We are a “liturgical church.”
For most churches that observe the “liturgical calendar and year”- the fourth Sunday of Easter is designated, as “Good Shepherd Sunday.”
From the early centuries of the church and well into modern times, the day was observed “only one week after Easter Sunday,” and was regarded as a feast day of “exceptional importance.”
It has been both loved and revered.
On “Good Shepherd Sunday” each year, the Twenty-Third Psalm is read, as is a portion of Jesus’ “Good Shepherd discourse” found in John chapter 10.
You can count on it. It occurs every single year, without fail.
It may seem “puzzling to us” that an entire Sunday – every year – is given to “a single image of Jesus” (and of God) especially one that is so “culturally remote” for most “modern listeners.”
But the early Christian writings “make many, many allusions” to Jesus as a shepherd, and even the Roman catacombs are filled with depictions of him as the Good Shepherd.
It was “that popular” of an image.
It also obviously had a long-rich history in the Hebrew tradition.
In this case, Jesus’ description of himself as the “Good Shepherd” is addressed to his opponents…the Judeans…the Temple elites!
Jesus speaks about his “care for his own.”
Like a shepherd, he “gathers” them, “leads” them, and “protects” them. He calls them “by name,” and they know “his voice.”
Most of all, far beyond what could be asked or expected of any shepherd “Jesus willingly lays down his life for them.”
It is Hanukkah (“the feast of Dedication”) – that is our setting.
Jesus is walking through an outdoor colonnade in the temple precincts area.
He is spotted there by some “Judeans,” who gather around him and demand or ask that he tells them plainly – “who he thinks he is.”
It is an old question. It has been a “hounding and a haunting question” throughout much of his ministry. No matter where he goes and no matter how many times he tells them…they continue to ask. The same question continues to follow after him.
“Whoever these Judeans are,” the text makes clear “who they are not” – they are not his sheep.
Repeatedly in the Good Shepherd discourse, Jesus says that the sheep know him, recognize his voice, hear him call their name, and therefore they follow him.
Belonging to the Shepherd, in other words, is chiefly and deeply “relational.”
It is about “knowing and being known,” about “mutual recognition,” a speaking of names, “a personal responsiveness,” a “shared understanding.”
A relationship… A knowing…
And, very much unlike his sheep, they have not heard his voice.
He then reminds them of the works that he has done, which clearly reveal who he is, but which – didn’t make a dent on the closed doors of their minds.
Sign upon sign, and they do not see.
Word upon “living word,” and they do not hear.
Are we “the sheep” of the Good Shepherd, or are we not? That is the question.
The text invites us to consider “a group of good, observant, religious people” who have come to the temple, surely in part to worship—as we have done. Seeing Jesus there, they gather to him as sheep might do—just as we have done.
And having come to him, they present their words, their questions, their stated need to him—as is our custom also.
Yet all this can be done without ever “listening” to the Shepherd’s voice!
It can be done without the “receptive, consenting silence” that would allow us to hear “our names” being called, and so to “go to him” and “follow after him.”
All of which is to say: Jesus cannot be meaningfully understood except by a “responsive on-going continual relationship,”- “attending” to the living voice of the One who “knows” us, and so can be “known” and gratefully “followed” by us.
Such relationship can withstand any threat. “No one will snatch them from my hand,” Jesus says.
I tell you, it is all about the relationship.
According to John, it is about knowing “who” your shepherd is…