Taboos, Judgment, and Provision: The Ravens and Elijah

Preached at Klamath Falls Friends Church
April 28, 2013

I was driving through Newberg on a side street and came upon what is called “a murder of crows”—6 or 7 dragging a squirrel carcass to the side of the street to enjoy a free meal. Crows are in the same general species as ravens, birds that eat everything and are particularly drawn to carrion.  The crows I drove by illustrated the verse from Job 38: “Who provides food for the raven when the raven’s chicks cry unto God, when they wander for lack of meat?” This question is answered in Psalm 147, which says, “Sing thanksgiving to the Lord, sing praises to God on the harp…he gives food to the beast and to the young ravens which cry.” And then Jesus wraps up this thought by reminding his followers, “Take no thought for your life, don’t worry about food; don’t worry about your body, about what you will clothe yourself in.  Life is more than food and the body more than clothing.  Consider the ravens.  They neither sow nor reap, they have neither bank account nor pantry; and God feeds them.  How much are you different from these birds?”

So the dead squirrel was God’s provision for the crows that day.  And God subtracted one squirrel from the total also, since God pays attention to both sides of the food chain, to prey as well as to predator; God listens to both the vulnerable and the strong.

But that’s not the meat of what I want to talk about.  I’ve been thinking about Elijah in hiding from Ahab and how God sent him meat via Raven.  This story is in 1 Kings 17.  In order to explore its implications, we need some background in ravens.

First, avoiding ravens is a sign of obedience to God.  When God led the Hebrew people out of Egypt and slavery, God provided them with community laws they were to live by, what we call the Mosaic Law. In the Mosaic Law, ravens are unclean animals, ritually taboo.  Here is what the Law says:  The Lord has chosen you specifically; you are set apart from all other nations for the Lord your God.  You shall eat no abominable thing. 

You may eat the cow, the sheep, the goat, the deer, the antelope, the gazelle; every animal that has cloven hooves and chews the cud you may eat. 

Do not eat the camel or the rock badger or any animal that either has cloven hooves but does not chew the cud, or chews the cud but does not have cloven hooves. Do not eat pigs, and don’t even touch their dead bodies. 

You may eat fish with fins and scales; don’t eat anything else that lives in the water.

You may eat clean birds, but none of the raptors, whether eagle or owl, none of the vultures, none of the ravens, none of the fishing birds.  Don’t eat bats or most other things that both creep on the ground and fly. Don’t eat weasels, mice, tortoises, lizards, snails, moles. However, you may eat locusts, beetles, and grasshoppers.

And don’t eat anything that dies on its own.  If you even touch the dead body of an unclean animal, you are also unclean for the rest of the day. You can sell it to foreigners and feed it to outsiders, but don’t eat it yourselves.  You are separated unto the Lord.

Some of the prohibitions may relate to the uses of various animals in the worship of idols. Some may relate to healthfulness. The instruction to sell or give the carcass to a non-Hebrew with no penalty for the Hebrew seller or the non-Hebrew buyer (and eventual eater) suggests that these dietary restrictions help identify the Hebrews as set apart from other nations, as peculiar in every sense of the world. 

Even though the actual translations of the Hebrew words may include animals that are no longer around or that we don’t understand, these instructions are quite clear.

Second, ravens are signs of the judgment of God.  Isaiah 34 depicts God saying, I will bring my sword upon Edom and judge them for their quarrel with Israel, and the slaughter will be great… the raven shall dwell in this land.  In Proverbs 30:17, the result of mocking one’s father and despising one’s mother is that one’s eyes are plucked out by the ravens.  This likely means that dishonoring parents bends one’s steps toward death rather than life.  In both cases, the ravens are present to clean up the carrion.

So two things about ravens as background to Elijah’s story:

The Hebrews are forbidden from eating them; eating ravens is abominable. Even touching a dead raven makes a Hebrew unclean.

And ravens show up when sin has resulted in death.

So here in 1 Kings 17 is the story of Elijah and the ravens. King Ahab married the pagan princess Jezebel from Sidon and built an altar to her god Baal and angered the Lord more than any king before him.  Elijah stood before King Ahab and prophesied that God would withhold rain from Israel because of Ahab’s sins.  Then Elijah took off for the wilderness.  We pick up where God hides him by a brook and sends him meat by ravens.

