Fourth Sunday of Easter – 25th April 2021 — Gospel: John 10,11-18
Cost and Goodness of the Shepherd
Today is Pastor Bonus Sunday. Pastor Bonus is Latin for “Good Shepherd”. Some of the earliest images of Jesus found in churches and tombs were not portrayals of Jesus on the cross, or the infant in the manger. Rather, they must have pictured Jesus as the gentle shepherd. Maybe, one of the earliest paintings of all is of a very young Jesus, dressed in white, who was protecting a lamb over his shoulders.
In terms of literary structure John 10,11-18 follow an ABA’ Pattern:
- The good shepherd (11)
- The hired hand (12-13)
A’. The good shepherd (14-18)
The gospel then primarily describes the attributes of Jesus, as a Good Shepherd, who is willing to, and actually does, lay down His life for His sheep. In no Old Testament texts the shepherd is characterized as one who will sacrifice himself for the flock to the point of death. Now a question arises, how does this passage of shepherd and sheep connect with the post-resurrection reality of Christ Jesus? The gospel text presents that the reality of death has been withstood and conquered by the shepherd. Thus, this text is an image already tested by the death and resurrection of Christ (Jn 10,18).
This fourth “I am” statement, in John’s gospel, evokes Jesus’ theophanic nature of God. Each time, he was making a claim to equality with God the Father. Here he presents Himself as the good shepherd who “lays down” His life for the sheep. Ordinarily, the sheep were called upon to lay down their lives for the shepherd. But now the cost of Jesus, the Good Shepherd, is that He dies for the sheep. The phrase “lays down” is repeated five times in these nine verses, affirming clearly the sacrificial nature of His death (Jn 10,11.15.17-18). Jesus lays it down in order to take it up. He lays it down of his own accord. In reality, Jesus did not die as a martyr, but was executed by authorities (Acts 2,23; 1 Thess 2,15). He died as a substitute, willingly laying down His life for humanity. In actuality, no one could take His life from Him. He is God (“I am”), and had the power in Himself to lay down His life, and the power to take it again (10,18). Therefore, Jesus allowed Himself to be killed by men. This was an exhibition of His power to lay down His life. Furthermore, Jesus “gave up His Spirit” (Jn 19,30) as an act of His own strength and will. This was commissioned by the Father. His death and resurrection were essential acts of the Father’s will. The Father loved His Son Jesus because of His willingness to die and rise again, in order that lost sheep might be saved.
Jesus asserts that His willingness to die for the flock stems from the Father’s love and the mutual reciprocity of recognition. The mutuality of knowledge between the Father and the Son has been mirrored in the relationship between the shepherd and the sheep (Jn 10,14). Just as Jesus knows God the Father and vice versa, the same genuine knowledge of Jesus is found in His flock, who recognize that basic relationship. To know God is to know Jesus, and that is the mark of the flock which recognizes the shepherd as their own. It means that we accept Jesus as the way to salvation. We must recognize His voice and follow Him. Prior to recognizing and responding to the voice, one must listen. Listening to the Lord’s voice through preaching, the sacraments, and the church. But this passage includes another challenging thought. The good shepherd decides who is all in the sheepfold: “I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold” (Jn 10,16). Jesus the shepherd is telling us that there will be “one flock, one shepherd” (Jn 10,16). It is God, in Jesus Christ, through the Holy Spirit, who bring together that flock.
