“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. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, 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. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.” Jesus used this figure of speech, but the Pharisees did not understand what he was telling them.
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. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.
“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.” - John 10:1-18
An important aspect of being Jesus' disciple is following him. And in order to follow him, we must be able to know what he is saying right now, in this situation. We can't be going back to look up this situation in the text book, because this situation's moment will pass and our failure to decide is a decision in and of itself. And the situation may not exist in the text book, so we need to listen for fresh instructions from the author of the text book. But how to listen, among the many voices that compete for our attention?
We must be attuned to the shepherd's voice. Not through some mystical connection per se, but through long trusting experience with the shepherd.
When picking up my children from an event, our ears could help us quickly echo locate our child within the crowd because we had devoted many hours attending to them. In the same way, long hours of devoted attention and even a bit of trial and error with Jesus allows us to pick out his voice from the crowd. We can with integrity say, "That doesn't sound like something Jesus would say."
He is leading us to good pastures. He is defending against the wolf and the thief. He put himself in the most shameful and humble of situations for us, because we are his.
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