fourth Sunday of Easter

Jesus said to the Pharisees: I am the Good Shepherd.  The Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep’.

I am a great fan of wayside pulpits. You know those boards and posters outside usually evangelical churches with either a bible passage or a short and memorable message. A famous one that I am sure you will have seen reads ‘Carpenter from Nazareth seeks joiners’. However there was one such poster which read: ‘If you can’t sleep don’t count sheep, talk to the shepherd’. Behind the clever slogan there lies the truth that often if you can’t sleep there is something on your mind causing restlessness and tension. Both of which can be helped if not cured by the peace that comes from prayer. So talk to Jesus whenever restlessness stops you nodding off. Talk to the Shepherd rather than count sheep.

Jesus says: I am the Good Shepherd. This metaphor of the shepherd is absolutely full of Old Testament imagery. First in the Old Testament God is the Shepherd of his people Israel. ‘The Lord is my shepherd therefore can I lack nothing’ says the psalmist. And yet again in another psalm there is this prayer to God ‘Hear O shepherd of Israel you who lead Joseph like a flock’ – a prayer again found in the Psalms addressed to God the shepherd of Israel. So the first thing that we notice is that when Jesus says I am the Good Shepherd he is saying that he fulfils the role of God and stands in the same place as God in the life of his people. He can say that of course because John’s Gospel testifies to Jesus he is one with God. ‘I am the Good Shepherd’. He is one with God the shepherd of Israel. ‘I am’ is the divine name, the very name of God revealed to Moses combined with the imagery of the shepherd of Israel is pretty powerful testimony to Jesus’ identity as Son of God and Shepherd of his people. Notice Jesus doesn’t just refer to himself as ‘The shepherd’ but as ‘The Good Shepherd’. The adjective good used here means ‘right, proper, honourable, trustworthy’. But for Jesus to describe himself as the Good Shepherd implies I guess that there must have been bad shepherds. Again the Old Testament comes to our aid in understanding this. Because it is clear from the Old Testament that there had indeed been bad shepherds in the history of Israel.

The bible is actually full of images of shepherds who were very much less than good. In the prophecy of Isaiah, God describes the rulers of the people as shepherds who care only about themselves, who feather their own nests and who neglect their duties to their people. In the prophecy of Jeremiah God refers to the shepherds of Judah as stupid shepherds who have allowed the sheep to scatter and have therefore endangered them by their neglect. In both of these instances the bad shepherds were the rulers of Israel – the King and the ruling class. In other words the Government had failed the people.

It would seem that from time immemorial some politicians have used their power and their influence to feather their own nests rather than care for the people. And it always scandalises us and rightly so. That is of course the problem that we face over the MPs expenses issue that is before us at the moment. We rightly expect that those who set themselves up to serve the public in political office will do just that rather than see it all as some gravy train. That is why political scandal over cash for questions handed over in brown envelopes or any other lucrative but dishonest use of power or influence is so scandalous – because we know that we have a right to expect better from those whose elected task is to serve us rather than themselves. Most politicians are I am sure honest decent and upright with a true desire to serve. It is important that we can trust our politicians to be good shepherds because if we can’t then the disillusionment that follows from mistrust of them would threaten our whole political and democratic system. 

Let’s get back to the Old Testament. The most extensive denunciation of bad shepherds is found in the prophecy of Ezekiel. Again the shepherds of Israel are accused of feeding themselves rather than the sheep. These shepherds do not bind up the sheep’s wounds, nor care for the sick. Moreover they do not love the sheep but rather rule over them with harshness. Bad shepherds indeed! And who are these shepherds to whom the prophet refers? Well the probability is that these bad shepherds were the priests. Ezekiel came himself from the priestly circles of Israel and so he will have known firsthand the quality of their pastoring of the flock - or the lack of it.

At an ordination service in the Church of England those who are to be ordained priest are told, just before the Bishop lays hands upon them to ordain them to priestly service, that they ‘are to keep the image and the example of Christ the good shepherd ever before them’. For all who are called to be priests and pastors in the Church our great and only example is Christ the good shepherd and all of us know just how much we fall short of that example. We know too that all that we do in our priestly ministry and service is done in the name of and in the power of Christ the good shepherd. The Church is his flock, we are all sheep of that flock; the task of the Church’s pastors is to keep the supreme and only good shepherd ever in our lives and on our hearts so that he will inform all that we do in his name. Pray for your shepherds, your pastors and all the pastors of the flock of Christ that they may always follow in the way of Christ the good shepherd. ‘I am the Good shepherd I know my sheep and my sheep know me and I lay down my life for my sheep’.

Unlike the bad shepherds, Jesus the Good Shepherd can indeed claim the epithet good because he knows his sheep and he is prepared to lay down his life for them. Son of God he may be, and from all eternity with the father, and yet it is the great and abiding testimony of the Gospel of St John  is that Jesus is the very word of God come amongst us. The Word of God which was with God from the beginning has been made flesh and come to live amongst us. Jesus does indeed know his sheep.

The eternal Shepherd became one with the sheep. He knows what it is like to be us to be you and me. He knows from the inside the dangers and the insecurities that we sheep are susceptible to. He knows from his own experience both the temptations and the pains that come our way. In a way that on-one else can Jesus the Good Shepherd can say with both truth and conviction - ‘I know my sheep – better than they know themselves’. And of course in his death on the cross he willingly laid down his life for the sheep. What more could Jesus do to show and demonstrate the he truly is the Good Shepherd. And now from his exalted place with the father Jesus our Good Shepherd continues to care for us his flock. We recognise his voice as he speaks to us in the word of the Gospel. Through his word he encourages us and leads us and guides us. He feeds us in the sacrament of the Eucharist and welcomes us into his flock in our Baptism. At every moment of our lives Jesus our good shepherd is there for us. He assures us of the forgiveness of our sins in the sacrament of reconciliation. He heals us in anointing and laying on of hands in the sacraments of healing. He strengthens us in confirmation.  He seals and strengthens us in our love in marriage. He welcomes us to him at the end of our lives. Through his Holy Spirit living within us Jesus the Good Shepherd cares for us his flock with tender loving care but also with faithfulness and above all with love.