Some thoughts on Good Shepherd Sunday
This Sunday, like every fourth Sunday in Easter, is Good Shepherd
Sunday. Our gospel reading is always from John 10. We are invited to reflect on
how John uses the good shepherd tradition, which begins with the 23rd
Psalm, to depict how Jesus lives out the character of God the good shepherd. This
tradition is based on the hard and dangerous life of shepherds across the Middle
East and speaks to the reality for so many and shaped their understanding of
God.
Many elements of that tradition are found in what Jesus does
in John, and what he says in the two conversations with Jewish leaders in John
10. God is the good shepherd who honours the sheep and leads them to safe and good
pasture. God is the good shepherd who enters into the wilderness to search diligently
for, find, gather and bring back the lost sheep. The good shepherd knows the
sheep by name and calls them. The sheep know the voice of the good shepherd and
follow only that voice. And in John Jesus is the good shepherd who will lay
down his life for the sheep, paying the price so that they may be freed from
all that enslaves them. In Jesus we see God the good shepherd at work.
All of which makes me wonder how that tradition carries on
today. In what ways do we hear and follow the voice of God the good shepherd? What
other voices compete for our attention? How are we good shepherds?
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