My son once said to me, “Mom! You can’t yell from the stands at my basketball games!” When I asked why he replied, “Because I can hear you!” Now, trust me, I was not nearly the loudest person yelling from the stands in basketball, but what he meant, I think, was that he recognized my voice in the midst of all the chaotic noise and it was difficult to tune out my mom voice.
I was substituting in a class for my daughter later and noticed this same phenomenon. While doing an activity that required everyone to be talking at once, if I focused, I could pick out my daughter’s voice and hear when she had finished discussing and knew therefore when to move on.
In John 10, a group of Jews come to Jesus and ask him to tell them plainly if He is the Christ. His reply was that they had been told and His works were witness of who He was, but they would not believe because they were not His sheep. Then He explained, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” (John 10:27)
My son could hear my voice in a crowd, and I could pick out my daughter’s voice in a noisy setting because we know and love each other so well. These voices are those we hear the most and the sound of those voices have become both familiar and dear.
Isn’t it the same with the Savior’s voice? Those who wanted to discredit Him hadn’t spent much time with Him. Hadn’t listened with their hearts to truly hear His message. Hadn’t become familiar, with the eyes and ears of faith, with His healing, living, saving words. And so, in a crowd of disparate voices and tumultuous noise, they couldn’t (and wouldn’t) hear His voice, were not His followers, His sheep.
To hear His voice we have to listen. It becomes more and more familiar the more time we spend listening to it and the more we come to love Him and His words. It takes focus and intention to filter out the other voices and noise around us, but we can come to recognize His voice through the Spirit, even in a crowd of confusion or distraction. His voice, the voice of the Good Shepherd, always leads His sheep to the best places for them to be. There is great comfort and hope that He ‘knows’ His sheep and will call us back if we stray, will teach us how to be like Him and will encourage us to the safety of the fold with His beloved voice.
