[Father Riley's Episcopal class continues Sunday, April 24th at 9am in Parish Hall.]
EASTER IV - C - 16
JOHN 10: 22-30
Between the 7th and the 10th chapter of
John, Jesus attends two Jewish festivals over a period of some three months,
indicating that Jesus made more than one trip to Jerusalem during his earthly
ministry. Chapter 10 begins with Jesus in dialogue with some Pharisees
following his healing of a man born blind that occurred during the festival of
“booths,” an agricultural festival commemorating the wilderness wanderings that
takes place in the fall of the year.
It is during this earlier exchange that Christ
declares himself the “good shepherd” contrasting his ministry with their failed
ministry. The word “pastor” comes from the Latin word for “shepherd.” They have
failed, then, as pastors of God’s people. Their leadership has been marked by
deceit and pride and a lack of compassion.
It was
Christ’ words, however, concerning the laying down of his life for his sheep
and taking it again because he has the power to do so; a power he declares that
has been given him by his Father, that causes a division among the Jews. Some
say he is mad and has a demon; others argue for him because he cured the blind
man, something they say, a demon would not do.
At the festival of the Dedication, three months
later, Jesus is approached again by those who want to know who he really is, or
better yet, who he thinks he is. The healing of the blind man should have been
sufficient evidence, identifying him as one sent by God. No one had ever healed
a man born blind, even they admitted that. But obviously it was not enough.
Throughout the gospels Christ’ words and actions are
veiled to those who reject him. “But you do not believe, because you do not
belong to my sheep,” Christ says “My sheep hear my voice. I know them and they
know me, and follow me.” The true shepherd not only cares for the sheep with a
devotion even to death; but he knows them and is known by them.
The festival, that is the backdrop of today’s
gospel, is Hanukkah, also known as the festival of lights. It commemorates the
re-dedication of the Temple in 167 BC after it had been desecrated by Antiochus
Epiphanes. At the festival, the leaders of Israel’s past are commemorated, many
of whom were themselves shepherds.
Jesus’ parable of the “good shepherd” is an apt
prelude to the feast celebrating the purifying of the temple for one of the
lessons read at the festival was from Ezekiel 34 that speaks of God himself
coming to shepherd his people; to rescue them, as it were, from the hands of
the failed shepherds.
Jesus has come to do just that; to rescue God’s
people and to lead them into the kingdom. Jesus fulfills Ezekiel’s prophecy,
and is the shepherd, St. John sees in his vision, that will lead God’s people
to springs of living water.
How could the leaders of God’s people miss it? Why
could they not draw the right conclusion based on his words and actions? The
contrast, then, is not only in terms of leadership, but a “blindness” as
opposed to those, who through the eyes of faith “see” Jesus as the Promised
One.
Today’s
gospel, then, takes us back to a time before his arrest, trial and crucifixion
when those who were opposed to him were gathering evidence against him. They
wanted Jesus to say “plainly” if he were the Messiah or not. But Jesus lets his
actions speak for him until the last verse, which is plain enough for all: “The
Father and I are one.”
It’s all about relationship and so Jesus returns to
that theme. “My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give
them eternal life, and they will never perish.” He will look after them, and
even death itself, the last great enemy, cannot ultimately harm them.
The reason Jesus can be so confident of this is that
the guarantee is his own unbreakable bond of love and union with the Father
(The Father and I are One), and the fact that the “sheep” he owns are the ones
the Father has given him. Here Jesus is describing a relationship; a bond, that
gives life; a oneness that creates community; a community based on Love.
This doesn’t mean that as His followers we will be
immune to suffering, trials and tribulations, or that we will escape death in
this world; but at the last we will be found safe in the hands of the Good
Shepherd.
Christian confidence about the future beyond death,
in other words, is not a matter of wishful thinking, a vague general hope, or a
temperamental inclination to assume things will turn out alright. It is built
firmly on nothing less than the union with Jesus and the Father - one of the
main themes of the whole gospel, and the focus of the Church’s worship.
God the
Father created a new relationship between the risen Christ and his followers by
raising Jesus from the dead. Because of Easter our relationship to God, through
Christ, is stronger than death itself. As St. Paul boldly proclaims in Romans
“nothing, not even death, will be able to separate us from the love of God in
Christ Jesus, Our Lord."
This is the Hope of Easter for all who believe in
the Risen Christ; that where evil has destroyed all possibility of
relationships, God can create new bonds of life through His Love for each of us
manifested in and through the relationship between the Father and the Son.
On the cross, God the Father elevated His Son Jesus,
from Lamb of God who was sacrificed for the sins of the world, to the Good
Shepherd who will lead us to springs of living water, and where, by God’s
grace, we will “dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” AMEN+
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