Easter 4 - Good Shepherd Sunday

May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)

SEASON: Easter 4 - Good Shepherd Sunday
PROPER: B
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: May 14, 2000


TEXT: John 10:11-16 - “I am the Good Shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not won the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away - and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.”

ISSUE: - Jesus is the Good (Beautiful) Shepherd.. He is sacrificial in that he lays down his life for his sheep. He is not concerned for a select group but for all people in need of a leader. He is the world’s unifying presence of God. As Christians who have The Good Shepherd we are also called upon to share in leadership and concern for a world which knows much evil. Like Peter who is often seen as a hireling, he becomes transformed and called upon to feed the lambs.
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This is the Sunday after Easter that we refer to as Good Shepherd Sunday. It is surely one of the truly beautiful and poetic sections of John’s account of the Gospel. One of the things we have to be careful about when we deal with this Good Shepherd passage is that we don’t over sentimentalize it, and treat it in too saccharin of a way. We have to understand the passage in terms of what it meant to the people who first heard John and the very early church refer to Jesus as The Good Shepherd. Again, let me reiterate, that John’s Gospel was the last of the Gospels to be written. It is not likely that Jesus went around referring to himself as The Good Shepherd. It is more likely that is was the very earliest of Christians that gave Jesus that title. It was as if Jesus, his life and ministry, was likened to being a Good Shepherd that gave his life for his friends. While the Good Shepherd passage is not an Easter resurrection story, it is a post-resurrection development of the early church.
The Good Shepherd imagery was deeply rooted in the Hebrew Scriptures. The 23rd Psalm is one very familiar passage. In Isaiah it is written, “He (God) will take care of his flock like a Shepherd and carry them in his arms. In a very important passage from Ezekiel 34:15f, the leaders of Israel often failed miserably in caring for the people, and so Ezekiel writes of God, “I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will find them a place to rest. I will look for those that are lost, bring back those that wander off, bandage those that are hurt, and heal those that are sick; but those that are fat and strong I will destroy because I am a shepherd who does what is right.” The early church envisioned the sacrificial work and ministry of Jesus as God, the Good Shepherd who had come to his people.
The work of a shepherd was not easy. Stained Glass windows sometimes distort the image. The shepherd carried a sling, a rod, and a staff to protect himself as well as his sheep. Shepherds in this period had to contend with very hot days, and very cold nights. They lived outside away from the comforts of their homes and families. They dealt regularly with robbers and poachers. Threat from wild beasts and wolves were far greater in that period then they are today. In the wilderness places they lived in fear of invisible evil spirits and demons. Shepherding was in that time a very high risk occupation. Protecting the flock was not easy and not to be sentimentalized. The point of the passage is that Jesus dealt with many wolves in his ministry, the agitators, the Judean leadership, the Romans, the detractors of his ministry, from the evils that diminished the dignity and worth of God’s people. Yet he was seen as the sacrificing shepherd who willing was ready to lay down his life for God’s people. Jesus is the image of God who has come to protect and to save his people. The Good Shepherd image gives way to Jesus becoming The Lamb of God, who gives his life that all may know abundant life, life with God’s gracious love and forgiveness, and renewal.
The Good Shepherd passage, while it deals surely with the element of sacrifice on Jesus’ part, also deal with the importance of leadership in the church. When John’s Gospel account was being written, there were many problems for the early church. Eyewitnesses to Jesus life and ministry had all but died off. The early church was really struggling to maintain its faithfulness to Jesus Christ. Jerusalem had been destroyed by the Romans. There were heretical developments within the church that contradicted some of Jesus’ own teachings by groups that became known as gnostics. They were incorporating and mixing pagan beliefs and mythologies with Christ’s teachings. The church was facing persecution. There were threat from without and within the church community. Wolves, thieves, and robbers were within the church as well as on the outside. There was a real struggle to keep the true faith and commitment to Jesus Christ as pure as possible. Thus, John is holding up to the light and in the forefront: Jesus is the Christ. He is the sacrificial Saviour of the world. Jesus is the Good Shepherd. Keep focused on that image. Faithful people will listen to his voice, know his voice, know what he says and is about and will study that voice which is the word of God. They will remain faithful to God’s Good Shepherd. There is much more yet to be done. There are more sheep that are beyond the fold that need to be brought in so that there will be one flock and one shepherd. John emphasizes that there is still a great mission to be accomplished.
