THE GOOD SHEPHERD

     I want to share my reflection of the 10th chapter of the Gospel of John for this Good Shepherd Sunday, the Fourth Sunday of Easter, which I gave on my radio program yesterday "Drawing Life Giving Water From Jacob's Well" on WAOB fm.

     In the 10th chapter of the gospel of John we hear that Jesus is the Good Shepherd.  He says many things about sheep and sheepfolds and gates and shepherds.

     Then he says: "I am the good shepherd.  The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep."

     The story of Israel is filled with accounts of shepherds finding a role of prominence in a vocation that was far from glamorous or noteworthy.  We have many who tended their flocks and took them on their journeys, like Abraham ... we have Moses taking the role of humble and isolated shepherd for his father-in-law Jethro, after being a leader in Egypt and before becoming a messianic figure leading his people from slavery to freedom ... we have David who would become one of the greatest kings beginning as a shepherd ... oh, there are so many examples.  Now Jesus tells us that he too is a shepherd ... a good shepherd ... "the" good shepherd.

     What makes him a "good" shepherd?  He says: "The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.  He who is a hireling and not a shepherd, whose sheep are not his, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.  He flees because he is a hireling and cares nothing for the sheep."

     A true shepherd sees his sheep as his family, a part of himself, and he will do anything and everything to care for them.  He will defend and protect them with his life, for he and the sheep are one.  This sounds strange ... but it establishes what the relationship is.  Pope Francis very famously told priests that they need to not only minister to the sheep of their fold but be so one with them that they take on the smell of the sheep.

     Jesus takes on our human nature, embraces our frailty, knows our need, and shepherds us.

     In verse 14 Jesus says: "I know my own and my own know me, as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for my sheep ... For this reason the Father loves me."

     Listen closely to what Jesus just said.  He knows us ... not just the number of sheep in the flock, not just the peculiar ones that stand out among the others, not with a "generic" knowledge.   He knows us uniquely, calls us by name, knows our strengths and weaknesses, loves us despite what we make of ourselves, and cares for us with all he has.

     He says that he knows us in the same way that he and the Father know each other.  What greater knowledge can there be?

     It is with that understanding of the place of Jesus in our lives and of our importance to him in God's plan that we stand sure and confident in the victory over sin and death that he has won for us, and acknowledge him as our Lord and Savior ... but most especially as our friend and brother.  The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.