“And the ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and in the evening, and he drank of the brook.  When the brook dried up, God said to him, Go into the land of Sidon and live in Zarephath.  I have told a widow there to take care of you.”

What an interesting story, full of challenges to the ways we think God ought to obey the rules.  First, God’s own prophet lives from day to day on unclean food, food brought him by unclean birds, meat that may well be from an unclean animal, certainly one that died “on its own.” (See Lev. 7:24, 17:15.) Elijah leans into the provision of God, even though it comes unconventionally, even though God breaks God’s own food purity rules. When he goes to Sidon and lives in the house of the widow, all the food she prepares is likewise unclean because she herself as a non-Hebrew is unclean. Yet Elijah eats it.

This reminds me of two other moments in the interaction of God and God’s messengers:  the priest and prophet Ezekiel cried out in pain when God told him to cook his food over a fire fueled by human excrement, saying, “I have never broken your laws; please don’t make me do this.”  (See Deut 14:3, 23:13.) God lessened the sting by allowing Ezekiel to burn animal dung instead.  Yet what God asked of him was still outside the laws governing priests.  The other moment is the vision of Peter when a sheet of unclean animals was lowered from heaven and God said three times, “Peter, kill and eat.” Peter’s argument with God ended with God saying, “What God has called clean, let no one call unclean.”

Jesus said this about the good news he came to bring.  John 3:  You must be born anew, born of the Spirit who, like the wind, blows wherever the Spirit wants to blow, descends on whomever the Spirit chooses, and distributes gifts as God wills, not according to rules.  You must worship in that Spirit and in your own spirit and in truth—actual worship that looks like the way Jesus worshiped—by listening to God our Father and doing what God says to do each day, each moment.  Where you worship is irrelevant because God’s Spirit, God’s Truth, God who is Truth, is everywhere. 

The founders of the Quaker movement among Christians witnessed to this by simply recording the gifts of ministry among them.  This witness allows God to choose, to gift, to pour out God’s spirit on young and old, men and women, Jew and Gentile, slave and free.  God provides all we need and has more where that came from.  There is no scarcity in God’s love or God’s Spirit.  Our boxes and restrictions ought not to be applied to things that are God’s prerogative to choose, not only because we are out of line when we do this, but because God looks on the heart and knows what we do not know. 

We can trust God to lead us in the uncertainties we face.  If we don’t know what to do, what is wise, we can ask God, who gives what we need to us liberally—generously and freeingly—without ever scolding us for not knowing in advance. 

The raven, the bird associated with judgment and uncleanness, is also a sign of God’s providence.  As Jesus said, “Take no thought for your life, don’t worry about food; don’t worry about your body, about what you will clothe yourself in.  Life is more than food and the body more than clothing.  Consider the ravens.  They neither sow nor reap, they have neither bank account nor pantry; and God feeds them.  How much are you different from these birds?”

Think about this.  God provides even for ravens, unclean birds, and how much more God will provide for you what you need.  So ask God for wisdom, then be quiet and see what rises in your heart and mind.  Try acting on that in faith that God is being generous to you.  Keep track of what happens.  You will find that you can rely on God in more than a theoretical way, that God actually lives in you and sends you what you need to live a free, whole, redeemed life.

The Graciousness of God: Naaman and Elisha, Cornelius and Peter

Preached at Silverton Friends Church

Feb. 10, 2013

Before I get to the actual sermon, I want to share with you some of my own story.  Growing up Christian, as I did, and as perhaps some of you did, resulted in my getting the Gospel message mixed up with the Christian culture variation I grew up in.  I made God like my parents and other adults I was around, the negative as well as the positive.  I did not have much understanding of the enduring love of God, and how that is a part of God's character, nor of God's grace.  I lived in fear of the Rapture catching me in an imperfect state.  I feared God would abandon me for mysterious reasons.  

