The Good Shepherd

at Ravenna c. 450

 Mid-third century catacomb
painting

In John Chapter 10, Jesus makes two of his "I AM" statements.

"I AM" the door;"I AM" the Good Shepherd."

Jesus is the true shepherd of the sheep who comes in by the door (v.2), and he calls his sheep by name (v. 3), and he goes before them and they know his voice; Jesus continues "I lay down my life for my sheep" (v. 15) "I know my own, and my own know me" (v. 14).

The shepherd images of the 23rd Psalm that this statement evokes--a loving, strong, searching and saving Lord. The Lord's protection is our favorite association with the Good Shepherd, a serene, even sacramental, image to calm and reassure. The Good Shepherd in John 10 is saving, but also challenging us God's people, into an alertness of listening and following.

Because Jesus' purpose, and the evangelist's, and the prophet Ezekiel's, and might we add God's, center on distinguishing the false from the true shepherds. We are hearing about distinction and separation.

David and the Lion by Marc Chagall

In Ezekiel chapter 34, the most important Old Testament source for this challenge, the evil shepherds are kings of Israel who did not strengthen the weak, nor heal the sick, nor bind up the injured, nor seek the lost. Ezekiel prophesies the flock will unite under King David (shown right, defending his flock from a lion). In the Gospel of John, the evil shepherds are the false religious leaders of Israel who have turned God's house into a den of robbers.

Hear Jesus call to us: Don't listen to thieves and bandits; listen to me. Know my voice; follow me. Under my leadership you will have safe comings and goings, and I love you enough to die for you. And have the power to rise and ascend and transform your life unto eternity.

Please, people, don't listen to the false leadership of today. Don't listen to the self-proclaimed Christians who spew hatred and exploit the ignorant. Don't listen to the so-called educated who think they have intellectual "courage" to renounce the fake god of their own imaginings. Jesus calls us, to safety, and enjoyment, and alertness to truth.

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The Sadness of Mortality

15You would call, and I would answer you; you would long for the work of your hands. Job 14:15

Instead of the usual way we think about prayer, calling out to God and hoping for God’s response, in his agony Job is envisioning a time when God would call out for Job, because God would be lonesome for his creature.

Since creatures are mortal, Job first says, why do you have to bother them. Let them at least enjoy their short lives before they pass away.

But then Job envisions a time of God’s protection “Oh that you would hide me in Sheol… conceal me until your life is past… appoint me a set time, and remember me!...

“All the days of my service I would wait until my release should come….”  God would seal away all Job’s sin, protecting Job from God’s own anger. That God, too, would long for their former closeness is Job’s passionate hope.

But right now all he knows is his own pain, so intense he is trapped in it and can’t even think about his own children.

(Job’s children of course had all just been killed by God in Chapter 1, Verse 19).

This wistfulness is found in Psalm 42 “These thing I remember, as I pour out my soul/how I went with the throng…a multitude keeping festival” (Ps 42:4).

I also find this sadness for mortality in the phrase “Jesus wept” (John 11:35) at the tomb of Lazarus. Jesus knew he was about to raise Lazarus from the dead; but he wept for the sheer mortalness of our existence.