Easter 4
Readings: Revelation 7: 9-17; John 10: 22-30
02/05/04
According to John Stott, a priest and author*, the season between Easter Sunday and
Pentecost is a time to reflect on what he calls “the mighty acts of God in
Christ”, and the mightiest of those is, arguably, the gift of salvation leading to
eternal life which, as Jesus tries to explain to the Jews in today’s gospel reading,
is given to the sheep of his flock.
Jesus uses many analogies of this kind to describe God, his character, his own
relationship with God and God’s gifts to his people. In this case he says that his
own sheep, which have been given to him by God, recognise his voice and follow him. And
these sheep who follow Jesus as their shepherd are given the gift of eternal life, never
to be snatched away.
But what is this gift of eternal life? Who is it for? Where and when does it happen?
St John’s revelation of the “great multitude that no one could count” is
considered by some as a vision of eternal life in Heaven, and many hymns make use of the
imagery of hosts worshipping before the throne of the Lamb. In this vision, the multitude
he refers to is in addition to those chosen from the tribes of Israel, the multitude is
made up of people from “all tribes and peoples and languages”. They all cry out
that salvation belongs to God and to the Lamb, that is, to God and to Jesus. They
acknowledge here that salvation is God’s gift through Jesus’ sacrifice, and this
point is emphasised when the elder tells John “they have washed their robes and made
them white in the blood of the Lamb”. But there is more: Because of Jesus’
sacrifice “they are before the throne of God, and worship him day and night”.
John is told that they will no longer hunger or thirst, they will be protected from the
sun and from scorching heat; that the Lamb, sacrificed for the forgiveness of their sins,
is now, by a divine miracle, their shepherd, who will guide them to springs of the water
of life; and that God will “wipe away every tear from their eyes”. These are
such comforting words to us now, and were especially so at the time of writing, since they
were intended to strengthen the faith of the first Christian communities as they
experienced dreadful persecution. The words create a strong vision of what God has done,
continues to do, and will do at the end of time. To some people, this is what the
afterlife looks like, and this is what we have to look forward to. But is it right to
think of it as something that will happen only after death, or at the end of time?
Recently some doorstep evangelists quoted this very passage to me, saying that God wanted
to “wipe every tear from our eyes” which, of course, I agreed with. But they
then went on to argue that the Kingdom of God was being created by God ‘up
there’ in the heavens where it can’t be marred by the imperfections of this
world. And that seemed to me to fall short of Jesus’ intentions, to put a distance
between us and God’s grace that isn’t actually there, and to make too small a
thing of this life and this world which were, after all, also created by God.
Jesus goes to great lengths to try to explain God’s intentions, through him, for this
world. He uses parables and analogies from the daily lives of his people to explain who he
is, what God is like, what his kingdom is like, and how we can enter his kingdom; he uses
familiar concrete things to explain spiritual things in a way that ordinary people can
understand. In chapter 10 of John’s gospel Jesus uses the idea of a shepherd and his
sheep. However, when a group of Jews complain that he is not speaking plainly he tells
them they do not believe – Jesus knows that no amount of argument or persuasion or
the evidence of miracles will convince people who do not want to believe. He says that
eternal life is given to his sheep, and he identifies his sheep as those who have heard
his voice and followed his call. There is an implication of action in that statement. The
sheep decide to follow the voice of their shepherd and the shepherd promises that none
shall be snatched from his hand. Again, these are comforting words to those who hear,
believe and follow his call.
But this promise that none shall be snatched from his hand could lead to complacency. We
should not see this promise of eternal life as a trust fund to be claimed when we come of
age by dying in this world, or as a voucher to be redeemed at the gates of Heaven. This
idea that the point of life is what comes after, can lead people to undervalue the world
we live in and to overlook the suffering we see in it. ‘Never mind the environment,
God will create a new heaven and a new earth.’ ‘Never mind the poor, the hungry,
the persecuted, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.’ But, in its most extreme form,
this idea of the Kingdom of God as something we go to after death has also been used to
excuse all kinds of recent horrors and acts of violence.
I believe we should, instead, see eternal life as a gift given now, accepted now, and
beginning now, in this world and in this life. Jesus says that eternal life is a gift to
those who hear and follow him. Eternal life involves us in actively following Jesus’
call and living our lives as his flock in this life and in the time we are given. By doing
that to the best of our ability, and with faith in God and his promises, we are creating
the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth.
We, in this church, are a microcosm of that multitude of John’s vision “from all
tribes and peoples and languages”. Many of us have been baptised, a ritual which
represents our acceptance of God’s gift of salvation in Jesus Christ. In baptism we
use water to represent the washing away of our sins by dying and rising to new life in
Christ. We also express our desire to make God’s priorities our priorities. Today we
are gathered here to worship before God. Soon, we will share the bread and wine of Holy
Communion through which we remember that we have been saved by the sacrifice of Jesus for
our sins. And when we leave here our behaviour should reflect this experience of God.
Where we find hunger or thirst or pain, we should look for ways to remedy that, whether
directly or indirectly. We should be as Jesus to one another. We should wipe the tears
from each other’s eyes. And, in that way, we start to live our eternal life by living
the life that Jesus calls us to right here and now.
It is a mystery, difficult to understand and harder to put into action. It is something
that will remain imperfect in this world and this time. But it is a miracle that we can be
confident, through faith that God will perfect in his time and place. And God wants us to
be a part of that work.
* Stott, J (1982) I Believe in Preaching. Hodder & Stoughton: London.