Because God is love, God began tutoring me about how God loves when I was in my teens, a rebellious and sincere spiritual seeker.  God met me at various times, never insisting I be all perfect first.  And a few years ago, when I was so angry at God for messing up my life, I was in church during our time of silent waiting, and I heard God say, "Look at me." Just like a little kid, I kept my head down in sulky anger.  I felt God take my chin and tip up my head and God looked into my eyes, and I saw nothing in God's eyes except love.  This is what I want everyone I know to experience.  God loves me, God loves you, even if or when we don't like it. 

When I took this denominational job, God placed these words of Jesus in front of me: "Come to me, all you who labor and are carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke on you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in my spirit, and your souls will find rest.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." When I have found the load heavy, I try to off-load it onto Jesus because of this promise of partnership and because Jesus is strong and smart. Jesus wants to partner with each one of us.

The two stories that caught me as I prepared for today’s sermon were the story of Naaman and Elisha and the story of Cornelius and Peter.  One from the Old Testament, one from the New.  Listen to the stories in a slightly free-range version, and then later you can read them in 2 Kings 5 and Acts 10.  To be sure, there are some differences, but those seem minor compared to the liberating and grace-filled similarities.

Naaman was the commander of the Syrian forces, which at this time were successful in battle against Israel.  He took prisoners, and one of those, a young girl, became a slave in his house.  Naaman also had the skin disease the Bible calls leprosy, which is different from what we call leprosy today.  It was a disease that disfigured people by turning parts of their skin white and was believed by Israelites to be an outward sign of a failure to care for others’ needs and share their hurts—gossip, murder, stinginess, theft, pride.  The little Israelite girl said to Naaman’s wife, “If the master were in Israel, he could go to the prophet Elisha and be healed of his leprosy.”  Naaman’s wife told Naaman, he told the king of Syria, and the king said, “Go to Israel and tell their king I want you to be healed.”

Naaman took some gifts with him, entered Israel and told the king there that the king of Syria wanted Naaman healed.  The king of Israel was scared and suspicious: “He just wants to pick a fight with us so he can invade us again.”  He was so upset he tore his clothes apart.

But Elisha, the prophet of God, heard about the problem and sent a message to the king of Israel.  “Send Naaman on over to me.  He’ll find out there is indeed a God to be respected in Israel.”

Naaman journeyed to where Elisha lived.  Elisha sent his servant out to meet the Syrian captain.  “My master Elisha says that you should go wash yourself seven times in the Jordan River and you will be healed.”

Naaman was so offended.  “The prophet won’t even come talk to me himself?  The nerve!  And to wash in the Jordan?  That river is filthy, not like the sparkling waters of my rivers back home in Syria.”  He turned around and started home, angry and disappointed.

Some of his followers came to him, probably cautiously, and said, “Sir, if the prophet had asked you to undertake a dangerous and difficult quest in order to be healed, wouldn’t you have tried it?  Why not try this easy thing?  What could it hurt?”

Naaman saw the sense of this.  He drove to the Jordan River, walked into the water, and washed himself seven times.  When he came up after the seventh, his skin was clear of leprosy, as unblemished as a baby’s.  “Now I know that there is no other God in all the world except Israel’s God,” he said.  “I will never worship any other God.” He went back to thank Elisha, who came out to meet him this time.  “Let me give you a thank you gift,” he said.  “No need,” said Elisha.  “Then do me one more kindness,” said Naaman.  “Let me take dirt from Israel so that I can build an altar to your God on it and worship only your God from this day on.  But please ask the Lord to forgive me for my duty to my king—entering the temple of the Syrian god Rimmon and bowing down; I will have to bow down also.  May God forgive me for this.”  “Go in peace,” replied Elisha.

Notice these things:  Naaman was a political enemy of Israel, and a Gentile.  His healing came about as he was able to humble himself to do a simple task prescribed by one of the lowly Israelites.  The healing was free—an example of God’s graciousness. Naaman was convinced on the spot of the supremacy of God and declared himself a convert from that moment on.  He went home to his job and family and resumed his duties, again covered by the graciousness of God.  He is a sign of the inclusive mission of God to reconcile the whole world to God’s self, and implicitly a rebuke to those who wanted to keep God local and confined.  As Jesus points out in Luke 4:27, “there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.” This comment maddened the Nazareth folks to the point where they wanted to kill Jesus.

