I.Theme – Jesus as the Good Shepherd and the many ways this is fulfilled.
"Jesus the Good Shepherd" Jacques Le Breton and Jean Gaudin (1933)
The lectionary readings are here or individually:
Old Testament – Acts 2:42-47
Psalm – Psalm 23, Page 612
Epistle –1 Peter 2:19-25
Gospel – John 10:1-10
The first weeks from Easter were different lenses on the resurrection and appearances of the Risen Lord, first with Thomas and then the Road to Emmaus. After this Sunday attention will turn to the teachings of the departing Jesus and the role of the Holy Spirit in preparation for Pentecost. But this week its the shepherd/ sheep image as a way of talking about the enduring and deep connection of Jesus and those who follow him
Psalm 23 provides the role of God as good shepherd in terms of defense (protection amd care and the idea we having nothing to fear) but also in direction ( guidance, reviving our lives).
The final verse of the Epistle makes the connection to Good Shepherd Sunday. "For you were going astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls." Suffering isolates. This passage and Christian faith connect and keep us connected when suffering.
John’s reading speaks of Jesus as both the Shepherd and the gate. The connection is both personal and loving. "He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out." We have to listen to his voice and watch out for strangers. There are those who are false shepherds, who are more interested in themselves than in caring for the sheep.
The final verse, "I came that they may have life and have it abundantly" is a good corrective to what can be an overemphasis on selflessness, self-sacrifice, deprivation and denial as the sign of true faith. Jesus speaks of abundance not in terms of material goods but a fullness in life.
II. Summary
First Reading – Acts 2:42-47
In earlier weeks we have seen Peter preaching on the Day of Pentecost, the response of the gathered pilgrims in Jerusalem.
Now there is the emergence of a new community of the baptized, who "devote themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of the bread and prayers."
The first part of Acts is made up of example stories and summaries. Our reading gives us a glimpse of the very early church, of the response of the newly baptised.
Luke seems to want to stress a continuity of development on the part of the early Church, and to give some indication of what were the elements of its purpose and mission. In a way it represents and idealization of early Christian life, a list of virtues to be strived for, rather than a representation of what really was.
It is a model for congregational life at the fullest. The Acts vision of church joined mission and meditation, worship and social welfare, and intellect and action. Every aspect of human life was brought into relationship with God’s spirit-centered vision of humanity.
In accepting the good news, they whole-heartedly embrace learning about the faith, responsibility and love for fellow Christians, “breaking of bread” (an extension of Jewish festive meals to re-presentation of the Lord’s Supper) and “prayers”. God predicted through Joel that “many wonders and signs” (v. 43) would be seen in the end times; an example is Peter healing a lame man (3:1-11).
In these early days, they have “all things in common” (v. 44). they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all as to need , but a little later such sharing was not the universal rule: see 5:4. As faithful Jews, they visit the Temple daily (a forum Jesus had used) and share in the Eucharist “at home” (v. 46). As God has already increased their numbers (v. 41), so he continues to do. Later animosity developed with adherents to Judaism.
Psalm – Psalm 23
The Psalmist’s vision and sense of God’s nearness enable him to face trial and tragedy with courage
Verses
1. The Lord is my shepherd: The prophets (Isaiah 40:11; Jeremiah 23:1-6; Ezekiel 34) use the image of Yahweh as the shepherd of his people.
In the ancient Near East, the king was seen as shepherd (vv. 1-4) and as host (vv. 5-6).
2-4: The singer uses the imagery of the shepherd’s care for his/her flock to describe Yahweh’s care for his flock.
God faithfully provides for his sheep, and constantly cares for them. He revives our very lives (“soul”, v. 3), and guides us in godly ways (“right paths”). Even when beset by evil (“darkest valley”, v. 4), we have nothing to fear. God’s “rod” (a defence against wolves and lions) protects us; his “staff” (v. 4, for rescuing sheep from thickets) guides us.
5. The singer describes his acceptance in the Temple, where he is fed with heavenly food and drink, and anointed with holy oil.
The feast (v. 5) is even more impressive, for it is in the presence of his foes. Kings were plenteously anointed with oil (a symbol of power and dedication to a holy purpose).
6. Yahweh’s care and protection will continue throughout the life of the singer. He will dwell in the Temple.
May God’s “goodness and mercy” (v. 6, steadfast love) follow (or pursue) him (as do his enemies) throughout his life. He will continue to worship (“dwell …”) in the Temple as long as he lives.
Epistle – 1 Peter 2:19-25
I Peter is addressed to people who are suffering for their faith, who like Jesus have committed no sin but to be obedient to God.
The point, rather, is to encourage those suffering unjustly that, in doing so, they are one with Jesus, and that despite such unjust suffering and abuse one can maintain identity, integrity and therefore power.
Suffering does not always mean guilt. One may suffer while innocent
The message of I Peter affirms that by Christ’s wounds we are healed. This enables the believer to face pain with Christ as her or his model. This passage describes an intimate, loving God who feels our pain. God is near, and the intimacy of God enables us to endure suffering by placing it in the perspective of Christ’s life-transforming and saving suffering. We can endure suffering because we believe that our current suffering is temporary and fades in importance in light of God’s everlasting life.
These verses deal with the behavior of Christian slaves when they are mistreated by abusive masters. The Greek word translated as “servants” also means slaves, so what the author says now applies equally to Christian slaves and other Christians. (The early church saw no inherent evil in slavery. All Christians were free spiritually and members of “the family of believers”, v. 17.)
