As bishops in the Church of England emerge with statements promoting same-sex blessings or marriage in preparation for a change of view for the Church next year, I find it interesting that they point the faithful to relevant Biblical texts that uncover the truth despite their misuse of the texts. Two weeks earlier we had the bishop of Oxford, Stephen Croft, try to apply Jesus’ comment about knowing a tree by its fruit (Matthew 7.15-23) to the alleged ‘good fruit’ that comes from homosexual partnerships.[1] Jesus’ statement was actually about false prophets who misguide people by urging them to live against God’s will. The passage actually spoke rather well to the misguidance the bishop of Oxford was giving as a false prophet teaching against Biblical sexuality and marriage.
Now we have the statement by the
bishop of Southwark that obliquely references only a single Biblical text, but
a relevant one for orthodox Christians.
Bishop Christopher Chessun’s concern is for the Church to be a ‘safe
place for all,’ meaning an inclusion of opposing views on sexuality and
marriage.[2] (One is awkwardly reminiscent of Paul’s call,
in regard to the man openly living in sin with his father’s wife, for the
church to deliver him over to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, 1
Corinthians 5.5, or the danger of guilt and punishment by God for those
partaking of the Lord’s Table unworthily, 1 Corinthians 11.27.) Divergent views are acceptable in the Church
because, Bishop Chessun avers, views on sexuality are not pertinent to the
Church’s mission.[3] (Again, awkwardly, one is reminded that our
calling as God’s people entails not being conformed to the passions of our
former ignorance but being holy in all our conduct, 1 Peter 1.14-15.) For the Church to make a clear and definitive
statement on what it believes about marriage—something it has actually done
since the beginning—would be wrong, he insists:
It is not a
Bishop’s job to stifle the work of the Holy Spirit - and shutting down good,
healthy and prayerful conversations is a sure sign that the Spirit, who
enlightens our God-given reason, is being silenced.
Apparently, the Spirit is now the
Spirit of good conversation despite what He said about sexuality and marriage
in the Scripture He inspired, and apparently He is no longer involved in
sanctification, empowering believers to live holy lives. For Bishop Chessun, the end goal for the
Church is for it to be ‘a welcoming and safe place for all, somewhere [where] all
can flourish without fear of discrimination or prejudice.’ He then offers his single Scriptural musing,
‘Anything less falls short of the abundant life Christ came to bestow (John 10.
10).’
In John 10.10, Jesus says, ‘I came
that they [His sheep] may have life and have it abundantly.’ This statement comes in His metaphor
about the good shepherd, his sheep, and the thieves that climb over the wall to
steal the sheep. The passage is very
relevant, but not in the way that Bishop Chessun hoped, for when we look into
it we realise that the passage applies to false teaching from overseers of the
people of God.
To see this, we can first look at
John 10 and then at the Old Testament allusions that Jesus has in mind. John 10 uses the metaphor of the shepherd to
say several things:
·
Jesus is the door to the sheepfold—there is no
other entryway than Him (vv. 7, 9; cf. v. 2)
·
Thieves—those not entering by Jesus the
door—climb over the wall and try to steal, kill, and destroy the sheep (v. 10)
·
The sheep only listen to the Shepherd’s voice,
not to others trying to steal them; He knows them, and they know Him (vv. 14)
·
The Good Shepherd lays His life down for the
sheep, but the hired hand runs away when the wolf comes and leaves the sheep to
be caught or scattered (vv. 11-12)
·
Jesus also has other sheep to bring into the
fold so that there might be one flock and one Shepherd (v. 16)
·
The Jews who do not accept that Jesus is the
Christ are not among His sheep (v. 26)
·
Jesus gives His sheep eternal life, and they
will not be snatched from His or His Father’s hand (vv. 28-29)
In these points, Jesus makes
clear distinctions that speak against a blanket inclusiveness for overseers or
for sheep. The thieves and wolves are
enemies of the sheep. Also, while some
sheep that are excluded will be included, others who think themselves to be
included are excluded. The criterion separating
the two is devotion to Christ expressed as ‘hearing’ His voice. Bluntly put, the sheepfold is not made up of
sheep who follow the voice of the thief or who spend their blessed days in
bleating about their sexual diversity but who listen to the voice of
Jesus. Later, Jesus will say, ‘You are
my friends if you do what I command you’ (John 15.14). Jesus, fulfilling the hope of a New Covenant
whereby God’s people will once again obey His commandments, is calling Israel
back to obedience to God. The
commandments of God, written in the Old Testament, are equally what God the Son
commands.