This story focuses on Naaman, the foreigner.  We don’t see much of what Elisha was thinking or how God prepared him for the encounter.

In the New Testament, we do see this preparation in the story of Cornelius the Roman and Peter, Jesus’s disciple.  Acts 10 tells this story, and it is so important, it is retold several times.  I’ll tell it just once.

Once again, the foreigner is a political enemy of Israel, a Roman military officer, part of the occupation forces.  But Cornelius reverenced God, gave to the needy, and prayed regularly. One day he saw an angelic messenger from God, who told him to send for Peter from Joppa.  The angel even gave Cornelius Peter’s street address.  So Cornelius sent three of his people to get Peter.

The next day in Joppa, around noon, Peter went up on the roof to pray.  He became hungry and asked someone for something to eat, but while he was waiting, he too had a message from God.  He saw a sheet full of animals, reptiles, and birds coming down from heaven, and he heard a voice tell him, “Get up, Peter, kill and eat!”

Peter was horrified.  “You know I have never eaten anything unclean.  I can’t do this!”  The voice replied, “Do not call anything unclean that God has made clean.”

This happened three times.  Peter was amazed and wondering what it meant when God’s spirit said to him, “Go downstairs and find the three men who are looking for you.  Don’t hesitate to go with them, for I sent them to you.”

Peter went downstairs and found Cornelius’s messengers.  “I’m the one you’re looking for.  Why have you come?”

They told him about Cornelius and his message from God.  Peter invited them in for the night.  (This was a big deal, by the way, since at least one of these folks was a Roman soldier.)

The next day, Peter and some other believers went to see Cornelius.  The whole family met them along with close friends.  When Peter entered the house, Cornelius bowed down to him, but Peter made him stand up.  “I am only a human,” Peter said.

He addressed the crowd.  “You all know it is against our law for a Jew to associate with a Gentile or visit him. But God has shown me that I should not call any person unclean or impure.  So when I was sent for, I came willingly.  Why am I here?”

Cornelius told him again the story of the heavenly messenger, and how glad he was to see Peter in person.  “Now we are all here in the presence of God to hear what God has to say to us.”

So Peter spoke:  “I now realize how true it is that God doesn’t have favorites.  Instead, if you revere and respect God and do what God says is right, God accepts and welcomes you. So I’ll share what I know about God.  God sent to Israel the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who owns everything. God set Jesus apart and filled him with the Holy Spirit and power to do good and defeat the devil.  God was with him.  I know because I saw this myself.  I also saw Jesus murdered—crucified—and then I saw how God raised Jesus out of death.  Many of us saw the risen Jesus, who sent us out to tell this story and preach that Jesus is appointed and ordained by God to judge the living and the dead.  All the prophets point to him and bear witness that everyone who trusts in Jesus and relies on Him receives forgiveness of sins.  That is the nature and character of Jesus.”

While Peter spoke, the Holy Spirit fell on the Gentiles and they spoke in unknown tongues, just like the Jews earlier at Pentecost. 

Peter’s Jewish companions were surprised by this.  Then Peter asked, “Can anyone forbid taking these folks into full fellowship with us through the ceremony of baptism, seeing that God has graced them just as God graced us with the Holy Spirit?” And no one could.

When Peter went home, he was in trouble with the other Jewish believers, so he told the whole story again (see Acts 11).  “The voice spoke from heaven, ‘Do not call anything unclean that God has made clean.’ So who was I to think I could oppose God.”

Then Jewish believers started preaching to Gentiles, and Gentiles believed, and Barnabas went and got Saul, who became an apostle to the Gentiles, and even later, in Acts 15, Peter stood and again told the story of Cornelius being graced with the gift of the Holy Spirit even prior to baptizing him. Peter said, “God, who knows the heart—the will, the emotions, the imagination—bore witness to their faith by giving them the same Holy Spirit we received.  God made no difference between us and them.  God cleansed them by faith, by their conviction that Jesus came from God, and that by means of Jesus, we are saved for eternity and welcomed into God’s kingdom. Now then, why do you test God’s patience by requiring Gentile believers to come under the law of Moses which neither we nor our ancestors have been able to obey.  We Jews are saved through the grace of our Master and Owner Jesus just as the Gentiles are.”

