Acts 9:36-43; Psalm 23; Revelation 7:9-17; John 10:22-30
“How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly!”
My mum had a wealth of wonderful sayings at her fingertips – and I’m sure she was not the only one! Useful phrases that summed up in a few words a world of meaning. One of these was: there’s none so blind as them as cannot see! A saying saved for those instances when something seems perfectly clear to us, but to others? Well, not so clear, and almost wilfully so. The ones who can’t, or won’t, see that repeating an action will not change the outcome, or who wilfully misread information so that it says the opposite of the intended meaning. There is a lot of that about in the media, online, in the world today, people seeing things only through their own lenses, for their own ends, ignoring what the facts say, what is actually happening around them. They refuse to see, to even look, or listen to what is actually said, to what is actually happening. They do not “hear my voice” as Jesus says, but listen to their own, or to the world’s voice echoing around them. There’s none so blind as them as cannot see.
And this is what Jesus seems to be saying in the Gospel today. For goodness’ sake, open your eyes, your ears, your minds and look, listen, understand what is before you: “The works that I do in my Father’s name testify to me,” he says, and you can almost hear the frustration, the exasperation in his voice. For goodness’ sake, open your eyes, ears, minds! What do you see? Good news is brought to the poor; release is proclaimed to the captives; the blind recover their sight; the oppressed go free! The lowly are lifted up and those who are pushed aside, the lowly, weak, women, those on the margins, are brought forward, are brought home. And peace is preached, the love of God is made known to all. Open your eyes: if you have eyes to see and ears to hear, then look and listen! If this isn’t the work of the Messiah, of the chosen one of God, then what are you wanting from God? Look, and you will see that the Father and I are one, says Jesus. There’s none so blind as them as will not see!
And they still choose not to see. They choose to see and hear what they want to hear, the words that suit their worldly ideas and ideals, ones that don’t challenge their perceptions. And they follow the devices and desires of their own hearts, as the Evensong service tells us. “I have told you and you do not believe,” you will not believe, you don’t want to believe, because to believe, to see and hear clearly what Jesus is saying and doing challenges everything. It challenges the ways of the world, the easy way. It means seeing and hearing and then taking up our cross and doing and saying what Jesus does and says. It means being one of the sheep, one of the sheep who “hear his voice”. And being one of the sheep means following the shepherd wherever he leads, knowing that the shepherd will never lead us astray, but he will lead us on the narrow path of faith: of following Christ’s example and obeying his command to love God with all our being and loving our neighbour as ourself: “Loving shepherd, ever near, teach me still thy voice to hear; suffer not my steps to stray from the straight and narrow way.” As one of Jesus’ sheep we are safe, we cannot be taken from him. But as one of his sheep we have, as Richard of Chichester wrote (1), a duty to: know him more clearly, love him more dearly and follow him more nearly, day by day. It means we have to have our eyes open to see as Jesus sees: seeing the needs of all people in the world, speaking out for those who are oppressed, who are made voiceless by the world, who are pushed aside by the powers of this world, and being there with them, among them, for them, even if that discomforts us or those around us. It means standing beside the persecuted, the downtrodden. As we remember VE and VJ , the call of Jesus to see and hear and to follow him is seen in the way people across the world in the Second World War stood up against prejudice, hatred, oppression, violence and worked for peace and reconciliation, so that all, everyone, could and can live in peace and security and hope. And it is in this call to follow him, to be his sheep, that Jesus asks us to step forward and proclaim that yes, we believe, like Peter at Caesarea Philippi, we believe that Jesus is the Messiah: we believe because we have heard his word and have seen his actions in the world, and we will follow him and join in, because he leads us in the right paths, the paths of righteousness, of love, of compassion and of peace. We are called to say: the Lord is my shepherd and we will follow where he leads, be it in green pastures, beside still waters, or with those who walk through the valley of the shadow of death. And as one of his sheep, we will listen to him, we will seek to know him clearly, love him dearly and follow him more nearly: and in the words of Teresa of Avila (2), we will be his body, his hands, his feet, his eyes, his voice, to bring his compassion, his blessing on the world, and to work with him through the Spirit to bring his kingdom, the Kingdom of God, on earth. “Where thou leadest may we go, walking in thy steps below,” and may we always work to bring Christ’s love into the world, lifting up the lowly and oppressed, speaking truth where there is falsehood and lying and deliberate misleading, and may we be inspired by Christ to continue his work amongst those in need, those whom the world rejects and fears. The Lord is our Shepherd, listen to him, see his works, believe and join in with those works and, as Pope Leo XIV said, build bridges not barriers, speaking Christ’s words of peace to a world and to people desperately in need of that love, hope and peace. Amen.
(2) Theresa of Avila, “You are Christ’s Hands”, in Housden R (2009), For Lovers of God Everywhere (Hay House, 2009: p52).