The Old Testament allusions in
this passage to the shepherds of Israel back up several of Jesus’ points. One is Ezekiel 34, in which Ezekiel
prophesies against the false shepherds of Israel who do not feed the sheep but
devour, fail to help, and scatter the sheep.
They mistreated the sheep, did not go after those who were scattered,
and they left them as prey to the wild beasts.
Over against these false shepherds of Israel, God promises to bring back
the scattered sheep, bind the injured and strengthen the weak, and destroy the
fat and strong who fed on them. God
says, ‘I will feed [the sheep] in justice’ (v. 16). If we want to understand what Jesus means in
John 10.10 by His coming to give the sheep abundant life, this is what it means. He will do away with the false shepherds,
those thieves of the religious establishment that are destroying the sheep, and
gather, strengthen, and feed them.
The metaphor is expanded in
Ezekiel 34.17-31. God will also ‘judge
between sheep and sheep, between rams and male goats’ (v. 17). Some have trampled the good pasture and
muddied the clear water, so God will judge between the fat and lean sheep. He will also banish the beasts that there
might be a covenant of peace in the land.
He will make His hill a blessing, send showers of blessing in their
season, and the trees and crops will flourish.
Again, the ‘abundant life’ of John 10.10 comes by removing those
muddying the waters and ruining the pastures so that the sheep might feed on
green pastures and drink from pure waters.
The problem of false shepherds is
an image used elsewhere in the Old Testament (Zechariah 10, e.g.). In Jeremiah 3, God promises, after restoring
Israel from idolatry and sexual immorality (‘adultery’), to ‘give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with
knowledge and understanding’ (v. 15).
The shepherd’s role is not to let the sheep eat whatever they want—doctrinal
and moral error—but to find for them pastures of ‘knowledge and
understanding.’ People will no longer
‘stubbornly follow their own evil heart’ (v. 17). Later, Jeremiah says,
Woe to the
shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!” declares the LORD.
2 Therefore thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who
care for my people: “You have scattered my flock and have driven them away, and
you have not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for your evil deeds,
declares the LORD. 3 Then I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the
countries where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold,
and they shall be fruitful and multiply. 4 I will set shepherds over them who
will care for them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall
any be missing, declares the LORD (Jeremiah 23.1-4).
The scattering of the sheep in
these passages has to do with Israel’s exile, but they were exiled by God due
to their sins. The failure of Israel’s
shepherds, then, was the failure to feed the Israelites with the good food of
God’s Law. What they fed the sheep was the
false teaching that caused them to sin and be scattered. To gather the lost sheep back is to bring
them back from exile and teach them God’s commandments. Shepherding is not merely gathering everyone
back together but bringing them out of sin and teaching them God’s ways that
they might be restored to health.
Thus, John 10 is an excellent
text to reference in discussions about the Church of England bishops lining up
to promote teaching that is contrary to God’s Word (or the teaching of the
Church since the New Testament and the Law and the Prophets before then). It not only reminds us that there are
dangerous thieves trying to steal and devour God’s sheep and sheep that need to
be separated from those who truly follow Jesus.
It also reminds us that a good shepherd’s role is to feed the sheep with
the teaching of God. The abundant life
that Jesus offers is not what Bishop Chessun offers, a mixture of truth and
error in eternal conversation. If one
seeks the abundant life, one will find it in listening to the voice of the Good
Shepherd, who has spoken in His Word, and by following Him and Him alone.
[1] Steven Croft, ‘Extend
goods of marriage to all,’ Church
Times (3 Nov., 2022); available online: https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2022/4-november/comment/opinion/extend-goods-of-marriage-to-all (accessed
3 November, 2022). See my response:
Rollin Grams, ‘Oh, That Crafty Bishop Croft of Oxford,’ Bible and Mission Blog (3 November, 2022); available online: https://bibleandmission.blogspot.com/2022/11/oh-that-crafty-bishop-croft-of-oxford.html.
[2] Christopher Chessun, ‘Presidential
Address: Diocesan Synod,’ The Diocese of
Southwark (19 November, 2022); available online: https://anglicanmainstream.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Presidential-Address_Diocesan-Synod_November-2022.pdf.
[3] He says, ‘There are five
marks of mission and not one of them mentions sexuality.’
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