James stood in agreement and quoted some prophets who pointed to the inclusion of Gentiles. He concluded, “We should not put obstacles in the way of Gentiles who turn to God.  We will ask them to refrain from sexual immorality, from eating food sacrificed to idols, from eating or drinking blood, and from practicing strangulation (a puzzle that may refer to the common practice of infanticide, see David Instone-Brewer's sermons on the web). These four behaviors scandalize Jews, and we want to reach them, too.“

Notice these things:  Cornelius was a political enemy of Israel, and a Gentile.  Unlike Naaman, he was able to humble himself, even bowing to one of the lowly Jews.  The gift of God’s Holy Spirit was free, not requiring any kind of ritual—an example of God’s graciousness. Peter was convinced on the spot of the graciousness of God to all human beings, and declared himself a convert from that moment on.  Peter went home to his fellow Jewish believers and taught them about the graciousness of God.  Cornelius and Peter are signs of the inclusive mission of God to reconcile the whole world to God’s self, and they are an implicit rebuke to those who want to keep God local and confined.  As Jesus points out in John 10:16, “Other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I am commissioned by God to bring with me to God, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one flock, one shepherd.”

We don’t read in the history that the conversion of Naaman had any far-reaching effect on ancient Syria, but we do read that the conversion of Cornelius, and because of him, the convincement of Peter, had an enormous effect.  Christians now understand God through the work God did in the heart of Peter.  Salvation is not through rules but through the graciousness of God.  The law of God’s kingdom is the law of love.  As Micah puts it, “What does God require of us but to do the right thing, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God.” And as Paul says, “The secret is this, Jesus Christ in, beside, and with you, your hope and expectation of glory.”

Some queries to think about:

How can I exemplify to those inside and outside the church the character and nature of God’s graciousness? 

How have I cleared away barriers so that others can trust and love Jesus?

 How have I imposed my rules on others in ways that are hurtful and ungracious?

Shepherds and Sheep: Ezekiel, Jesus, and Peter

When I was a child, I admired my mother for reading the Bible through every single year.  She had and has a simple method:  three chapters every weekday and five on Sunday.  Starting around third grade, I tried this.  Usually I got bogged down in the Leviticus/Numbers area and then pulled up my socks and caught up.  I was really grateful that Psalm 119 was preceded by Psalm 118.  And I learned to love the Bible for its vivid, gritty realism and the complex and coherent picture of God’s love for human beings.

One of the books I had trouble getting through, I have to say, was the book of Ezekiel.  If you want to explore why that might have been, I invite you to reread it cover to cover, imagining yourself to be around eight or even twelve years old.  It’s a doozy.  So after years of avoiding it, I felt motivated to reread it this summer, and to my surprise, found that Jesus must have loved this book.  A lot of the things Jesus has to say are echoes of the book of Ezekiel.  So today, we’re looking at this one set of echoes, the shepherds and the sheep.

You’ve already thought of the main passages we will look at from the Gospels, and I won’t disappoint you.  We’ll talk about comparisons Jesus made between himself and a shepherd, the parable of the sheep and the goats, and the commands Jesus gave to the cowardly and remorseful Peter after the resurrection.  And then we will see just a bit of how that plays out in the early church. What it means for us will show up along the way.

Ezekiel 34

You shepherds take care of yourselves, but you never tend the sheep. They are weak, sick, wounded, strayed and lost. The sheep are easy prey because there is no shepherd.  I will rescue my sheep from you. I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep and I will find them a place to rest. 

You shepherds are also my sheep. You are fat and strong and healthy while the others are skinny and weak and suffering. You are, in fact, goats. You tread down the good pasture after you’ve eaten; you muddy the water after you have drunk from it; you butt the weak aside and scatter them.

I will judge between sheep and sheep, between sheep and goats.  I will rescue my sheep from you “shepherds.” I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep and I will find them a place to rest.  I will bless my sheep with water, food, safety, home, freedom, fearlessness, and satisfied minds.

