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Then there is the seminary professor, Dr. Sprague. Sprague is clearly in his role in order to build himself up. He doesn’t inspire the same passion that Jake does because he doesn’t speak for something beyond himself at all. He comes off as petty as he uses his power just to show that he does indeed possess that power over Buddy and the other students of the seminary.
I mention these two characters because we all know people like them. There are, thankfully, many Jakes in the world who speak the word of God with such a passion and vigor that you know what they are talking about is beyond all of us, and you know that what they say is true, important, and life changing. These are the kind of people that make us think about our lives and the world in a way that enriches us and those around us.
Dr. Sprague is also a character that we, unfortunately, see in the people around us. These are the people who, at first might seem altruistic. They seem, at first, to have dedicated themselves to a path that is beyond themselves, but when we look closer, we can see that the honors, accolades, and prestige they have built up, or at least tried to build up, have more to do with themselves than with anything else. It is enough to make you feel sorry for these people, but it also does nothing to inspire others to follow them, except maybe those looking for the same kind of glory or who don’t see the full picture of what is going on.
These two characters also represent the two voices we see in our Gospel this morning and in the lesson that permeates throughout today’s Scripture.
In our passage from John, Jesus tells those around Him about the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd is the one whose voice the sheep recognize and respond to. There are also the thieves and bandits who try to enter in by another way. Their voices aren’t recognized by the sheep.
As those sheep in this world, how do we recognize which voice is the Shepherd and which is the thief? We do so by hearing what each has to say. Does the voice point to that which is beyond itself, to Jesus, or does it merely point to itself?
The voice of the Shepherd isn’t about itself. It’s not about amassing power or respect. It is about helping and protecting others.
The voice we are to listen to is the one who tries to help others, especially when doing so is inconvenient to itself, as we see in the sharing of goods presented in Acts of the Apostles.
The voice we are called to listen to is one that helps look out for us in the most dangerous of situations, even in the Valley of the Shadow of Death, as we see in the 23rd Psalm.
The voice to listen to is the one who suffers, not for the things that voice has done wrong, but for those things that were done right which the world does not like. That is what 1 Peter tells us.
It is also what we see in Jesus. Jesus didn’t suffer out of convenience for Himself. Jesus’ very coming into this world was not one of self-satisfaction or aggrandizement. Jesus suffered because He wanted to help bring us back in right relationship with God, and others did not want that to happen without the people going through them first. Jesus suffered not for His own sake, but for our sake. Jesus suffered that through His suffering we could know God again.
The voice of the Shepherd is the voice that doesn’t speak for itself. It speaks for the One True Shepherd, the one Good Shepherd. That voice in the world is one that doesn’t speak on it’s own or for it’s own. That voice speaks for Jesus. That voice is the voice that Jesus speaks through.
That is what makes that voice so powerful, just as the voice of Jake Jefferson is so powerful in Bishop Sloan’s Jabbok. That voice speaks the truths that are not it’s own and that it gets nothing in return for saying. Yet those words are the only ones that can fill the holes inside us and make us whole.
How do we know the voice of the Shepherd? It’s the one that speaks the words of Jesus. It’s the one that would have us not follow itself, but instead the Son of Man who came into this world so long ago so that we all might know God once more. The voice we should listen to is the one that will ultimately say, “Don’t follow me, follow Jesus.”