St Mary's

Today Talk from Julie

26th April 2026

When I was pregnant with my first child I was given all sorts of information and some books to read about how babies behave and what to do.  It was very helpful. It would have been more helpful if they had given the books to the baby to read.   Anyway, one of the things that they told me was that I would be able to recognise my baby’s cry amongst all the other babies.  Ok maybe.  They also told me that I would be able to tell what my baby’s cry meant, what he was saying to me: I’m hungry, I’m wet, I’m in pain.  That I didn’t believe – I mean, a cry is a cry isn’t it.  But do you know they were right.  I could recognise his voice in all the other crying babies and eventually even recognise what he was saying to me when he cried - mostly.

We have an incredible ability to recognise voices, we can recognise the voice of someone we know even in a crowd.  We can separate out voices and conversations in a crowded room with all sorts of things going on.

Sheep too, are able to recognise different voices. Jesus said, speaking of the shepherd: “his sheep follow him because they know his voice.”  Both in Jesus time and today, shepherds in Israel do not drive their sheep, they lead them, calling them by name, and the sheep follow. During the day the shepherd would lead them to pasture and at night the sheep would be kept in a sheep fold. Sometimes the fold held only one flock but sometimes there would be several flocks.  Each shepherd would call his own sheep and each sheep would recognise their own shepherd and follow him.

The sheepfold was open to the sky and had an entrance for the sheep to go through but there was no gate.  The shepherd would lie in the doorway, as a gate, to keep the sheep in and predators out.  This is why Jesus said:  “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep.” 

Jesus was speaking to the Pharisees after healing the man who was born blind, on the sabbath, and the Pharisees were not pleased.  They were religious leaders of the day and they were sure that they knew the way to righteousness by obsessively keeping the law.  They felt that they were the ones who knew the way to be right with God. They felt that they were the shepherd of the sheep.

The image of being “the shepherd of the sheep” is ancient. The Old Testament is full images of God as the shepherd and Israel as his sheep.  In Psalm 80 God is called the “Shepherd of Israel” and Psalm 23 says “The Lord is my shepherd.”  When Israel demanded a King like the other nations God gave them Saul, then David and his descendants and they too were known as Israel’s shepherds.  Many of Israel’s kings were not good kings and led their people astray.  In Ezekiel 34 God denounced these false shepherds, accusing them of caring only for themselves and not for the sheep in their charge.  He promised to provide the true shepherd, the Messiah, to care for the sheep, for Israel.

Jesus in this passage is accusing the Pharisees of being false shepherds, “Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber.”  Later he says: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.” He contrasts himself with the Pharisees: “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep.”  “ I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”  Jesus is the true shepherd, the Messiah.

The Pharisees are not the way that people can enter the full life with God, Jesus is.  It is through him that people “have life and have it to the full”.  Through him that they can enter into the sheep fold, the kingdom of God.  It is through Jesus that salvation comes. We enter salvation through the gate that is Jesus not by any other way.  It is through Jesus, and only Jesus, that we “have life and have it to the full”.

In contrast, Jesus warns us that “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy”.  He is warning us against false shepherds.  We belong to Jesus, we are the his flock, the sheep of his pasture and he is our true shepherd.   We know the voice of our shepherd, and it is him that we follow.  If we believe and follow his voice we will receive salvation and have life to the full.  Following the voice of the thief, the false shepherds, does not bring salvation and life to the full because they come “only to steal and kill and destroy”.  Jesus is the true shepherd, his is the voice we need to listen to and follow, not the voices of the false shepherds.

On the whole sheep listen to the voice of their shepherd and follow him.  But sometimes they see something better to eat that distracts them and off they go to eat the delicious grass over there instead of the grass their shepherd leads them to.  And they wander away from the protection of the shepherd and into danger.  We are no different.  We listen to the voice of Jesus and follow him but sometimes we get distracted by other voices and wander off into danger.

Our lives are full of many voices clamouring for our attention, claiming to know what is best for us, telling us who we really are, telling us what we need, telling us what to do.  These voices are loud and we get distracted and too often we listen to at least some of them.  We try our best to follow Jesus, to listen only to his voice but what other voices do we listen to?

