Towards Life-Flourishing Communities (John 10:1-10)

Over the last two weeks, I was in Australia, Malaysia and Singapore. The first image of abundance appearing in my mind is food. Food in these countries is rich in varieties, and you always have a selection to choose from, provided that you don’t have difficulty in making choices. I tried Hainanese chicken rice in these three countries. What I can say is that the authentic is not necessarily the best. The gospel for today talks about abundance. Jesus said, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10) Definitely, Jesus is not talking about food. Three immediate questions arising from Jesus’ saying are why Jesus talks about abundance, what he means by abundance and how Jesus’ promise of abundant life is relevant to us.

John 10:1-10 does not spell out the context precisely, and we have only symbols of sheep, gate, thief and shepherd. We have no problem in interpreting the symbol of sheep as the people. Who then is the thief pretending to be the shepherd? It may be easy for us to think that the thief represents the religious leaders at the time of Jesus because in the preceding chapter Jesus talks about the spiritual blindness of the Pharisees. This interpretation is possible. But if we accept this interpretation, our focus would be inclined to target pastors and church leaders, whether they are thieves or shepherds. Besides, the idea of abundance would be inclined to be understood spiritually. But is this the interpretation that Jesus wants to address?

Ezekiel 34 is the text which the Johannine author seems to be referring to regarding shepherds. The shepherd in Ezekiel 34 is about the idea of political leadership rather than religious leadership. Besides, the Greek and Roman political traditions presented kings and emperors as good shepherds who foster a life marked by security and abundance for the empire’s subjects. So, Jesus’ description of gate, sheep and shepherd mirrors the role of the emperor as a ruler who keeps secure borders, a warrior who saves the people from attack or economic harm, and a benefactor who offers provision and even abundance (John 10:3, 9). This interpretation does not aim to politicize the Bible. Rather throughout his story, John presents Jesus as an opponent to imperial rule, so much so that he is killed for his opposition to Caesar (John 19:12, 15).

Based on this understanding of the symbol of shepherd, the presentation of Jesus offers a critique of the Roman Empire, which claimed to bring wholeness and wellbeing to society, when its structures actually brought sickness and poverty to most of its subjects. In contrast to Rome, Jesus presents himself as the shepherd who knows the names and the needs of his sheep (John 10:3), gives his own life for the benefit of the sheep (John10: 11) and serves as the gateway to abundance (10:9).

In the light of this socio-political context, there are two possible meanings to Jesus’ promise of giving us abundant life. First, Jesus reminds as well as challenges governments about how far their policies affirm or deny life, flourish or suppress life. For instance, we have to question whether the current asylum seekers’ policy respects human dignity. The Hong Kong government considers that providing asylum speakers with the “minimum” financial support for survival is more than enough, but we don’t agree. Asylum seekers should not be excluded from having an abundant life. This is why KUC has developed a ministry for asylum seekers and challenges the government. Recently, the Labour Department planned to restrict migrant domestic workers from changing their employers within their two year contract. This is a policy based on requests from employers only. It is unfair that employers can terminate a contract with domestic workers within two years, but not vice versa. I mean that if domestic workers terminate the contract, they have to leave Hong Kong. We have to join the petition and say no to this policy. Apart from these two examples, there are a lot of policies and practices where life is discriminated against, suppressed and denied. This is why Jesus calls governments who do not promote life-flourishing thieves.  

Second, Jesus reminds us that no matter how materially we are deprived, our dignity isn’t lost, because God is with us. How is this possible? Let me share a story with you. You may know that up until now, about 1800 people have been convicted due to various levels of participation in the 2019 protest. I meet some of them who are interned and they witness to me that their experience of transcendence has not be constrained by losing spatial freedom. A few of them even say that they more or less participate into Jesus’s redemptive suffering. A young man aged 23 came to me last week and shared with me that he probably would be found guilty and sentenced for five years. He said to me, “I will believe in Jesus when I am in prison. I will have more time to think seriously about the meaning of life.” I have promised to send him a Cantonese translation of the Bible. Nelson Mandela who spent twenty seven years in prison wrote, “Even behind prison walls I can see the heavy clouds and the blue sky over the horizon.”

Challenging life-dehumanizing social policy and practice and freeing one's spirituality from the bondage of unfavourable external environments should be understood mutually. Jesus’ promise of abundant life is never a kind of escapism. We always need the empowerment of God in order to be perseverance in naming and confronting injustice, and at the same time, we realise that an abundant life is more than a materialized life and spatial freedom.