Easter 4 Jesus is the good shepherd.

Easter IV I am the good shepherd.
People tend to define God in their own image. The Bible observes this and predicts this tendency. There are three very broad categories people use to define God: Absence, Immanence, and Transcendence.

Some people, particularly in our modern secular civilization, reject the idea of God completely. Whether they manifest this rejection in a tightly reasoned active atheism or a lazy and passive indifference their view is that God does not exist.
Or at least, that which they perceive other people to declare divine does not exist.
The active form of this atheism asserts that there is no God and I defy anyone to prove otherwise. The passive form of this atheism simply rolls over in bed on Sunday morning and goes back to sleep. Or, it seeks out the diversions of the many pleasures and entertainments the world offers in place of worship.

The god of immanence is the all pervasive but hidden Spirit of all that is. This is an ideal do it yourself religion for the enlightened few who can perceive the inner secret of the universe. It produces a religion of mysticism. It is grounded in the pursuit of knowledge, often the secret occult knowledge whose goal is to produce enlightenment.
There is an active and passive form to this approach also. The active approach is the spiritual seeker who keeps the self help authors and enlightenment seminars in business. This active approach is more interested in the quest than the holy grail at the end of the quest. In its passive form this approach rolls over in bed on a Sunday morning and goes back to sleep. Or, it takes a walk in nature to commune with Spirit and the esthetics of the natural world.

The god of transcendence is all too often the god of rigid and inflexible law. The active form of law based religion asserts the individual will to power to dominate the self and others. It seeks to impose the absolute law of God in all situations and for all people. It is sometimes willing to kill to impose what it perceives to be divine law.
The passive form of legalism is the loophole religion. It produces a religion of masks and self deceits, of hypocrisy, judgment and condemnation of others. It may also turn over and go back to sleep on the day of worship but it will cite chapter and verse and perhaps even a theological treatise to justify its choice.

The unifying principle of these three distortions of the divine is separation. Human beings have identified the divine with two very narrow attributes of God: knowledge and power. As a result, people separate from the truth of God in order to claim the power of God. Once separation begins in the human soul it leads to greater levels of distortion in the mind, heart and will.
That is why God did not rely just on law, or ritual, or spiritual disciplines or knowledge when he revealed himself to humanity. God chose to become one of us. The Transcendent God became a human being in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is God Incarnate.

Jesus Christ is God with us and God for us. Jesus Christ is God not only teaching us or commanding us but demonstrating for us exactly who He is. God’s identity, the essence of his being and nature is steadfast holy love.
In Jesus Christ God tells all of us, each of us, I am the good shepherd. I am here with you as one of you. There is nothing you have experienced or will experience in this life that Jesus did not also experience.

In terms of sin, Jesus met every temptation we meet but with divine love and compassion. From that place of love, Jesus never sinned. He never sinned because he never chose separation from his Heavenly Father. He shows us the way to over come sin. He is the way to overcome sin.
In terms of holiness, Jesus always placed the worship of God first in his life. Jesus never rolled over in bed on the Sabbath and decided to skip worship. Jesus never said, well I have tickets to the chariot races today and God will understand why I am not in the Temple for worship. Jesus never allowed the distractions of pleasure and entertainment to separate him from the highest form of love a human being can experience. That highest form of love is worship.

In terms of the will to power, Jesus’ constant prayer was and is: Father, not my will but your will be done. Jesus learned from observation that self will is not free will. Self will is the illusion of free will that produces slavery to separation, fear, pride and despair. Only Divine Will is free will. Jesus never separated from Divine Will and so Jesus always exercised free will.

In terms of power, Jesus had at his disposal the omnipotence and omniscience of the Transcendent God. He could have come into the world with the power to command and control. He could have brought confrontation and condemnation. He didn’t. Jesus never separated from Divine love and compassion and so Jesus was and is the good shepherd who lives with his flock, watches over his flock, tends his flock, feeds his flock and leads his flock.

The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. Jesus gave his life for us on the cross. He continues to give his life to us in the blessed sacrament of the altar. Jesus unites the Absence of God, the Immanence of God and the Transcendence of God by the Love of God. In that unification Jesus offers us the gifts of reunification with the Transcendence of God. Jesus offers us transformation through the Immanence of God. Jesus offers us the clear, steady and calm voice in the darkness of the Absence of God as the good shepherd calls his sheep and leads them to green pastures and pure living waters.
Jesus comes to us today and speaks the holy word of the living God who through Jesus tells us: I am eternal love and compassion reaching out to you and inviting you to find the fulness of abundant life here and now. I am the good shepherd.