We are broken human beings  and something is always calling us and the voice that we listen to is not always that of Jesus.  We are easily distracted and easily led astray by the voices that tell us lies.  The voice that tells us we can have what we want.  Or the voice that tell us we are important and should have our own way. The voice that tells us we need the approval of others. Or the voice that tell us that we are failures, imposters and that we are going to be found out.  Or the voice that tells us something is good for us when it is harmful.

As Christians we are in a constant battle with the world, the flesh and the devil.  We resist them but their voices are persuasive and appealing.  The world tells us we can have what we want when we want it, that we should have the best, that we should have our own way.  It tells us that we can be who we want and do what we want and it’s fine.

Our flesh tells us that we should have an easy life, a comfortable life, the life that we want to have.  It tells us we can change ourselves into who we want to be.  It tells us that we need to be liked and approved of by others.

The devil says the same as the world and the flesh but at the same time lies to us about who we are.  He whispers that actually we are not good enough, we are failures and imposters. We can change ourselves as much as we want but it is not enough and we will be found out. He tells us that we are dependent on ourselves.  He whispers that we are alone, unloved, abandoned and hopeless.

Jesus voice leads us to salvation and life to the full, he leads us to green pastures and still waters but sometimes the way to get there seems difficult, uncomfortable, even painful.  It calls for self-sacrifice, to love others more than ourselves.  It calls us to walk the way of the cross.  But if we want to lie in green pastures, near still waters, to have life to the full then that is the way to walk.  It is the best way. It is the only way.  The only voice to follow to achieve this is that of Jesus.

The world tells us we can be who we want to be but Jesus tells us how to be ourselves, the person God made us to be.  The world tells us that we can change ourselves into who we want to be but Jesus tells us that he changes us into who he wants us to be, which is a much better version of ourselves.  The world tells us to do what we want but Jesus tells us, and shows us, that his way is better.

Our flesh tells us that we should have an easy, comfortable life, the life we want to have. Jesus tells us that our life may, for a while, be difficult and uncomfortable but that he will give us the life we truly want, the full life that only he can give and which is much better than anything we can imagine for ourselves. And he will give us eternal life. Our flesh tells us that we need to be liked and approved of by others.  Jesus tells us that God loves us.

The devil tells us that we are not good enough, that we are failures and imposters  and that we will be found out.  Jesus tells us that we are made in the image of God and that we are beloved children of God.  The devil tells us that we are dependent on ourselves.  He whispers that we are alone, unloved, abandoned and hopeless.  Jesus tells us that we are dependent on God, that we are not alone, God is with us and will never leave us or forsake us. He tells us that we are not unloved but that God loved us so much that he sent his only Son to die for us.  He tells us that we have hope and demonstrated it in his resurrection.

We are all broken human beings who live in a broken world full of voices that harm us.  We want to listen to the voice of Jesus but sometimes the other voices get in the way, they constantly whisper to us and we find ourselves listening and following the wrong voice. These voices often come to us when we are tired, ill, grieving, struggling or suffering in any way.  They come to us in temptation. They come when our resistance is low.  It happens to all of us and it harms us, it leads us into sin.   But Jesus never gives up on us and will come and find us where ever we have strayed to, however far we have gone from him.  He calls us back to himself, back to follow him.  And each time will forgive us and bring us back to the fold.

The shepherd protects his flock from thieves, robbers and predators.  Jesus is no different, he will protect us from the voices that wish to harm us. Each one of us needs to work to recognise the voice or voices that we have a tendency to listen to so that we can work with Jesus to help us learn to ignore it, and to seek his protection from it.

We do that work by studying the Bible so that we can become so familiar with his voice that we can distinguish it easily from the other voices. So that we know how God sees us so that we can silence the other voices with the truth of who we are.  We do that work in prayer with God because it is God who works in us to change us by the power of the Holy Spirit.  We do that work in community, in church: worshiping, learning and working with those around us and supporting each other.  We do it by becoming disciples of Jesus, learning to follow him and to live his way of life, to become more like him. Learning to follow his voice and his voice alone, to walk with him and him alone into life and life to the full.

Amen.