“Slaves” (v. 18) are to obey their masters, whether they are considerate or “harsh”. Being beaten for wrong-doing is to be expected, but God notices when slaves endure wrongfully inflicted “pain” (v. 19). Of this, Christ is the great “example” (v. 21): accept it as he did, as predicted in Isaiah. Christians see the Servant Songs of Isaiah as predicting the events of Jesus’ life. Isaiah 53:5-9, part of the fourth Servant Song (quoted in part in vv. 22-25), foretells his suffering and death: when “abused” (v. 23) he entrusted himself to God’s care, “the one who judges justly”. Jesus carried our sins on the cross, thereby enabling us to live “free from sins” (v. 24) and to attain union with God (“righteousness”). Through Jesus’ suffering they have access to eternal life.
The addressees have turned their lives around by accepting Christ (v. 25a). The “shepherd”-flock image of God and his people is found in today’s psalm and elsewhere in the Old Testament; in the gospels, Jesus is the shepherd. In this book, the image is applied to Christian leaders and those in their care. Later the Greek word episkopos (“guardian”) came to mean bishop.
Gospel – John 10:1-10
Jesus uses the metaphor of the shepherd to explain his role in the world. John guises Jesus as both the shepherd and the gate – the familiar voice, and the safe door that keeps them inside away from predators.
In Palestine, sheep belonging to villagers roamed freely during the day but were confined to a common enclosure at night, to protect them from predators. Each morning, each shepherd called his sheep who followed him to pasture.
A sheep pen was normally made out of rocks that were piled high to make four walls. Barbed branches were put on the walls of rocks in order to prevent predators from coming over those walls into those pens. There was an entrance to the pen and the shepherd would actually lie in the doorway and was the door itself. The door itself, the shepherd, would keep out the wolves, lions and other predators. The door also functions as a way into the pen. This is, sheep need to go through the entrance to get into the pen, and Jesus is that entrance or gate.
The Gate: 1-3a (parable) + 7-10 (explanation)
As he explains (v. 7), he is the “gate” of v. 2, so presumably the thieves and bandits are the Jewish religious leaders. Jesus, both the “gatekeeper” (v. 3) and the “shepherd” (v. 2) is the true leader.
The charge that they do not come in through the gate but gain access by other devious means implies that they are bandits and thieves who take advantage of the population for their own profit. Such a criticism seems to be implied by the tradition of the incident in the Temple when Jesus condemned the authorities as having turned a house of prayer into a den of thieves.
In this second statement Jesus says, I am the gate for the sheep (v. 7). The scene has shifted from the village to the open field. In the summer sheep are sometimes kept out in the pasture overnight. The pen used is simply an enclosure made of piled rocks. There is neither roof nor door, but thorns along the top of the rock walls protect the sheep from wild animals, and the shepherd himself sleeps in the entrance, providing a door.
So when Jesus says he is the gate for the sheep (v. 7) he is still using the image of a shepherd, but applying it directly to himself. From this picture of a shepherd sleeping in the entrance we would expect Jesus’ role to be the protector of the sheep.
Jesus does indeed protect his own (cf. 6:39; 17:12), but the image is developed here in a surprising way. The sheep are to enter through Jesus (v. 9), something not true of the shepherd sleeping in the entrance of a summer shelter! So the image is not that of a door as a barrier for protection, but of a door as a passageway
In the subsequent tradition this original point has been modified so that the story is understood as an affirmation of Jesus himself as the gate (vss. 7-10) and the ideal (true) shepherd (vss. 11-18). This reapplication of an earlier tradition is effected in several steps:
He is the only “gate” (v. 9) to eternal “life” (v. 10), to freedom (“come in and go out”, v. 9, a Jewish idiom), and to nourishment beyond measure (“find pasture … abundantly”).
The Gate is no longer simply the proper entry point avoided by thieves and robbers who reveal their true identity by their failure to enter at the appropriate place. Now the Gate is an attribute of Jesus personally; as also seen John 14:6:
Jesus said to him,
"I am the way, and the truth, and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through me."
John is presenting Jesus not just as the Good Shepherd (the one who leads), awaited by Israel, but as the way forward to new life (through the gate).
In contrast to Jesus (here considered not as ideal shepherd but as the entry point to salvation), the authorities (and by implication all who rejected the claims about Jesus made by his followers) are "thieves and bandits," with a special rebuke perhaps intended for the Pharisees who had been featured in the larger story of Jesus healing the man born blind
The gate is an opening into a rock walled pen with briars on the top of that rock wall.
The Shepherd: 3b-5 (parable) + 11-18 (explanation)
The parable of The Shepherd (vss. 3b-5) tends to focus more on the relationship between shepherd and sheep, and this represents a theme with ancient antecedents in the biblical tradition as well as in the ancient world.
He knows them by name. Jesus is our good shepherd and we know that God/Jesus owns us and knows us by name. We human beings love it when someone knows and remembers our name
It is possible that Ezekiel’s criticism of the leaders of Jerusalem as abusive and self-serving shepherds who prey upon the sheep lies behind this parable.
He calls the faithful to follow him (v. 4); they don’t follow a “stranger” (v. 5) since they don’t know the stranger’s voice but know Jesus’ voice. The people listen to him and not to the “Pharisees” (9:40), “all who came before me” (v. 8).
In verses 11-13 Jesus is the model shepherd who will even die for his sheep, unlike hired hands who have no feeling for the sheep or wolves who simply devour the sheep:
This is another one of John proclamation statements – There are seven "I am" statements in John: 6:35, the bread of life; 8:12, 12:46, the light of the world; 10:7, 9, the gate of the sheep; 10:11, 14, the good shepherd; 11:25, the resurrection and the life; 14:6, the way, the truth, and the life; 15:1, 5, the true vine; 10:30.
III. Articles for this week in WorkingPreacher:
First Reading – Acts 2:42-47
Psalm – Psalm 23
Epistle – 1 Peter 2:19-25
Gospel – John 10:1-10