The Sheepfold and the Voice of the Shepherd

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Stone sheepfold John 10:22-30 Recently my boys have been spending a great deal of time outside in the area that will soon be transformed into our garden. They spend endless hours digging in the dirt for worms. They then promptly take those worms and throw them to the chickens. It amazes me how even chickens can learn to recognize sounds or voices. My oldest makes this funny high-pitched sound when he comes out of the house and heads toward the coop. The chickens practically fall over themselves running toward the fence or out of the coop when they hear him making his sound. They know there is food to follow! In Sunday's Gospel Jesus tells us that, "My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me." and "I am the gate for the sheep." Today, again, Jesus mentions that His sheep know His voice and follow Him.  In these few verses we learn that Jesus is both gate and shepherd for the sheep. In those days and even today in some places, a sheepfold w
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Is Jesus simply your Bread King?

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Mark 8:14-21

I read this Gospel early this morning but I have had to wrestle with for quite some time. Every free moment I would come back to the passage in my mind and wonder what it meant. I thought that I should know what Jesus is saying even if the apostles didn't because I have 2000 years of hindsight and scholarship to lean on. Sadly though, the commentaries I have on hand gave me no satisfaction. I read the passage again and felt just as dumb as before. Bread, leaven, multiplication? What does this mean? It was not until I remembered one of my key rules for reading Scripture - read in context - did things begin to clear up.

In yesterday's Gospel reading, which is Mark 8:11-13, Jesus refuses to work a miracle for the Pharisees. He refused to work a miracle because they refused to recognize the miracles He had already performed. Today Jesus warns the disciples not to fall into the same temptation.

Here we find Jesus and His followers out on a boat with one loaf of bread. Just as I would do, they probably began thinking, "hey, this is not going to feed us, but maybe Jesus could whip up some more so we'll all have some." When Jesus finds that they are thinking this way He warns them about being like the Pharisees. Maybe the disciples have been tainted by the leaven of the Pharisees and Herod, and become puffed up thinking God will work a miracle for them because they are close to Him.

This passage could have ended wonderfully here but the disciples revert to base ideas and we can rightly assume that perhaps they doubted that Jesus could work that miracle. Their conclusion that "it was because they had no bread" points to a doubt on their part that Jesus is capable of working another miracle of multiplying bread. They, like many today, probably started believing the stories of the disbelievers that the multiplication of the loaves and fishes was merely a time of sharing - that the crowd already had those items and merely shared them!?

If this is truly the way the apostles are thinking it is no wonder that Jesus lays into them with full force. He reminds them of the miracles He worked. He reminds them that they saw with their own eyes, heard with their own ears, and even collected the leftovers! He brings those events to life in their mind with the hope of dispelling the doubt that the enemy has instilled.

This Gospel can show us that if we are not constantly staying close to Christ and keeping our eyes open, even the miracles we have witnessed with our own eyes will begin to fade. We too may become like Herod or the Pharisees treating Jesus not as the Savior but a magician, not as the King of our lives but the Bread King.

How to make this a great Lent.

Here are some great Lenten reading suggestions for this year!


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