No Bait and Switch with Jesus
A few years ago, an older couple walked into a Chrysler dealership – holding in their hands an ad for a black 2016 Dodge Grand Caravan – brand new – for just $25,998 – a “savings of more than $16,000”.
That’s what the ad said.
But what the ad said and what the salesman showed were completely different. A textbook example of a bait and switch.
The salesman told them that black “brand new” Dodge Grand Caravan had nearly 2,000 miles on it already. It was a show car. The dealership had put those miles on the vehicle – but insisted on calling it “brand new”.
The wife cut to the chase and asked if $25,998 was the full price on the car. The salesman said yes (plus tax, of course).
The woman followed up, “Is that all?”
The salesman replied, “Well, we have a documentation fee of $571 – and that’s on top of the sales price.” That’s quite a lot of money to process paperwork.
The salesman then leaves to go get the paperwork, but comes back in saying that black 2016 Dodge Grand Caravan in the ad had already been sold – but he had a red “brand new” 2016 Dodge Grand Caravan he could sell them that day for the exact same price. And when they went to go check it out, guess how many miles were on that “brand new” car? 3,242 miles – and for the same price as the other car!
That is a bait and switch – where you’re advertised one thing, but you’re given something completely different.
But you don’t have to spend an hour at a car dealership to feel the terrible bite of the bait and switch. You feel the bait and switch when that company promises you that promotion, and then they give it to someone else. Or when those friends who said they’d have your back then leave you high and dry. Or when “the man/woman of your dreams” promises to be faithful, but then has an affair.
We’ll partner with all sorts of people and organizations – only to discover all the dirty details buried in the fine print. And when we live in a sinful, broken, dying world, the bitter examples of bait and switch are endless. It leaves us feeling objectified, doesn’t it? – dehumanized to nothing more than an accessory towards someone else’s gain, a prop in someone else’s play, a pawn in someone else’s game: just a means to their end.
The Casualties of Thieves and Hired Hands
That same kind of bait and switch could be seen at the time of Jesus, too. There was no shortage of bogus ‘ads’ buzzing in the streets of Israel.
You had your political movements, radical groups, fanatics, and “false messiahs”.
They all advertised that they had the absolute answers to life’s biggest questions – that their view or their system is what gives life meaning and purpose – that they held the secrets to true peace, hope, and happiness.
One of those groups was the Pharisees. They advertised that they knew the way of salvation – how to be right with God and have a life of meaning and purpose, filled with peace, hope, and happiness.
But their teachings didn’t give life. They robbed people of it.
Where God, in his Word, said that his love for us is unconditional, the Pharisees made it conditional – saying God’s love for us is contingent on how well we can keep God’s commandments.
Where God said his love for us is undeserved, the Pharisees taught Israel’s geography and genealogies put them closer to God’s heart.
They redirected people away from God’s unilateral promises and gave them one to-do list after another.
They circumvented people away from Jesus, God’s promised Savior of the world, and that robbed people of the comfort of the gospel.
So, Jesus calls them out, and compares these false teachers to thieves and robbers seeking to “steal, kill, and destroy” sheep.
That’s how Jesus illustrates them in John 10:1-9.
But in John 10:11-18, Jesus illustrates these false Jewish teachers as ‘hired hands’ paid to watch sheep.
Shepherding was a dangerous business. Not only were there thieves and robbers, but there were wild animals prowling around looking for something to devour. A devoted shepherd was ready to lay down his life for the sheep – because he loved them.
But a hired hand’s conviction didn’t run that deep: for him, shepherding was just a job. If a wolf came, the hired hand would clock out and save his own skin! He won’t die for the sheep. He would rather let the sheep die.
And now we can see the connection between these two comparisons – between the picture of hired hands abandoning the sheep, and the picture of thieves seeking to steal, kill, and destroy the sheep.
Thieves see the sheep as prey; the hired hands see the sheep as a paycheck; neither of them really care about the sheep. To them, the sheep are nothing more than a means to an end. So, it comes as no surprise that, under the ‘care’ of thieves and hired hands, the sheep are manipulated, malnourished, mistreated, or worse.
These comparisons are two pictures of the same profile – the profile of every pusher and peddler of false spiritual teaching. The slogans they sing might sound catchy, and the ‘deals’ they advertise might look incredibly attractive; but any sheep that bites is in for a brutal bait and switch.