John 10

Jesus says, Sheep at rest are in an enclosure with only one opening, and I am that opening.  I am the door into the sheepfold and the door into the pasture.  I am the shepherd who goes in that door and who leads the sheep in and out of the enclosure.  When I call them out of the fold, they follow me, because they are used to my voice and used to doing what I say.  Any individual sheep that goes into my sheepfold goes through me and is my sheep. Anyone who climbs over the wall is avoiding me, and thus is not my sheep and will do the sheep harm.  That interloper wants to steal the sheep away. 

Notice that in both Ezekiel and John that the analogies are not exactly drawn.  God is angry at shepherds, and those shepherds are also sheep.  Jesus is the door, and the one entering by the door for whom someone else opens it, and the true shepherd.  I don’t think we have to worry about reconciling these pictures because each aspect helps us understand something a little different about the truth being taught. 

The judgment in Ezekiel (18, 22, 33) is for disregard of the Law:

• ·      participating in worshiping anything besides God
• ·      having sex with another’s wife or with a menstruating woman
• ·      committing incest, violating family members
• ·      cheating the poor and the foreigner, exploiting the widow and the orphan
• ·      robbing people
• ·      keeping for oneself what people give as security for a loan
• ·      charging high interest when lending money
• ·      ignoring God’s prohibitions against uncleanness
• ·      violating the Sabbath
• ·      thinking that God doesn’t see them
• ·      killing the innocent
• ·      controlling others through fear and magic
• ·      lying, breaking one’s word
• ·      sacrificing children
• ·      dishonoring parents
• ·      disrespecting holy places
• ·      eating meat with the blood in it
• ·      treating those under God’s judgment with scorn

Proverbs 6:16-19 says God hates these things:  a proud (lifted up) eye, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a mind that makes devious plans, feet that hurry to give pain or cause misery, a deceitful witness, and the one who sends strife into families or the community

Positively, then, what does God expect from people in the Old Testament?

• ·      Put God first in everything
• ·      Respect God in heart and in action
• ·      Put what God has said is important first
• ·      Let God be in control rather than trying to control God
• ·      Respect what God has said is holy
• ·      Exercise self-control over sex
• ·      Be generous and fair to the foreigners, the less powerful, and the poor
• ·      Be fairminded in arguments
• ·      Tell the truth
• ·      Be content with what God has given
• 
  

The whole Bible confirms these priorities. 

In John 10, when Jesus uses this language about being the shepherd, this is a clear assertion that Jesus’s authority comes directly from his Father and our Father, and Jesus is competent to judge us and to lead us.

When Jesus judges, as portrayed in the story of the Sheep and the Goats, the judgment sounds very Old Testament, but Jesus particularly zeroes in on how people treat the needy and lost:

When the Son of Man (link to Ezekiel) comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.  He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Then the King will say to those on his right, Come you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.

Then the righteous will answer him, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?

The King will reply, I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these children of my Father, you did for me.

Then he will say to those on his left, Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.

They also will answer, Lord when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?

He will reply, I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me. Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.

This always calls me to serious self-examination.  Have I said no when another human being calls to me for help? Even if the call is voiceless, am I off the hook?  How can I be right with God; how can I be a good sheep? I need daily to listen for the voice of the Good Shepherd, Jesus, and follow Him everywhere he goes, recognizing that every human being is kin to Jesus, even the people I can hardly look at, whose need is so ugly to me I can’t see the person. What I can take to heart is that Jesus is the one I need to practice listening to and Jesus is the one I need to obey. 

Jesus says more about what God expects in Matthew 5 and 6:

You are the salt of the earth.  But if you are not flavoring the world, how can you be made more salty?  You might as well be fine sand.  You are the light of the world, like a city on a hill or a lamp.  You can’t hide a hill city and no one hides a lit lamp under a bowl.  Instead, they put it in a prominent place where it can give light to everyone in a house.  Similarly, behave well so that your light shines in your world and people will praise God for you.

I haven’t come to abolish the Law and the Prophets, but to fulfill them.  Anyone who breaks the least of the commands and teaches others to do so will be least in the kingdom of heaven, but anyone who practices and teaches these commands will be great in the kingdom of heaven.  You have to be more righteous than the professionally righteous people around in order to enter the kingdom of heaven. 

