Sermon for 4th Sunday of Easter – “The Good Shepherd”, preached at the Eucharist, Sherborne Abbey on Sunday, 21 April 2024 by The Reverend Robert Green (Acts Ch 4: v 5 – 12; John Ch 10: v 11 – 18).
There is a story of a priest visiting a fairly remote part of Africa accompanied by a missionary, and they reached a village where the missionary suggested that the priest might like to give a talk to the villagers. He immediately thought that a talk about Jesus as the Good Shepherd would be eminently suitable. The villagers duly gathered under the shade of the trees in the middle of the village compound, and with the missionary acting as interpreter, the priest gave his talk. At the end the priest asked the missionary if his talk had been appropriate, and the missionary said it was alright up to a point, but there was one slight problem. These people had never seen a sheep in their lives!
On the other hand, the people of the Bible were very familiar with sheep. Both in the Old Testament and the New there are frequent references to shepherds and sheep. Psalm 23, the most well-known psalm is all about God being the shepherd of his sheep. In Ezekiel the priests are described as the shepherds of the people of Israel, and how they had failed to look after their flock. The imagery of the shepherd resonated with the people all down the centuries, beginning with David who was called to leave the sheep he was looking after, to be anointed the King of Israel, and it was shepherds who first heard about the birth of Jesus as they watched their flocks by night on the hills surrounding Bethlehem; furthermore it was sheep who were chosen to be sacrificed for the sins of the people at the Temple in Jerusalem, but when Jesus speaks of himself as the Good Shepherd, the Pharisees listen to him in angry disbelief. They are shocked into serious silence when Jesus said, ”I am the Good Shepherd”, and “The Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep”.
They are so angry because “I am” is the name of God as revealed to Moses from the flames of the burning bush (Exodus 3: 2-15) “I am who I am” being the slightly longer version, is a sacred name, which should not be spoken aloud by anyone. But Jesus does speak it, and goes further by saying that it is his name. Matters are made worse by then describing himself as the Good Shepherd, which bearing in mind what Ezekiel had said about the shepherds of Israel who mistreat and even kill their sheep when they ought to be protecting them, they realised that he was referring to them as the hired hands and thieves. Jesus then goes on to say that he will lay down his life for the sheep, and that he will bring into his flock sheep who are on the outside, and that he lays down his life by his own choice. It is not surprising that the next verse following our Gospel passage says “Again the Jews were divided because of these words”. We tend to think that the image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd is portraying a picture of a pastoral idyll, when in fact it is a quite the opposite Being a shepherd at that time was not an easy option. Wolves and bears would attack the sheep, particularly new-born lambs, and the shepherd had to guard and protect his flock against such attacks, sometimes having to sacrifice his own life for his sheep. Jesus makes it clear that he chooses to lay down his life for the people- the sacrificial lamb for the sins of the whole world. Later in this service just before we receive Communion, the choir will sing the Agnus Dei when we are reminded of that great sacrifice that Jesus, the Lamb of God, has made for us on the Cross, so at the heart of our worship we have Jesus, the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep.
In this passage there is one further point relating to the flock that Jesus is shepherding, and that is in verse 16 when Jesus says; “I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.” It is only in Jesus Christ that the world can become one. I close with another missionary story which has a slightly different ending. Egerton Young was the first missionary to the Red Indians. In Saskatchewan, Canada he went out to find them and told them of the Love of God, the Father. When he had finished, an old chief said: “When you spoke of the great Spirit just now did I hear you say, ‘Our Father’? “Yes”, said Egerton Young. “That is very new and sweet to me,” said the chief. “We never thought of the great Spirit as Father. We heard him in the thunder. We saw him in the lightning, tempest and blizzard, and we were afraid. So when you tell us the great Spirit is our Father, that is very beautiful to us” There was a pause, and then he went on “Did you say that the great Spirit is your Father”? “Yes” said the missionary. “And did you say that He is the Indians Father?” “I did”. “Then,” said the old chief, “you and I are brothers!” What a moment of revelation that must have been!
It is in the universal fatherhood of God that there is true unity. The only thing which can cross barriers and wipe out distinctions between nations and people is the gospel of Jesus Christ. In Jesus there is “one flock and one Shepherd”. As we heard in our first Reading: “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given by mortals by which we must be saved”