite questions.
May you never succumb to easy answers.
May you rest in the company of so many other doubting saints and sinners, secure in the hands of our mysterious and loving Shepherd.