Eastwer IV

Easter IV (John 10:1-10) “I came that they may have life.”

Jesus is the good shepherd.

There are some things we need to know about shepherds to help us understand the image.

Most people did not place a high value on shepherds. Scripture describes this attitude towards shepherds in several passages. When Jacob and his family come to Egypt to live, Joseph instructs him: do not tell the Pharaoh that you are shepherds for the Egyptians despise shepherds.

When the prophet Samuel comes to Jesse in Bethlehem to anoint one of his sons as the new king, Jesse doesn’t even mention his youngest son, David. David is a shepherd. Jesse doesn’t even invite him to meet Samuel.

Shepherds were young men, teens, from the working poor. They worked long hours for little pay and no benefits. They were expected to live with the sheep in the fields 24/7. They were expected to make sure the sheep found good pasture for food and water. They were required to protect the sheep from wild animals and thieves.

Frequently, they were punished for any loss. They had to keep track of all of their sheep and seek out and find any individuals who strayed. A lost sheep is a dead sheep. The shepherd had to know his sheep so well that he would immediately recognize when even one wandered off.

It was a harsh life only young men from the poorest of the poor were willing to do.

At night, a shepherd would build a temporary pen to protect the sheep. He usually used sticks, stones and thorn bushes. There was one opening, one door, but no gate. The shepherd himself slept in the opening. Any predator or thief would need to pass him to get to the sheep.

The sheep grew accustomed to the presence of a shepherd. The shepherd had his own unique call for the sheep. Frequently, the shepherd named his sheep. The sheep came to recognize and trust the shepherd’s voice.

Many shepherds suffered injury while tending their sheep. If they could not work as a result of such an injury they were not paid. Some shepherds died defending their flock. Others abandoned the flock at the first sign of danger, knowing there was no reward for injury and no compensation to their families if they died.

For Jesus, considered a teacher and a prophet, to identify himself as a shepherd was more than a little scandalous. It was especially scandalous for those who hoped he would be the Messiah. They expected a Messiah to be a great warrior king. They were confused and angered when Jesus identified himself with the poorest of the poor who had no status in society.

Jesus was a descendant of David. Jesus was not from the religious or political elites of the time. His parents were not from the poorest of the poor who lived on the thin edge of starvation. They were from the working class who were only one paycheck away from starvation.

When the co-eternal Son of God came to earth he surrendered all of his divine prerogatives. He humbled himself. Although he is the rightful owner of this planet and the rightful King of all people and all nations, Jesus did not assert his ownership or Kingship in the way people expected.

Jesus identified with the poorest of the poor to help us understand that God is not knowledge or power. Jesus came to reveal to us that God is love- steadfast, holy, universal and unconditional.

The Good Shepherd is an image of the sacrificial humility of that divine love.

As with those teens who worked long hours, days and weeks in the fields and the mountain slopes in a dirty and dangerous job for little pay and less thanks, Jesus came to the dusty roads and villages of First Century Judea and Galilee to seek and save the lost sheep of the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

The consistent record of Scripture is that all people are lost in separation from God. And, the consistent observation of Moses and the prophets is that the lost do not want to be found.

Jesus is the Good Shepherd who seeks out the lost who do not want to be found. He enters into the wilderness of a broken and conflicted world to help us, to heal us and to rescue us.

Jesus clarifies just what it means to be the Messiah in the categories of sacrificial love and abundant life.

As the incarnation of eternal love, Jesus lives and moves and has his being in kindness, compassion, sacrifice and humility. As the very pattern, plan and purpose for our existence Jesus comes to restore what we so foolishly abandoned. He comes to restore the relationships our Heavenly Father designed for us through the power of the Holy Spirit according to the pattern of the Son.

Jesus demonstrates that the relationship is universal unconditional love. Jesus teaches that this relationship restores to us here and now the one thing we say we want and the one thing we fail to achieve.

Jesus comes to restore us to life. Not existence. We already have that. Life. Not just a minimalist form of life- abundant life.

Abundant life emerges from the very source of life: Jesus himself.

The scandal of the Good Shepherd is that the Messiah identifies himself with the poorest of the poor. The scandal of the Good Shepherd is that Jesus identifies humanity, us, as sheep who are lost and do not want to be found.

The promise of the Good Shepherd is that he is the one who seeks the lost, finds the lost and heals the lost.

The Glory of the Good Shepherd is the abundant life he offers to all who recognize his voice and follow him to the green pastures of the waters of life, the food and drink of new life, the medicine of eternal life.

Jesus speaks to us today: I came that you may have life, and that you may have it abundantly.