[Jesus said], “The gatekeeper opens the gate for [the shepherd], and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. Therefore Jesus said again, Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me—just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.” The Jews who heard these words were again divided.

–John 10.3-4, 7-10, 14-19 (NIV)

In today’s passage from John’s Gospel, Jesus is laying out what is necessary for us to be good Kingdom workers (shepherds). He is reminding us that before we can embody his Presence to his broken and hurting world, we first need to be fed by him. Anything else will simply fail.

I have heard many critics of Christianity use Jesus’ metaphors in today’s passage as a basis to blast Christians as mindless idiots. Sheep, they remind us, are quite stupid and therefore Jesus must be urging us to be mindless in our following of him. But Jesus is using a metaphor that would have been quite familiar to the audience of his day. He isn’t urging us to be mindless followers. How could the One who tells us to love God, in part, with all of our mind, turn around and urge us to act mindlessly?

No, in fact if we are going to recognize Jesus’ voice amongst the many claimant voices that strive for our attention, we must be prepared to use our minds so that we can better listen for and recognize his voice. How do we do that? One of the surest and best ways to do learn to recognize Jesus’ voice is to begin to read Scripture in a holistic and systematic way. Don’t “skip and dip,” reading short passages here and there in the Bible, willy-nilly, and not understanding the broader context of which they are a part. No, read Scripture holistically. Understand God’s intention for creating his good world and how human sin marred it and got us separated from God. Then read the entire biblical narrative to learn about God’s rescue plan, about God’s eternal plan to rescue humans from their self-imposed exile. Learn how God called his people Israel to be agents of his redemptive work but how Israel became part of the problem rather than part of the solution. Then read about how God’s rescue plan culminated in his Messiah, Jesus, and how through Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension God has given us a preview of his coming Final Attraction–New Creation that will be fully implemented when our Lord returns in great power and glory. When you learn as a whole the biblical narrative of God’s rescue plan that culminates in Jesus, you will be in a much better position to recognize Jesus’ voice, both in Scripture and in the midst of the cacophony of your own daily life.

For you see, when you are able to recognize the Master’s voice, you have his promise that you will find his peace when you choose to follow him. As he reminds us elsewhere, and as he demonstrated for us through his own life and death, that entails you denying yourself, taking up your cross each day, and following him. If you really want to find peace, real peace, the peace of God that passes all understanding, you will have to follow Jesus where he leads you. When you do, he promises that you will live life to its fullest, the way God created you to live it. But here’s the catch. As our Lord reminds us today, you will never experience life to its fullest unless you take the plunge and follow Jesus, really follow Jesus by seeking to imitate him in the entirety of your life, wherever he leads you. Wherever that is, you can have confidence that there you will find real pasture (peace, contentment, fulfillment, and meaning and purpose for living). Anything else is bound to fail you. Yes, you may have to suffer for Jesus’ sake and Christian discipleship is hard and costly. But it is the only way you will ever find true happiness in this life. As countless saints can testify, following Jesus is the hardest thing you will ever come to love to do.

And when you do find the peace of Christ and have daily communion with him, as you listen to his voice in Scripture, in prayer, in fellowship with other Christians, and in the Eucharist, you will discover that you are now equipped to be a shepherd to others. To be sure, we could interpret Jesus’ words here as a message to ordained ministers. But as Peter reminds us in his first epistle, we who follow Jesus are a royal priesthood. In other words, everyone who follows Jesus is called to be his Kingdom worker, to help him bring about the New Creation God inaugurated at Jesus’ resurrection. But here’s the thing. We cannot feed others unless we are first fed by our Lord. Action without a relationship with Jesus turns into various forms of futile activism. A relationship with our Lord without attendant action turns into navel gazing and neither will do if we ever intend to take our relationship with Jesus seriously.

So what does this have to do with the season of Lent? Just this. During this time of intense self-examination and denial, of confession and repentance, of prayer and fasting, we cleanse ourselves, by the power of the Spirit, so that we are ready to listen for Jesus’ voice and make more room in ourselves for the Spirit to live in us. If you have not already done so, now is the time to commit to reading God’s rescue plan holistically and systematically. That means you need to get a good reading plan and a helpful commentary to assist you in your reading.

If you are not willing to do this, you will end up cheating yourself (and ultimately others) out of understanding the terrible predicament of the human condition and of knowing the mind-blowing love and mercy of God. You will miss the opportunity to understand the Big Picture of God’s rescue plan and how you are called to be part of it. And you likely will miss hearing the real voice of your Lord reaching out to you. You will be more prone to follow false voices or voices of your own making because we humans have a wonderful propensity to get it wrong as often as we get it right.

As Jesus reminds us in today’s passage, we have work to do–his work. But before we can do that, we must first be fed by him so that we are equipped to be his Kingdom workers. It will be hard work and costly to us. We must be willing to follow instead of lead, at least when it comes to our relationship with Jesus. But if we say yes to his gracious invitation to us to live, if we are willing to follow him into the pasture he leads us, we will find joy, meaning, peace, and contentment that will be beyond our ability to describe fully, and we will find our heart’s content.

Our Lord is calling you. Are you willing to listen? May God’s grace grant you the ability to say yes.