If people, disciples, early Christians are not going to be faithful to the Good Shepherd, then they are nothing more than hirelings, who abandon the sheep in need and the cause of Christ’s ministry of love, nurturing, caring, and concern for God’s world. John’s gospel here is a desperate plea for faithfulness, and for people to look to the Christ as the model of devoted unflinching leadership in a cruel and vicious world.
John’s Gospel account is one which is very rich in meaning, if not subtlety. In John’s Gospel there is a vivid hireling that is depicted. It is Peter. In the synoptic Gospels (Matt., Mark, Luke) Peter is usually seen as the hero of the group, and leader of the pack, even though he is sometimes portrayed as blustering and incompetent. In John’s Gospel for the most part the leading disciple is not Peter, but an un-named disciple referred to as The Beloved Disciple. Peter is seen in John’s Gospel as the hireling, he is the one who runs away.
At one point, Peter claims that Jesus is “the one who has the words that give eternal life.” (6:67-69) “And now we believe and know that you are the Holy One who has come from God.” It is a real confession of who Jesus is, Lord and God’s Shepherd.
At the Last Supper in John’s Gospel, Jesus determines to was his disciples feet (13:1f). In this action, Jesus is caring for and claiming his own in a most intimate way. Peter is reluctant to participate in this ritual which is clearly a kind of baptism taking place. Peter does not understand, although he finally and slowly consents to the washing.
But only shortly thereafter in the Gospel, Peter is seen as running away, as one who is not strong in leadership and a fellow shepherd with Christ. Once difficulty comes and Jesus is about to be crucified, Peter is seen as taking flight. He distances himself from the movement. For instance, in John’s Gospel, the noble shepherd enters by the door, through the gate (10:2). However, when Jesus is arrested and being tried before the High Priest, Peter remains outside the gate (18:15), while the other (the Beloved Disciple?), went inside the palace.
The noble and Good Shepherd knows his sheep by their names. In John’s Gospel (18:17), when Peter is finally led inside the gate by the other ( the Beloved Disciple), the girl at the gate says, “Aren’t you also one of his disciples?” And Peter replies, “No I am not. . . . (meaning: I don’t know him. I don’t identify with him. I don’t know his name of voice)”
It is after the crucifixion and resurrection in John’s Gospel, that Peter is transformed. Finally, the Risen Christ appears to Peter and says, “Peter, do you love me?” And Peter, responds, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you!” (21:15f) And Jesus says to him, “Take care of my sheep. . . . .” and goes on to tell him that it will not be easy.
This Gospel reading tells us today, that Jesus is the Good Shepherd. Have faith in him and learn from him. Can we be transformed as well into be shepherds with Christ in our world. We also have our faith challenged by the secularism of the world. The wolves are there. The drug dealers are ready to snatch our children away. There are competing so called trendy “new age beliefs” and doctrines that would dilute the Christian Faith into nothing more than meaningless self-indulgent moments of meditations. Many Recreation Councils throughout the country have no compulsion about usurping the Sabbath time we use for Christian Education, instruction and worship. The Calvin Klein images, the advertising industry, popular culture depicted on TV has used children and adults in near pornographic images to sell its wares, and to promote a violent way of life that is destructive, demeaning, self-indulgent. The sheep are being led and are going astray to very poor shallow pastures. How cruel and vicious a thing it is to lead people to believe that drugs aren’t dangerous and they simply are a good time that makes you feel good. How unfortunate that we are led to believe that solutions to life are found in violence. How demeaning it is to lead people to believe that indiscriminate casual sex has no consequences. How cruel it is to lead people to think that walking out on one another is a matter of finding one’s happiness and self-indulgent satisfaction. Many of our political leaders, our athletes, our entertainers, even some religious leaders in recent years have been very poor models, very poor shepherds of what is healthy and good.
John’s Gospel proclaimed that Jesus Christ was the Good Shepherd. God himself will be the Shepherd of his people, and we find that, see that, in Jesus Christ. He lived and died and rose again to lead the way to God, to love, to forgiveness, to health and strength, and meaningful life of care and concern for one another. Interestingly, the translation of Good Shepherd from the Greek text of John’s Gospel does not mean that Jesus was merely morally good. It does not mean he was merely a moral leader. It does not mean that what we are called upon to be is good people. Christianity is not merely about being good. The Greek word in Good Shepherd means the beautiful, the noble and gracious (“kalos” not “agothos”) shepherd. The Greek culture in this period saw health and strength as one of the great virtues. Jesus was perceived by the early church as the (Noble) Beautiful Shepherd, the healthy, strong, dedicated, serving, sacrificing, gracious Lord that sought the transformation of the world from sloth, cruel power, and evil into hope, change, renewal, and a gracious servanthood among one another. We are not called upon to be volunteers for Jesus. We are not hirelings. We have a Lord, a good Shepherd who calls us into fellowship with him, that together we might face the world, reach out to the worlds’ human needs, and transform it.