Conforming (phase 2), Who is Jesus? What quality do I long and pray for? - AtaDc (step19), session 3c

(and) the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers. - Jn 10:4b-5

I have written about this concept in different contexts from time to time, and won't revisit those thoughts here, exactly. A few different ones.

It seems to me that we often train ourselves to follow the voice of strangers rather than that of the good shepherd.

In the sense of God's universal love for each of his dear sons and daughters, we are all his sheep. But in another sense, what makes us Jesus' sheep is 1) knowing his voice and 2) following him. That voice gets easily mistaken amid the so-called enlightened thinking of the world, not to mention being drowned out by the shouting of our own leading.

All who came before me are thieves and robbers; but the sheep did not heed them. - Jn 10:8

What sensible sheep Jesus is describing. I'm afraid I have heeded too many thieves and robbers, even while alleging that I desire to follow only my shepherd.

I am the door; if any one enters by me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. - Jn 10:9

I guess when you're God, you're allowed to mix your metaphors. Or in the case of God and metaphors, he is always so much more than we can grasp that even the sum of all "both . . . and . . . "s in the history of human expression cannot begin to allow us to know him fully. In this case, in addition to Jesus being the shepherd whom the sheep follow, he is also the door by which we go in and out of the fold. We must do so, as he leads, going forth to find pasture and (since we are conforming to Christ) to shepherd others, returning to find a safe, restful haven. Only Christ is our way of safe passage into and out from the fold.

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. - Jn 10:10

Now as shepherd once again: Jesus desire for his sheep is a life that we cannot begin to imagine on our own, one which we frequently misunderstand as a life of tranquil undisturbedness. If we are to follow him (Jn 10:4), we must understand that the way of the cross which we often avoid in fear is the only way to abundant, resurrected life.