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| Photo by Robert Garstka RIK |
“I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will
come in and go out and find pasture.” (John 10:9)
The
Fourth Sunday after Easter in Lectionary Year C gets called the “Good Shepherd
Sunday,” which strikes me as rather odd since the compilers of the RCL in their
wisdom (and who am I to question it?) have stopped the Gospel reading (John
10:1-10) at verse 10 and not included verse 11 in which Jesus says “I am the
Good Shepherd.” What were those guys thinking?
This
sheep and shepherd stuff must’ve made lots of sense to folks in the time of
John’s Gospel, but I have to confess to having limited experience in the world
of ovine husbandry. I therefore did a little bit of research and discovered
that some 300 years before the time of Jesus, the great Greek philosopher
Aristotle[i] likened
a good king or ruler to a shepherd who lives for the welfare of his flock. In
the appointed Psalm, King David[ii]
compares the Almighty to a shepherd. This is a pretty funky comparison when you
consider that shepherds, in the world of the text, were some of the lowest
plankton on the social food chain. Dirt-scratching subsistence farmers were
held in higher esteem than shepherds because they, at least, had some dirt to
scratch. But I’m thinking both Jesus and the evangelist John had an audience of
people with very little coin in their blue jeans pockets. Some of them might’ve
been shepherds, so they’d get all the
allusions to sheep and such.
The
whole point? A good shepherd looks after his sheep. He feeds them, sees that
they have water, and keeps them safe.
John’s
Gospel may have been written some 70 years after the time of Jesus. Rome was
still in charge of Palestine, having opened an imperial-sized can of whoop-ass
on the Jews, crushing their ill-advised insurrection of 66-70 C.E. You can bet
that times were hard and oppressive for the defeated Jewish folks, and everyone
was looking with a stink eye at the local leadership, their “shepherds.” This
would’ve consisted, I imagine, of a combination of ruthless Roman governors,
feckless religious leaders, and weeny, greedy collaborators. There were also
the dead revolutionaries who got the people into a losing war in the first
place. If these guys were shepherds, they were doing a pretty lousy job of it.
When the
Jesus of John’s Gospel calls out “all those who came before (v.8),” I believe
he’s making a statement about the social situation. He’s comparing the way the
leaders of this world had shaped the culture with the way God wants it shaped. Now, whenever a pastor
starts to make commentary about social issues and culture, people start to get
a little uneasy. At least they do in the Lutheran church in my experience. But
the Bible is stuffed full of edgy, social commentary. You don’t believe me?
Just take a look at the First Lesson in the RCL for Easter 4, Year C (Acts
2:42-47):
“All who believed
were together and had all things in common; they would sell their
possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need
(vv.44-45).”
Yup. You heard it right. The
early Christians redistributed the wealth.
They make Bernie Sanders look like Ronald Reagan by comparison.
I’m not advocating a radical overthrow of our capitalistic system, but
I’d like to make the point that our social values should be shaped by our
spiritual values. The gate or pathway we tread should be the way of the Good
Shepherd, because all the bad shepherds do is mess things up. The bad shepherds
like to divide, rank, and classify their “sheep.” In the world of the text, you
were either righteous, semi-righteous, or unrighteous. You were clean or
unclean. If you were unclean, you were kicked to the bottom of society,
although you’d probably been there all along. The purity codes of the day
divided people by sex, by wealth or poverty, by health or physical infirmity.
The culture preached to us today still divides by social status, by deserving
or undeserving, native or foreign. There even are some preachers who still
insist on telling us that wealth is a sign of God’s favor and blessing. But the
Good Shepherd loves everyone the same and sees no such distinctions. The Good
Shepherd asks us to see with his eyes. He teaches us inclusivity, welcome, and
tolerance.
The bad shepherd preaches a doctrine of selfishness, of
“what’s-in-it-for-me?” The Good Shepherd teaches us to love one another, and to
treat one another as we would want to be treated. The Good Shepherd calls us to
see to the needs of our neighbors and trust that God can prepare a table for
everyone in the midst of this chaotic world. The Good Shepherd wants the needs
of all to be met.
The bad shepherd believes in acquisition. The Good Shepherd teaches
generosity. The bad shepherd is indifferent to the suffering of others, and has
no problem blaming the victim. “If my neighbor is hungry,” he says, “it is
because he lacks my industry and ambition.” The Good Shepherd is a healer. He
recognizes that not everyone has the same advantages, and he does what he can
to alleviate hunger, isolation, and sickness—and he enjoins those who love him
to follow in his way.
The bad shepherd loves violence, intimidation, and punishment. He seeks
to control by force and a show of might. The Good Shepherd preaches peace and
desires that all should live in safety and without fear. The Good Shepherd’s
way is that of abundant life—not just the eternal life he’s promised in the
next world, but meaningful, safe, and complete life in this world.
The Good Shepherd leads us in the paths of righteousness for his name’s
sake. We’d do well to follow.
Thank you for visiting, my fellow sheep. Keep on the path.
[i]
For you Aristotle fans, this was in his Nicomachean
Ethics. To be honest, I never read Aristotle myself. I just found this
reference in Professor Angela Parker’s commentary on the Working Preacher website. But when one quotes a great Greek
philosopher it does make one sound awfully smart, don’t you think? BTW: Have
you ever heard of a Greek philosopher who wasn’t
considered great?
[ii]
We’ve always believed it was King David who wrote this. We really don’t know
for sure, but if it wasn’t him, it should’ve been.
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