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Fourth Sunday of Easter

John 10:11-18 Acts 4:5-12

The Good Shepherd

The first thing I thought of when I read John’s gospel reading was Psalm 23. Of course, you’d say, there’s none more famous than this Psalm, when it comes to the image of the Lord as shepherd. And my second thought was, ‘now where’s my little sheep?’ You know, the one I ‘crafted’ last year when we came to this subject. Thankfully, it’s still here; I found it hiding behind my computer…

Of course, when we talk about sheep, we talk about their shepherd – or their lack of one – and when we talk about a shepherd, we also think of sheep. The two images go together.

When I was staying in my Mum’s house earlier this year, during her illness and after her death, the view from that place was still that orchard and the flourmill beyond, with the church in the distance, as I’d known it. A quintessential, typically Dutch village. And it was easy to remember the times when I had seen the orchard full of sheep, grazing in summer, as their shepherd had directed them. The picture was idyllic and beautiful, but also down to earth. After all, sheep must eat, and a village orchard benefits from them in another way…

Psalm 23 is a reflection of what it means to have the Lord as our Shepherd. And in today’s reading from John 10, Jesus confirms that he is that One, Good Shepherd, whom God had promised since the prophets, like Isaiah chapter 40. But there’s something about the Good Shepherd that isn’t always easy to grasp. For we know him, Jesus says, because he lays down his life for the sheep. Anybody else, pretending to be their shepherd, is only interested in personal gain, and doesn’t really care for the sheep. At the first sign of danger, the sheep are abandoned and left to the approaching predator, who snatches and scatters them. Jesus, on the other hand, is the One, who, according to God’s plan, looks after his people in a way that is nurturing and life-giving, precisely because he is to lay down his life for them. And not only that: he has power to lay down his life, and he has power to take it up again; as God the Father has commanded. You see, God has a plan! A plan to save humankind from the darkness of the valley of death; to guide us in paths of righteousness; to comfort us, and prepare us a meal, even! The plan is to give us life, and life to the full. That means that although things may often look bleak, and we are confused and confounded by suffering, well, frankly, as it has looked for over a year at a global level during a pandemic, we still have hope. As the Good Shepherd, Jesus himself goes before us; his rod and staff are symbols of comfort, for we know that Jesus uses them to guide and protect us. And he is calling other sheep to follow him and enter into the fold. In other words, to listen to Jesus and accept his word and his work, so that they too may have life. If we are still doubting: Jesus has given proof of being the Good Shepherd by carrying out God’s plan of salvation. He has laid down his life and he has taken it up again, according to the Father’s command. We may not fully understand it. We may find it difficult to accept something that science has not explained. God’s plan and God’s love are often inexplicable. But that doesn’t make them less true. They are a gift for all who long to receive and are listening to Jesus’ voice. The voice of the Good Shepherd is the one who brings us truly home. A prayer by Thomas ‘a Kempis:

Dear Lord and God! O Holy One, O Lover of my soul! When you come to my heart, all that is within me will leap up for joy. You are my glory, the rejoicing of my heart. You are my hope and my refuge in my hour of peril. Yet I am still weak in love, imperfect in goodness, and I need your strength and comfort. So visit me often and teach me by your holy discipline; free me from evil passions, and cure my heart of all its undisciplined emotions; then I shall be healthy and clean within, made fit for loving, strong for suffering, steadfast for enduring. Amen.