I don’t know what it’s like in other professions, but in software development there is some expectation of a meritocracy; those with the most ability should be in charge. The good programmers who develop stable, well-designed systems should be promoted and the less skilled developers should listen, follow, and learn. For me, at least, in university and my early career, this is exactly how things worked. The skilled programmers got the good projects, got opportunities to design new systems, and got to set the standards for others to follow.
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.
Days after cleansing the temple, the “chief priests and the scribes with the elders” approach Jesus to question him. In the last several days, especially, Jesus has made a direct and very public critique of how the temple is run. Throughout his ministry, he’s had even more things to say about the religious establishment in Jerusalem. We can only imagine what he’s been teaching in the temple for the last several days that have the people hanging “upon his words.” Those with clear institutional authority – the authority of God’s Holy Temple – want to know under what authority Jesus acts. Jesus answers with a parable.
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.
Humanity’s adoption by God as his children is a theme throughout Hebrew and Christian scripture. By his own free will God has chosen Israel and the Church established on her foundation to be his children. God’s adoption of humankind gives theological richness to what it means for people to be in relationship to God, to live a life of holiness, and to be free.
Relationship
Throughout Scripture, God is time and time again referenced as Israel and Christians’ father and parent. In Isaiah the prophet praises God on behalf of the remnant of Israel declaring “thou, O LORD, art our Father” (Isa 63:16, ʀꜱᴠ). In Jeremiah 31:9 God says that he is “a father to Israel” (ʀꜱᴠ). In Galatians 4:6 Paul teaches that believers are God’s children — sons — and that we should call God “father.” Jesus, too, teaches this when he demonstrates to his followers how to pray, “Our Father who art in heaven, ” “Father, hallowed be thy name” (Matt 6:9-13, Luke 11:2-4).
There were some present at that very time who told him of the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered thus? I tell you, No; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen upon whom the tower in Silo′am fell and killed them, do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, No; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.”
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