Not only can you not murder someone, you also must not hold another person in contempt because of being angry with that person.  You can’t offer a gift acceptable to God with contempt for another person in your heart.  God will be sure your heart is right, so cooperate as quickly as you can.

Not only can you not commit adultery, you must not indulge lustful fantasies about another person.  Don’t think you can blame your body for this—if that’s what you think, you should be blinding yourselves or cutting off body parts to prevent yourselves from sinning. 

Not only must you be formal about divorce, but you cannot just casually walk in and out of marriage because it is legal to do so.  This is the same as committing adultery.

Not only must you be truthful when you invoke the Lord’s name to vouch for you, you must be truthful whether or not God is your witness.  You should simply say what is so.  Otherwise you’re covering something up.

Not only must you limit revenge to the harm done you, but you must be generous with those who harm you or want something from you.

Not only must you love your neighbor, but you must love your enemy and pray for those who make your life unpleasant.

Try being more like God, your Father, who sends sunshine and rain to both evil and good people.  Extend your love to all.

In Ezekiel, John, and Matthew , the authority to judge is clear.  God is the judge to whom shepherds are responsible, and the shepherd to whom sheep are accountable.  And in Ezek. 7, God warns the people, “I will judge you in the same way you have judged others.” This sounds a lot like Jesus in Matt. 7: “Don’t judge, so you won’t be judged, because you will be judged in the same way you judge.”   

All of us have a judge who sees into each of our hearts, and to whom each of us is accountable for our actions and our thoughts. 

When I am living each day waiting for the Good Shepherd to lead me out of the enclosure and into the pasture, listening for that familiar voice and doing what it says, I am so focused on Jesus that I do not even notice how good I’m being when I do what Jesus says.  No self-approval, no approval by others, just obedience. If I’m at peace with Jesus and peace rules my heart, I’m not likely to spend much time judging others.  I will be able to speak even hard things to them out of a loving relationship that makes it possible for them to hear me.

And finally, the remorseful Peter and what happened to him. Peter said I will die for you, Jesus, and Jesus said you think so, but you will deny me instead; Satan wants to sift you like wheat but I have prayed for your faith not to fail and that after your conversion you will strengthen the others.  So in John 21, Jesus three times commissions Peter with feeding and taking care of Jesus’s sheep, those who know his voice and follow him. 

And what happened through Peter in the early church?  Peter saw the pigs in a blanket and God told him to kill these unclean animals and eat them.  Peter said, “I have never eaten anything forbidden by the Law as unclean.” And God said, “If God has cleansed it, it’s clean; don’t call it unclean.” And thus God’s Spirit made clear that the Good News is for Gentiles, for all unclean peoples, as well as for those born or converted to Judaism.  Peter met with the Roman Cornelius, and he said these words, “I perceive it is true that God is no respecter of persons; but in every nation the person who fears God and obeys what he knows is right is accepted by God.  God sent Jesus to preach peace to Israel, anointed Jesus with the Holy Ghost and with power; Jesus went around doing good, healing all oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.  We saw all these things, and we saw the Jews kill him and hang him on a tree, and we saw how God raised him up and showed him openly to us.  We ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.  He commanded us to preach that he is the one God appointed and empowered to judge the living and the dead.  All the prophets point to him, saying that through his authority, character, and actions, all who entrust themselves to him shall be set free from their sins.”

So to take away from this: 

Jesus is our shepherd and we are the sheep. Jesus will find us a place to rest.  Jesus will bless us with water, food, safety, home, freedom, fearlessness, and satisfied minds. Jesus expects us to bless others with the same things as much as we can. Jesus expects us to listen and obey; that’s what defines us as his followers.  Jesus sends us to find those seeking for God, even among groups we try to stay away from, and Jesus expects us to recognize and affirm God’s work in the seekers’ hearts. And then we can share the good news about Jesus and how we ourselves have found him to be our daily shepherd and teacher. And when, as 1 Peter 5:4 says, the chief Shepherd appears, we will receive a crown of glory that will never fade away.  What could be better than that?