Theme: “WE HAVE A GOOD SHEPHERD; LET US BE TRUE SHEEP”
Jesus refers to Himself as the Good Shepherd. This is the fourth of the ‘I AM’ sayings in John’s Gospel (cf. John 6:35; 8:12; 10:9). In making this statement, Jesus is contrasting Himself to the false shepherds who were in charge of the Jewish religion in those days. He had already called them “thieves and robbers”, and now He would describe them as “hirelings”.
Shepherding was a familiar occupation among the Semites and the image of the Shepherd and flock is a recurring phenomenon in the Old Testament. For instance, Abel, Moses, David and some great personalities mentioned in the Bible were shepherds by occupation. Oftentimes, the scripture also describe God’s people as sheep. But what is interesting is that today, Jesus picks up this image and uses it in the gospel to speak to us in a very deep and person.
al way. He says: I am the Good Shepherd (Jn. 10:11).
As God’s people, we are not just sheep but Jesus Himself is our Shepherd. He uses this Shepherd-Sheep imagery today to teach us the nature of our relationship with Him. Remember that all about our Christian life and witness is primarily anchored on our relationship with Jesus and how that relationship is manifested in the love we have for our brothers and sisters. This is why on this Good Shepherd Sunday we are to call to mind the quality and depth of our relationship with Jesus, the Good Shepherd.
It is however unfortunate that many Christians today do not value the Shepherd-Sheep link that we ought to keep with Jesus and so do not give heed to the quality of their relationship with Him. These are the Christians who just come to church because others are coming; these are the Christians who worship God just because they want others to see them; these are the Christians who show others they are nice and wonderful in our churches and yet have no personal relationship with Jesus, the eternal Shepherd of our lives. It is now time for us to know that Christianity is ultimately about Jesus and until we have a personal and blameless relationship with Him, all we do in the name of being Christians will yield nothing for us.
Jesus, in our gospel, describes the Good Shepherd as one who knows His sheep. This means that Jesus knows us personally and knows our names (cf. Jer. 1:5). Imagine how elated we feel when a person of great standing or high repute in the society knows us by name. It is usually a nice feeling for us and we often celebrate this. Today, we have come here in the presence of Jesus, the Good Shepherd and He tells us that He knows us personally. If you have been a good sheep, He knows you personally and even knows your needs.
This should create a feeling of joy and gladness in us. We should rejoice that Jesus knows us personally. We should count ourselves lucky because in knowing us personally, He knows what is best for us and will do for us far more than we could ever imagine or dare to ask (Eph. 3:20). Sometimes when we Christians get desperate or feel so frustrated that we are not meeting up our needs or living our dreams it shows that we do not know how provident Jesus our Good Shepherd is. Sheep are always in need of the care and love of the shepherd because they are ‘needy’ animals. They need pastures; they need to drink; they need to be defended and even led back home to the fold. This is why we Christians ought to know and believe that Jesus would always care and provide our every need according to His riches in glory. This should lighten our mood and stimulate some feeling of relief in us especially at this time when our needs are numerous and yet the times are so hard.
What is more is that in knowing us personally, Jesus, the Good Shepherd also knows our struggles and our sins. On a Sunday like this that we celebrate Him, we are challenged to examine ourselves to see if we are good enough as sheep to a Good Shepherd. Some of us would have been led astray from the path of goodness while some of us might have severed the supposed intimate relationship we ought to have kept with the Shepherd by reason of our persistence in sin.
Our celebration today is an opportunity for us to return into the arms of the Good Shepherd while weeping for our sins and making a firm purpose of amendment. Jesus, the Good Shepherd, calls out to you in the depth of your sins and wants you to respond to Him in penitence and renunciation. He wants you to come back to Him, for the straying sheep is always endangered and, at times, even victimized. Remember that the devil is always roaming round like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour (1Pt. 5:8). We are invited today to come back to the Good Shepherd that our lives may be secured and not be lost in our wandering and straying.
As the Good Shepherd, Jesus has also laid down His life for us that we may live peacefully. He died for us and by so doing bought us over with His blood. His blood is the price of our redemption (1Cor. 6:19-20). Our sins had wounded us and brought us to guilt and condemnation. We were dead by virtue of our sins when Jesus, our Good Shepherd, paid our ransom with His blood. This is the love of the Shepherd for we the Sheep and this is what Jesus did for us to be free. After laying down His life for us, He would take it up again so that we, the sheep, can also live this ‘glorified life’ with Him. In laying down His life, this life was not ‘taken’; He rather ‘gave’ us His life so that we can now live righteously here and partake in the glory of the hereafter.
Our worship today will not be complete if we do not remind ourselves on the need to become true shepherds in our various works and apostolates in life. Today, Jesus the Good Shepherd challenges us and summons us to be like him who loves the sheep and cares for them. Driven by this spirit of a true shepherd, Peter would defend his action of healing a cripple before the rulers of the Jews in our first reading today. He and John were moved by mercy and they showed kindness to this man who was crippled and had suffered for many years.
Let us not forget that we too are shepherds in our various religious vocations and civil responsibilities. As a government official or functionary, you are a shepherd. As a father or a mother in the family, you are a shepherd. As a school administrator or a teacher, you are shepherd. You are a shepherd if you are heading any society, sodality or group in the church. Each one of us is a shepherd in one way or the other and today Jesus invites us to learn from His life and emulate His role as the Good Shepherd.
Under the old dispensation, the sheep died for the shepherd; but in Jesus we see the Shepherd dying for the sheep. Also in those days and until now, Jewish shepherds led their sheep to earthly pastures where they fed on grasses and chew the cud but Jesus, as the Good Shepherd, leads us to the eternal pastures of the joys of heaven. Jewish shepherds also tended their sheep and used them for sacrifice and sometimes got wool, milk and lambs from them; but Jesus, the Good Shepherd, is the one who gives us His riches and His very life.
As we celebrate Good Shepherd Sunday, Jesus challenges most of us who are religious leaders today and have kept ‘feeding fat from our sheep’ and ‘milking them’. He also challenge those of us who are in civil leadership who oftentimes prefer our sheep to die for us and even use them to meet up our selfish ambitions. We who are in family life are similarly challenged to do all we can to show love and care to our children and spouse; for you too are shepherds.
We are all happy because we have a Good Shepherd who knows us and cares about us. He came to die to give us life in abundance. May we prove to be true sheep that know the Shepherd, following wherever He leads until we reach the joys of heaven. God bless you
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