How many of y’all have sat through an all-hands meeting? Having spent the greater part of a decade in the Nashville corporate scene, I’ve been in my fair share. For an hour (or more if you’re particularly unlucky) a stream of people come across the stage (or these days your screen) to, nominally, share with you “exciting” news and to “inform” you about all the “good” things on the horizon. But, we all know the reality. It’s spin. A reorganization is going to be announced. Layoffs happened in a part of the org. The company is moving its focus to a new product or industry.
Not too long ago I met a man at the shelter who seemed out of place. When I arrived at the shelter before lunch, I saw a man sitting by himself directly in the middle of all the chaos of folk waiting for lunch. Outwardly, I could tell he had been on the streets for several days; his dark tan and dirty clothes gave that away. However, I could also tell by his dress and mannerisms that he had not been homeless long. The way he sat and carried himself gave him away as someone with roots in the middle class. Sitting there alone with his backpack of stuff, out of place, not knowing what to do, waiting for lunch I could sense (and observe) that he was not in a great place.
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. Amen.
Last week we talked about Jesus being the bread of life. Jesus was trying to show those around him that they were working for the favor of others. The hole they felt — the sense of not belonging — could only be permanently filled by God’s love, the bread of life. This week, Jesus continues to explain to us what it means for him to be the bread of life. Like Jesus, I think we need to clarify and establish a few things before we can get into the meat of this.
Let us pray, Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. Amen.
On Sunday my priest preached a sermon from Ephesians 4 and something from that sermon has sat with me all week. I’d like to share it with you in the context of today’s gospel reading from St. John.
Ephesians 4 is all about unity in the Body of Christ. “There is one body and one Spirit… one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all…” St. Paul here is describing the perfect community of the Kingdom of God we are all called to live into in our baptism.
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. Amen.
Today is the fourth Sunday of Easter, often called “Good Shepherd” because of the gospel reading.
Though each Sunday is a sort of mini-Easter, the Sundays from Easter until Pentecost are especially so.
The question to answer today, is what does a good shepherd have to do with the death and resurrection of Jesus?
First, let’s get our bearings about where we are in John’s gospel.
In the previous two chapters, Jesus has been teaching in the temple and, naturally, his favorite friends the “scribes and the Pharisees” have tagged to ask him potentially entrapping questions.
In the midst of this, things get a little hot in the temple — Jesus nearly gets stoned — so Jesus leaves.
On his way out, Jesus heals a man from blindness, which of course the priests and other religious authorities do not believe. In chapter ten, Jesus is responding to these events.
Not only these events, but he is responding to some inquisitive Pharisees who seem to have started questioning their initial impressions of who Jesus is.
So, the initial context of this is Jesus taking the time to teach those who in our modern reading we automatically cast as the bad guys.
What hope this gives people like us who often find themselves on the wrong side of God’s will!
He is always there waiting to answer our honest advances for relationship. Even when we’re not yet fully committed.
Now for a little context around when all of this is taking place.
This whole scene in and around the temple is taking place during what we would now call Hanukkah.
I won’t go into the whole story, but at this point the feast was about 200 years old.
It had been established about 160 years before Jesus’ birth.
Hanukkah means “dedication” and is a celebration, among other miraculous parts of the story, of the cleansing of the temple after conquering Greek forces took over the temple, erected an alter to Zeus there, led sacrifices of pigs, and banned Judaism.
During Hanukkah one of the readings would have been from Ezekiel 34, I’ll read the first ten or so verses to better set the stage for the imagery that would have been fresh in Jesus and the Jews around him heads’
[READ EZEKIEL 34:1-11,30-31]
Let’s go back to John keeping all the background we now have, plus Ezekiel in our minds.
[READ JOHN 10:11-13]
This is a little more clear, now, isn’t it?
Jesus is not happy with how his people have been shepherded by the religious establishment of Jerusalem.
Jesus might even be implying that to outwardly worship God in the temple while neglecting to feed God’s sheep outside its walls is equivalent to desecrating the temple.
Jesus might be implying that it’s time for a new Hanukkah, a new rededication.
Jesus is the “good shepherd”. Now, the Greek here is more than our word “good.” Here it is not only a “good” shepherd, but an “ideal” and “noble” shepherd. Jesus is the model.
To complicate things further, a shepherd isn’t just a shepherd. In Hebrew poetry and scripture (Psalms, for example) shepherd is a near universal symbol of the king. You know, like David, the shepherd boy made king through whose line Jesus is attached.
[READ PSALM 23]
Now this thread of shepherds and kingship winds its way through David, the Psalms, failing Hebrew kings, exile, Ezekiel, Greek invasion, temple desecration, Hanukkah, and finally reaches its destination in Jesus.
This is the beauty of Holy Scripture.
This is God working through his narrative with his people to work out our salvation.
Jesus is the very ideal of kingship, the very truth of a shepherd.
“I know my own and my own know me, as the Father knows me and I know the Father”
I can’t help but notice the language here of ownership and naming God the Father.
Maybe it’s because my son was baptized two Sundays ago, but I’m moved back to Mark 1:9-11.
[READ MARK 1:9-11]
My son.
It is as if here, in baptism, we become adopted children of God.
We are Jesus’ because we know him as the true shepherd.
Jesus’ knows the Father and he knows us.
“I know my own and my own know me, as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.”
In baptism, we are adopted as children of God and enter Jesus’ death.
No longer enemies, strangers, or foreigners, we are now God’s adopted children through water, blood, and Spirit. The baptized are part of God’s flock.
This is the great Easter message.
On this fourth Sunday of Easter, remember your baptism.
Jesus knows us. We are his forever.
Remember you are God’s child.
We are still wet from our baptism.
We are soaked, because the Good Shepherd is continually washing us clean with his blood.
He knows us, and yet he still loves us.
He knows us and never forgets us.
When we are scared, when we are alone, the Good Shepherd is there beside us to remind us that we are adopted children of God.
God did not forsake his son in the tomb and he will not forsake us either.
Hear again the words of Scripture: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. […] I know my own and my own know me, as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.”
“And they shall know that I, the Lord their God, am with them, and that they, […] are my people.”
As it appropriate for Easter, we end with the resurrected Jesus amongst his disciples: [READ JOHN 21:15-17]
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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