The Bait and Switch of Atheism
The salesmen of atheism advertise that there is no god; you define what’s right and wrong, what’s good and evil; you don’t need God for your life to have meaning, value, and purpose. But apart from a divine, personal Creator, what makes me – a cosmic accident of nature – so special?
If I’m nothing more than a machine for propagating DNA, then why does our world talk as if we were intentionally and wonderfully made for so much more? How can I say that words like “good” and “evil”, “right” and “wrong” are relative – not absolute – but then demand absolute justice when a police officer kneels on the neck of a 46-year-old man? Atheism advertises a world without God; what atheism actually offers you, to quote atheist Bertrand Russell, is a life built on the foundation of “unyielding despair”.
The Bait and Switch of Manmade Religion
But a worldview without a god isn’t the only bag of goods on the market. We see hundreds of religions that worship gods of human imagination.
We find belief systems spun in anecdotal subjectivity: a guy has a ‘secret vision’, he records said vision, and starts a religion; they discourage you from investigating it or interrogating it; you’re told not to ask questions, just accept it as fact.
They’ll preoccupy your mind with one to-do-list after another – to-do-lists for how you can get right with God and have a life of meaning and purpose, filled with peace, hope, and happiness.
The common thread with these religions is that it all boils down to you.
Your deliverance, your asceticism, your success, your forgiveness, your rightness with God is completely contingent on your performance, your submission, your introspection, your obedience, your devotion, or your faithfulness.
And that’s when we feel the bite of the bait and switch: if I look for confidence before God in myself, I will never find it.
Such worldviews don’t give people life: they rob people of it.
The Bait and Switch of the Religion of ‘Me’
But I don’t need to look very far to hear the voice of a spiritual charlatan – because there’s one that lives in my heart, and yours, too: our sinful nature.
Our sinful nature sees nothing wrong with saying “me first.”
It sees nothing wrong with objectifying people in my life.
It’s not a big deal if you lie or bend the truth.
It’s okay to compromise conviction for the sake of fitting in.
It’s okay to be impatient, to bear a grudge, to be unloving towards those around you.
It’s perfectly fine to be disrespectful.
It’s no big deal if you gossip or damage people’s reputation.
My sinful nature advertises a religion of ‘me’, where it’s all about my image, my ego, my success, my popularity, and my happiness.
So, we wander off, like sheep gone astray. And then comes the bait and switch.
The ‘sheep-stealers’ show themselves for who they truly are; the ‘hired hands’ crumble under pressure and dissolve when danger comes; those greener pastures are just as gritty as the rest of the best this world has to offer.
And we’re left feeling guilty, broken, afraid, and hopeless.
No Bait and Switch with Jesus
But when the emptiness of this world would chew you up and spit you out, your Savior came to heal your hurt and fix your brokenness.
When our reckless, wayward living would leave us feeling tangled by guilt and shame, Jesus came to set us free and guide us on safe paths of righteousness.
When you feel dejected and downtrodden, when you don’t know how you’re going to get through the next month, the next week, or the next day, your Savior picks you up and carries you through it.
When you feel lost and afraid, he reminds you that you’re not alone and he walks in front of you to lead the way.
You’re not just a number in Jesus’ flock. He knows you by name! And he’s dedicated to bringing you – not just safely through the hardships of this life – but safely bring you home to heaven.
Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep… “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.”
When thieves and hired hands would see sheep as a means to an end, the Good Shepherd sees sheep as an end of themselves.
Where our sinful world would seek to take from us, Jesus has come to give us life, and life to the full.
When sin, death, and hell showed its fangs, our Good Shepherd didn’t run away: he laid down his life for the sheep.
Our God and Shepherd would face off against the wolves of this world by dying on a cross! And that Good Shepherd rose from the dead! The wolves of death and hell have lost!
There’s no bait and switch with Jesus, your Good Shepherd. He’s the superlative Shepherd. Every sheep who hears his voice in faith will live!
Your Savior is the shepherd who leaves the 99 to look for the lost 1.
He’s the shepherd who walks with the sheep through the valley of the shadow of death.
Only Jesus, the Good Shepherd, can fill our lives with meaning and purpose. Only Jesus, our Savior, could free us from the fear of sin, death, and Satan. Only Jesus, the Good Shepherd, can give us reason to rejoice always. Only Jesus, the Good Shepherd can give peace that lasts forever. And when your life on earth is done, the Good Shepherd will carry you home.
No bait and switch. Believe it.