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I Am The
Good Shepherd
4th Sunday of Easter – Cycle B
John 10: 11 – 18
Jesus said: “I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd lays
down his life for the sheep. A hired man, who is not his
own, sees a wolf coming, and leaves the sheep and runs away,
and the wolf catches and scatters them. This is because he
works for pay and have no concern for the sheep. I am the
good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me, just as the
Father knows me and I know the Father; and I will lay down
my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that do not
belong to this fold. There also I must lead, and they will
hear my voice, and there will be one flock, one shepherd.
This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life
in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but
I lay it down on my own. I have power to lay it down, and
power to take it up again. This command I have received
from my Father.”
Jesus said: “I am the good shepherd, the only one.” He
added: “I am the gate. I am the door. I am the only
entrance. I am the only exit that will lead to anything.”
Our reactions to those statements can be very different.
They can be positive, even to the point that we say: “In
that case, we should do what we can to spread that vital
piece of information.” They can be negative, especially
when we think about all that has been done in his name
during human history. “I am the good shepherd. I am the
way. I am the truth. I am life, if anyone rejects me he
will die.”
What did he mean? What did he want? Did he mean what
Christians mean? Did he want what Christians want? Did he
intend what Christians so often call their “Christians
ethics?” That is a good question.
What I am about to say next some of you may not understand, but it is
at the core of what we, as a Christian country, is facing
today, the same like of viewpoint from those of our leaders
who claim to be Christian.
In
1454, Pope Nicholas V wrote a degree Romanus Pontifex
in which he blessed, in the name of Jesus, the slave trade.
In 1668, a theologian at a university wrote that the
justification of slavery is a matter of faith, and he
quoted, in the name of Jesus, Leviticus, the first letter of
Peter, the first letter to the Corinthians, and the letter
to Philemon. In 1864, the Church still had slaves. In
fact, the first general statement against slavery
dates only from the Second Vatican Council.
Study Christian Church statements on the place and role of
women in this world, even the most recent ones and you will
be reminded of what an old Church father wrote: “Women are
the gateway of the devil.”
We Christians know that those statements are wrong when we
read them against Jesus’ vision. It is that vision of Jesus
we should test when we want to know what he meant, not
the so-called Christian version of that outlook.
It is in his vision that
he, seeing the crowds, had pity on them because they seemed
to be scattered, to be like sheep without a shepherd. He
saw in a very special way how all human beings belong
together. How we all hang together – or at least should –
as one tree of life. He expressed this in his idea about
God: a Mother and a Father, and we all in the same family,
brothers, and sisters.
This he expressed when his family – his mother, his
sisters, and his brothers – wanted to see him. He did not
come, because, he said, everyone is my mother, my sister, my
brother. He expressed this when he handed his bread around
and said: “This is my body, eat it, all of you.” When he
handed his cup around and said: “This is my blood, drink
it, all of you.” Just as we are doing, being one without
considering age or wealth, social groups, race, or the
schools where we studied.
He expressed this when he was interested in all the people
he met during his life; the young, the old, the sick, the
healthy, the dead, the sinners, the crooks, the lost girls,
the runaway boys, and the saints. It is a vision in which
slavery, discrimination, bias against others are out. It is
an outlook in which the human family is really one family,
in which peace will reign, conflicts will be solved; the
economy will be interested in all, without a war that might
destroy us. And without political leaders who want to
destroy us, who want to do away with Christianity in this
country; who, without authority to express the views of the
majority of the people in this country, and boldly say, “We
are not a Christian nation to the rest of the world.”
When
we take a closer look at the demise, the issues facing
everyday, ordinary people who have always worked hard,
sacrificed, and put their trust in our Lord, in light of the
fact that most Americans are Christians, we just might be
inclined to surmise that this whole government control thing
is indeed targeted at us Christians. It certainly does
stand on solid ground as a scheme of persecution from those
what a different outcome.
We
were founded as a Christian nation and our laws and rights
are based on those Christian morals and values that Jesus
taught all those years ago. Anyone who doesn’t want to
accept that might do well to move on to another country that
is not Christian. Unfortunately that is not going to
happen.
That is why and always has been why Jesus’ vision is the
only one that can and does save us. That is why HE, living
that vision through life, passion, and death into
resurrection and glory, is the only way and the only door
leading in and out. Let us never forget that twice,
prophets thought we Christians had lost that vision in the
practice of our lives.
Mohammed, almost fourteen hundred hears ago, started a new
human family, because the Christians he lived with did not
want to associate with him or his people. More than a
hundred years ago, Karl Marx started his new “commune,”
because he doubted whether Christians, with their belief in
God, could do it. They both made a mistake: They thought
Jesus was at fault. He is not; his followers were.
He remains the only good shepherd, the exclusive door
leading in and leading out.
(C) Deacon Steve A.
Politte
5/2/2009
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