Easter 4 - Jesus the Good Shepherd

JOHN 10: 1-10

It’s fine to talk about “Good Shepherd” Sunday on the fourth Sunday of Easter but most of us in today’s Britain start with the great disadvantage of knowing precious little about shepherds. We rarely see them and the little we know of them probably owes much to the rustic literature of Thomas Hardy and creations of his such as Gabriel Oake in “Far from the Madding Crowd.”

So is this one of those Sunday that we would do well to dispense with? Not quite, in my opinion. For if we explore the metaphor, we find that this is a Sunday that can enrich our understanding of the God we encounter in Jesus Christ.

The image itself is ancient. It can be found as a metaphor as far back as the ancient Egyptian Pharoahs who saw themselves as having royal responsibilities as well as privileges. And these responsibilities included care for the subjects for our word “pastor”comes from the Latin translation. Within Israel, the symbolism can be seen in the shepherd boy David becoming Israel’s greatest King, the same David who is eternally associated with the psalm that begins with those words that have resounded down through the centuries;

“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.”

And now today we are invited to think of Jesus as our shepherd. An image that may help us see something of the meaning of Jesus as our shepherd, comes from Hawaii. The novel “Hawaii” by James Michener tells of an old man who contracts the leprosy that makes him an outcast in that society. His future can only be away from all he cherishes and those whom he holds dear - in the horror of a leper colony. The old man shares his sad news with his family but now his wife offers to become his “kokua.” These “kokuas” are healthy people who willingly commit themselves to accompanying and nursing a leprous patient. In so doing they take on the risk of catching the disease and experiencing the same suffering as those whom they offer themselves to. No wonder that they are asked as they prepare to go aboard the ship that will take them to their new lives;

“Are you sure you know what you’re doing?”

After all to be a “kokua” demands a special level of commitment, commitment that can only come out of love. Jesus, the shepherd, demonstrates just that sort of commitment - the commitment of one who is prepared to sacrifice all out of love for the likes of you and me.

We see such a lifestyle in the Palestinian shepherd who would have shared in all the hardship and dangers of the flock, constantly alert to the dangers of attack. Theirs was a way of life that left them on the margins of society, unclean when it came to the religious observances of the day, and poor prospects as family men given that the protection of the flock would involve their own families being left vulnerable at night. Oh, the reality is so far removed from the cuddly image of shepherds that we see in our Nativitys.

And so it was with Jesus. Now all too often domesticated by the church, Jesus lived a counter cultural lifestyle which took him away from security, daring to express by words and actions the grace of God for all peoples in ways that scandalised so many of the respectable. Rather than exalting princes or religious leaders, he was often to be found with the most rank of outsiders telling them that they had a stake in the Kingdom of God. And through it all, he was attracting the enmity of the predators of his day, predators who would eventually get their way in his being hounded to a brutal public execution, causing even his family to question the path that he was treading. And all of it for you and me with a focus as intent as any shepherd protecting his flock from danger.

Today we look to Jesus as our shepherd. When Jesus spoke to his hearers, it was in a world in which many claimed a right to lead and guide. After all, Jesus was in a controversy with other religious leaders. When John wrote his Gospel, he wrote to a church with a veritable collection of would be leaders amidst a world in which the Gospel was very much a minority religious understanding. But, amidst the claims of so many, John forcefully reminds us that the true leader, the true guide, the true shepherd is Jesus. Why? Because John’s Gospel is written precisely so that we

“may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”

For John, Thomas is spot on when having met the Risen Christ, he declares;

“My Lord and my God!”

And if Jesus is Lord and God, then the post of “Shepherd” is filled and we have no need to look elsewhere. Sure, the insights of others may have much value. Sure, ambitions, hopes and dreams may enrich our lives. But these things can never be our masters. That position belongs exclusively to Jesus and is no longer up for grabs.

And more than that, had our reading gone but one verse further, and we would have read that Jesus proclaims himself to be the “good shepherd.” Now I am not one of those who believes that Jesus should be worshipped simply for being God. It is not going too far to say that the object of worship must surely be worthy of worship. And at times down through the years, the church has given us a pretty poor picture of God. And this is a problem for other than a bit of unworthy wheeler dealing in our approach to God based on self interest, there is absolutely no point in worshipping a Lord who is other than good. If God is more vengeful than me at my worst, the whole things is a preposterous waste of time. For surely, the one whom we worship and whose guidance we accepts has to be better than you and me at our best. And whatever our difficulties with some scriptures, given that God is as God is revealed in Christ, then God is truly good. To know what God is like, we simply have to look at Jesus, and then we find that God is good beyond all measure. And that goodness is revealed in Jesus braving hostility and danger so that we might have life to the full, to the max!

Now, all these things are rather comforting. Shepherd images do that to us. And such is right for it is important to know that Jesus is for us as much in the times when we stray as when we are safely in the flock. And psychologists can tell us much about the importance of belonging. But before we contentedly wallow in these things, let’s not ignore the challenge that comes from Jesus being the shepherd. I simply refer you to Brian Stoffregen’s lectionary notes in which he refers to hearing a lecture by Ed Friedman who referred to a friend of his who had watched Palestinian shepherds with their sheep. He noticed that the most common action of shepherds to their sheep far from being coddling them was to hit them in the ass with a rod - not quite the empathetic action we might expect. So this morning it is that I encourage you to be grateful for the courageous love and care offered to you by the good shepherd who is Jesus but also be ready for kick up the arse that we each need to be true followers. Such is our Gospel - we receive unmerited love but from time to time we need the Gospel of the arse kick if we are to be what God intends us to be so that we might have life to the max!


ALVERDISCOTT METHODIST CHURCH - SUNDAY APRIL 13TH 2008