Richard Mallory
Dear friends with Christ,
In John’s gospel, Jesus recognizes his disciples as friends. He bestows upon them their new status. The term “friends” suggests equality, mutuality and belonging.
In this Sunday’s gospel reading, we get the first half of John 10, where we get the Parable of the Good Shepherd. Jesus uses images most familiar to the people of his time, sheep, ,the dangers to the sheep, the sheepfold with its gate and the shepherd.
All of this becomes a symbol for the human journey through this life and for the importance of himself as the guide.
Danger surfaces when ill intended leaders “climb in another way” instead of entering “by the gate.” These “thieves and bandits” are predators who seek to use, manipulate and extrapolate for their own egoic and selfish purposes. The Greek word for thief, kleptes(from which we derive our word “kleptomaniac”) refers to a person who steals by craft and fraud, while the word translated as “bandit” is from the Greek lestes and refers to a person who robs by violent acts. These false leaders would lead the sheep to their ruin as well as themselves. False leaders desecrate, corrupt and spoil whatever they may be leading. They are both sadistic and masochistic. Other destruction and self-destruction.
The late John Sanford, Episcopal priest and Jungian analyst, in his Mystical Christianity, A Psychological Commentary on the Gospel of John, notes that “sheep may not be very bright, but they are bright enough on the instinctual level to know the voice of their shepherd…”
He points to a non-rational capacity in humans that can recognize the true from the false. That capacity can be blunted if not obliterated through participation in cults where questioning the leader is not tolerated, and violators are banished and shunned.
To follow a false leader is tempting because he will promise anything and everything to his potential victims. As people get lured in, they will project the depths of their very beings upon “the one who promises everything.” By handing over oneself to the “thief” or “bandit,” one escapes the burden and agency of developing one’s own uniqueness. In a sense, people then merge into a mega mass of a crowd and sometimes a mob. The hard work of becoming gets forfeited. The leader is made into an idol and the Bible tells us where idolatry gets us.
In this section, Jesus is the gate and later is the shepherd. Knowing the right portal for entering into life matters. Where one spends one’s time and energy matters. He says, “I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved…” The question always arises with this word “save.” Saved from what? Saved for what? All of us could have a very rich discussion and sharing at this point. For me, I am saved from all that would be destructive, compromising or merely the dumbing down of Life itself, settling for scraps instead of the abundant Life that Christ has come to give. I am saved from having to be a loner, a solitary denizen instead of finding companions, colleagues, brothers and sisters who also desire to press onwards, into and towards the great mystery which is the Christ. This is called the Beloved Community where hierarchy is flattened and all belong and are welcomed.
When he was saying “good-bye” to those closest to him, he called them “friends.”
You can be a friend of Jesus. You can allow Jesus to be your friend. You can accept his offer. You can let him be both a friend and leader of your life.
—Richard