THE SHEEP FOLLOW HIM, FOR THEY KNOW HIS VOICE | Fourth Sunday of Easter | 26.04.26 | John 10:1–10 | Paul Bieber |

John 10:1-10 Revised Standard Version

10 Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber; ² but he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. ³ To him the gatekeeper opens; the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. ⁴ When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. ⁵ A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.” ⁶ This figure Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. ⁷ So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. ⁸ All who came before me are thieves and robbers; but the sheep did not heed them. ⁹ I am the door; if any one enters by me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. ¹⁰ The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”

also
Acts 2:42-47
Psalm 23
I Peter 2:19-25

THE SHEEP FOLLOW HIM, FOR THEY KNOW HIS VOICE

Grace, peace, and much joy to you, people of God.

“The Good Shepherd” is a comforting image for “church people”; witness the reading of the Twenty-third Psalm at so many Christian funerals. But for many of us, it is a churchly image only, with no real connection to our lives. For myself, I have only seen little lambs in a petting zoo and bighorn sheep in the high mountains of Colorado. I have never seen a shepherd. Of course, “pastor,” from the Latin paschere, “to feed,” denotes both a shepherd (the archaic meaning of the word) and a member of the clergy who has charge of a congregation: one who has heard the call of the risen Jesus to Peter in John 21 to “feed my sheep.”

Are pastors and their congregations like shepherds and their flocks? The shepherd leads the sheep out to the green pastures in the morning to feed and then leads them back to the sheepfold at night to rest. That’s a simple, rustic, pastoral life: the sheep are fed during the day and kept safe at night, watched over by a good shepherd.

The picture Luke gives us, in our reading from Acts, of the early community of the baptized seems to show something like this idyllic life. All who believed were together and all things in common, distributing the proceeds of the sale of their goods as any had need, breaking bread and eating their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God: green pastures and still waters indeed for the well-fed and well-looked-after flock, devoted to the teaching of their apostolic shepherds.

I’m sorry, but just as I’ve never seen an actual shepherd, I’ve never experienced this idyllic pastoral scene in the community of the baptized. At least, such gatherings in gladness and generosity in the church have been but fleeting moments. But perhaps that should come as no surprise. If the scriptures tell us anything about sheep, it is that they go astray; they wander away from the green pastures and still waters. The Good Shepherd has to bring back the lost sheep, time and again. Perhaps it is no surprise that Jesus told that parable twice.

When I recognize that I am prone to wander, I realize that I need a shepherd to watch over my going out and my coming in every day, and to bring me back to the sheepfold when I wander off again and again. Hence the importance of “Good Shepherd Sunday,” even for those for whom the shepherd and his flock is only a churchly image.

Even though the Gospel in this Lectionary year stops short of Jesus’ statement, “I am the good shepherd,” he it is who leads us out and feeds us, brings us back and enfolds us in his place of caring and safety. Pastors and preachers are “undershepherds,” called not to be served but to serve, feed, and watch over the flock obtained with Jesus’ blood; that is, the church, the community of the baptized.

I Peter is a catechetical letter directed to the new members of that community, the newly baptized. Our reading today is directed particularly to those who are in positions of service. The first hearers undoubtedly heard these words as intended for slaves in the highly stratified society of the Roman Empire, but they are read today as message to all of Jesus’ followers who serve and suffer.

Perhaps it is a message for people like me, whose experience of life in the church has not been as idyllic as the portrait Luke paints in Acts, and for everyone whose experience of life in the world has included suffering. That would be everyone.

Peter says, you will be beaten up in this life. Sometimes it will be the consequence of doing something wrong. Of that he says, so what? But sometimes, Christian friends, you will suffer unjustly; you did the right thing in this particular case, yet the result is pain and suffering. But this is not your opportunity to play your victim card and complain of the unfairness of it all. Actually, whether you are one of the newly-baptized, a long-time member of the Christian community, or even one of the undershepherds, Peter says, “to this you have been called.”

Called to endure, as it says three times in the first two verses. Because this is how we follow Jesus on his crossbearing journey to Easter, through Eastertide, and beyond. In Holy Baptism and in the daily return to Baptism we straying sheep return to the shepherd and guardian of our souls. He suffered so that we might live for righteousness. Not our own self-righteousness—that’s no way to life, certainly not abundant life; that will only get us lost again and again. Rather, following in Jesus’ footsteps, following the Shepherd, we who have been found—rescued from our lostness—can be healed of our self-righteousness and granted the righteousness that comes from faith in the One we follow.

But we must be sure to follow the Good Shepherd. Many voices and influencers clamor for our attention and allegiance. Ezekiel 34 begins with a cry of woe to the shepherds of Israel—leaders and would-be leaders—who are feeding themselves and not the sheep. Such self-serving neglect of those who follow these misleading voices amounts to the thievery that kills, steals, and destroys. Worldly shepherds and influencers will lead us to the slaughter of our souls; let’s not trust them.

Resisting them may be especially hard when we endure and suffer things that seem to be without purpose and without meaning, or things that arise out of our own temptations, limitations and failures. Jesus Christ bore them all in his body on the cross. Now, risen from the dead, he beckons us to return to him, the shepherd and guardian of our souls.

So we must listen, like Mary Magdalene on that first Easter morning, for the voice we recognize, the voice that calls us by name. No matter how far astray we may have wandered, the voice of this Shepherd says to each of us, as to Peter in John 21, “follow me,” and so receive the abundant life the shepherd offers, even in the presence of those who trouble us.

The abundant life may not be idyllic, like Luke’s portrait of the earliest church, but it will comprise the apostolic teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayers—the life together of the baptized. The Eucharist maintains and nourishes the abundant life that Baptism began. Entering God’s household by the Door that Jesus himself is, we shall be saved, watched over in our going out and coming in today and tomorrow and forevermore.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The Rev. Dr. Paul Bieber, STS
E-Mail: paul.bieber@sbcglobal.net
Retired Lutheran Pastor
San Diego, California, USA