This is one of my favourite Sundays of the
year to preach – Good Shepherd Sunday. It is the Sunday that we also read John
10 (1-10 this year) and we get to talk about Jesus as the Good Shepherd and the
coming of a whole new way of living.
One of the first things that I
notice about this week’s Gospel, his how Jesus points out who he is compared to
those who call themselves the shepherds and pretend that they are the true
Shepherds of the people of God. The thing is, as Jesus points out to his
listeners, the Good Shepherd, the messianic Shepherd of God’s people acts and
sounds different from those of the current, popular religion. Case and point is
the healing of the man born blind in John 9. This man and the whole of his
life, including the healing and the blindness are used to witness to the fact
that God is caring for his people and doing what he promised.
On the other hand, are the
religious leaders of the day who are, from the description of Jesus in this for
themselves to maintain positions they have inherited and continuing to accrue
wealth and power. They are compared to Jesus as being hirelings who when real
trouble and problems come up care nothing for the people (flock) under their
care and charge and run away from the danger to preserve themselves and their
own perceived self righteousness. They are living off the work and wealth that
the contemporary religion is giving them and not caring for people in return.
The Good Shepherd understands
that the life and welfare of the flock is tied to his own. He is the life of
the flock. Much is often made of how dumb sheep are. And at the same time there
is this to their credit: they know the voice of the one who loves them and they
follow him. Again, think of the man healed of his blindness. Jesus didn’t just
give him sight, Jesus enabled his insight so that he could see God and be given
to a new community when the old one threw him out. This man’ blindness and his
entire life is used of God to glorify God and help others to see the coming
kingdom. There is a simple reality that people of faith know: when you open
your eyes, you can see. When you can see, you come to believe. When you
believe, you become (John 1.12).
So consider Jesus and who he
is for you and for all of us. Sunday by Sunday we hear the words, “The Body of
Christ given for you” and “The Blood of Christ, shed for you” Jesus loved each and
all of us to offer his life for us. He laid down his life and God raised him up
again that we might be with him. That is why St. Paul would later write, “it is
not I who live but Christ in me.” Through the Eucharist we discover again our
first love and make him apart of our lives at the start of another week. He
draws us in with his staff, checks us over, cleans our wool, binds our wounds
and sets us free to follow his voice.
Living with Jesus means that
there is a whole new way to live. We can only enter into that life by following
the sound of his voice. If sheep know nothing else, they know the voice of the
one who cares for them and they follow him into pasture and into wider life.
Take some time this week to quiet yourself and listen for the Master’s voice.
He is calling you.
Jason+
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