EASTER 4

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

SEASON: EASTER 4
PROPER: C
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: May 6, 2001

TEXT: John 10:2-33 Good Shepherd Sunday
“My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish.”

ISSUE: While American culture resists images of being sheep and like their father’s because of our infatuation with individualism and self-sufficiency, the reality is that the world is often like sheep without a shepherd. Jesus, at one with the Father, is the Good (Noble) Shepherd. In unity with him we shall never be snatched away from meaningful lives. We are also giving the nobility to become in union and shepherds with Jesus Christ.
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The Fourth Sunday of Easter, the half way mark through the Easter Season, is widely known as Good Shepherd Sunday. In today’s Gospel from John, there is that desperate question asked by the Judeans of Jesus, “If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly?” Jesus responds in two ways. He is in union with his Father, which should testify to who he is, and he is like a Shepherd whose people, like sheep, hear and know the voice of the Shepherd. He gives the image of a great protector of his own.
In the modern world we may notice that there is a kind of dissatisfaction or at least a discomfort with these images or metaphors of who Jesus is in the Messianic role. In our culture, we are resistant to images like that of sheep, because we think of sheep as part of a flock, not very bright and easily led. We are much more comfortable with being self-made men and women. We embrace our individualism. We no longer even live in a culture where young men become what their fathers were or are. Independence, individuality, and being self-made with ability to take care of ourselves are important values for us. The concept of Jesus as Good Shepherd is for us somewhat maudlin, sentimental. Thus, there is a certain distancing ourselves from that kind of image of the Messiah. We are uncomfortable with the need of being saved. “Saved from what?” Some skeptics say mockingly.
It is extraordinarily important that as Christians we work at appreciating what is at the heart of seeing Jesus, the Messiah, as being at one with the Father, God, and what he meant be being a Shepherd to a flock of sheep. Let me interject here that even in Jesus’ time, Shepherds did not have a particularly good and honorable status. Shepherds crossed boundaries and trespassed on other people’s lands. They were often thought to be thieves. They did not stay at home at nights to protect their women and families. Thus, in Jesus’ time, shepherds were not seen as honorable men. But do keep in mind how Jesus often reversed and redeemed certain images and matters of the culture.
Let’s consider what it meant to be a good son. Boys grew up in their early years close to their mother’s apron strings. Once, they reached puberty, they then left their mother’s and were trained by their father’s in the ways of the world. They were often severely disciplined. The Hebrew book of religious instruction, Proverbs 13:24, talks about not sparing the rod: “If you don’t punish your son, you don’t love him. If you do love him, you correct him.” Sons were called to strict obedience, and they were not to cry, but to accept punishments stoically. Notice how at the crucifixion, Jesus remains silent, which makes his death most honorable as a well trained and obedient son of God the Father. He is strong, faithful, and devoted as a servant son of the Father. He stands tall like a Good Son, like a Good Shepherd. He is messianic in this sense, an obedient Son of God.
Now while in Jesus’ time, shepherds had a bad image, that was not so in the Old Testament, Hebrew Scriptures. Great leaders often had an association with shepherding. Moses became a shepherd and was called by God out of the burning bush to be servant to set the Israelites free from bondage. David was a shepherd boy who is selected by God to be a strong uniting King over Israel. Subsequent Kings of Israel and Judah were seen as Shepherds of the nation. They were thought of as good and noble shepherds. In the prophet Ezekiel, however, the kings and leaders of the Israelites, failing in their noble calling, are seen as bad shepherds who treated the poor of the nation with contempt and injustice. “You drink the milk, wear clothes made from the wool, and kill and eat the finest sheep. You have not taken care of the weak ones, healed the ones that are sick, bandaged the one that are hurt, brought back the ones that wandered off, or looked for the ones that were lost. Instead you treated them cruelly.” (Ezek 34:4f) . . . . “I, the Sovereign Lord, tell you that I myself will look for my sheep and take care of them in the same was as a shepherd takes care of his sheep that are scattered and are brought together again. I will bring them back from all the places where they are scattered on that dark disastrous day.” Ezek. 34:11). Jesus is seen as that fulfillment of Ezekiel. He is God come among his people, to reclaim and redeem all that is lost. In this sense Jesus is the Good, the Noble, the Beautiful Shepherd of God the Father who is the great protector and restorer of justice and dignity to the people of God.
In the Hebrew book of the Prophet Isaiah, there are several Suffering Servant passages, one of which uses the image of the sheep. The Suffering Servant of is the one who though “He was treated harshly, but endured it humbly; he never said a word. Like a lamb about to be slaughtered, like a sheep about to be sheared, he never said a word.” The meaning here is that the Servant of God, a Suffering Servant of God, is noble and honorable. Those who endure the suffering of the world and take it without complaint are the noble sheep and lambs of God. Jesus, then, is the noble Shepherd, the noble and honorable lamb of God. Jesus is referred to as the Lamb of God as well as the Good Shepherd. In the reading this morning from Revelation 7:9-17, it is written that the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” Jesus is Messiah, Suffering Servant, Son of the Father, and both the Lamb and Shepherd of God. The life and ministry of Jesus Christ restores dignity and honor to all of these images. He is the faithful Son. He is the Suffering Servant. He is The Good Shepherd. He is the lamb of God.
Again, my good people, notice that the imagery here when understood in the context of time, culture, and scripture is not maudlin, sentimental, cute. It is imagery of strength conviction, faithfulness, obedience, profound compassionate love, restoration, redemption, and it is about the development of a community of sheep under the direction of the Good Shepherd.
One of the great stories from the Gospel of John comes near the end of that Gospel in the few last verses of the last chapter (21:15-19). It is that scene where finally Jesus confronts Peter who had denied him. Jesus says to him: “Do you love me . . .” And Peter replies affirmatively, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” To which Jesus responds, “Take care of my lambs.” Jesus asks Peter two more times, “Simon, Son of John, do you love me?” Peter assures him that he does. And Jesus responds, “Take care of my sheep.” “Take care of my sheep.” Now Peter once a follower, a called and valued sheep himself, a man of dignity, is raised up as a shepherd himself in a calling to be a Servant with Christ.
The imagery and the metaphors in this passage and understanding of Jesus as the Messianic Good Shepherd are not sentimental saccharine images. They are the realities of our lives. While we enjoy and cherish our being self-made men and women, and so individualistic, the reality is that we are not self-made. We are God-made and are part of a unique family and community of God. We are called to be servants with dignity, in union with Christ’s Messiahship, and both lambs and shepherds in a unified flock or community that addresses the human needs of the world. We live in a world where there is loneliness, people in need, cruelty and injustice. We live in a world where there are many lost sheep, or lost persons whose sense of the right, the good, the lovely, and beautiful have been skewed by the world’s trends, fads, and philosophies. Yet we see the people, the sheep of God through Christ’s eyes of dignity, and embrace the challenge to do our part in the community and family of God. In union with Christ, the Good Shepherd, we see not sentimentality, but the noble honorable calling to be the sheep of his pasture and the healing shepherds of his flocks.