The 4th Sunday of Easter - Who is the Good Shepherd?

The next time Bishop Wright comes to visit us and walks down this center aisle carrying that symbol of his office, a crozier or shepherd's crook, you can think—“Ah, it looks as if he does know how to handle that crook.” Yes, he actually herded sheep!  On Tuesday of Holy Week this year Bishop Wright and the clergy gathered for renewal of their vows.  In his sermon he revealed that when he was growing up in Williamsburg, VA, he had a job herding sheep.  He was given this unusual opportunity, because sheep were part of the village life there in colonial times.  He did say that sometimes those sheep were hard to manage!

The passage from John's gospel we heard today comes in the middle of an extended confrontation between Jesus and the religious leaders. On the Sabbath Jesus had healed a man born blind by making a mud paste and anointing the man's eyes.  This action violated the law of doing no work on the Sabbath in order to set the seventh day apart and keep it holy.  The religious leaders questioned Jesus regarding by what authority he had performed this healing, because surely God would not be pleased about—or encourage—such a Sabbath violation.

To answer these leaders Jesus speaks about shepherding in general. Then he lands two verbal blows.  First, he calls himself the gate to the sheepfold.  Then, he says he is the Good Shepherd.  When he uses the phrase “I am,” he automatically signals his identity as God.  This identity comes from how God identifies God's self in the Hebrew scriptures, especially from the passage of Moses and the burning bush.  In the third chapter of Exodus Moses questions God, “If I come to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' what shall I say to them?”  God answers Moses with these words, “I AM WHO I AM.”  God adds that Moses should tell the Israelites, “I AM has sent me to you.”  So when Jesus says, “ I am the gate [of the sheepfold]” or “I am the Good Shepherd,” he joins himself to the name of God.

In using that name, Jesus was accused by the religious leaders of having a demon or of blasphemy.  However, on the other hand, if Jesus spoke truthfully, the religious leaders would have to acknowledge he is the Messiah of God.  This becomes even clearer as this confrontation continues later in the chapter.  The leaders question him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.” Jesus replies, “ The works that I do in my Father's name testify to me . . . The father and I are one.”  That seems fairly clear!

So the passage from the Gospel of John we heard shouldn't be interpreted by comparing God's relationship with us to a shepherd herding sheep—and which of us really wants to be compared to sheep.  Earlier in this account the gospel writer calls Jesus' use of the image of a shepherd as “a figure of speech.” So I believe Jesus called himself the Good Shepherd and told us about this shepherd so we could come to understand who God is.  I believe Jesus is revealing three aspects of God.

First, God through Jesus will protect us when we must face the “wolves” of this world.” I see the wolves in Jesus' parable as those who would seek to destroy our faith in God.  Any temptation to turn from God's ways could indeed “snatch and scatter” us away from the support of our community of faith. Evil can seem more powerful than love.  But if you turn to look to Jesus, you can allow him to protect you from succumbing to any force that would cut you off from God's love.  Spiritual predators may appear attractive, but in the end abiding in God's love will keep you safe.

Then, God reaches out to us hoping to form an intimate relationship.  The disciples who followed Jesus' at the beginning—and we who try to be his followers today—can experience the intimacy of knowing and being known by God—as the deepest possible friendship—friendship with God.  We are known by God through our relationship as a follower of Jesus; and we know God, because we know Jesus.  Jesus' ministry of teaching and of healing speak to how God will seek us to draw us into a close relationship—as close as we will allow.

Finally, for God there is always someone else to seek out and draw into relationship.  The phrase “that do not belong to this fold” implies that God will ignore or break through whatever barriers humanity creates so that we all can experience being one in God.  Yes, God loves unity, but God loves diversity within that unity.

So in the end we can see it won't be helpful to draw parallels between job of sheepherding and what Jesus teaches in this parable.  Rather the question of who the good shepherd really is takes center stage.  And through this figure of speech—the good shepherd—we can come to understand more about God:  God seeks to protect us from spiritual harm; God reaches out to us, wanting to know us and be known by us; and, yes, God embraces not only us, but other people who are not “of our fold.”  Indeed, God desires to draw all people into the divine presence—“So there will be one flock, one shepherd.”

The religious leaders who challenged Jesus were none too happy with what Jesus taught about God.  The question, of course, for them—and for us—centers on whether when we look at Jesus and listen to his teaching, do we see and hear God in Jesus?  The question of who God is becomes a question of faith—do we believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Holy One of God, who shows us God—or not?  If we believe in Jesus, we can have only one response to this parable of the Good Shepherd: to open our hearts to God and to allow God to draw us into relationship.   Do we believe??