SERMON PREACHED BY FR. TONY NOBLE ON MAY 7, 2006
John 10:11 I am the
Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
On my recent visit to I was wandering around the city of Melbourne and I came across a man in his seventies sitting on park bench crying, crying uncontrollably. Perhaps he was a homeless man, so I asked: Can I help you? He said: Oh no, I live in a penthouse on the 20th story of a building. Are you hungry Oh no I've just been to a restaurant and had a very nice lunch. Are you lonely? Oh no I have a beautiful wife 30yrs younger than myself waiting at home – good enough to be Miss Australia. Then what is wrong? He said: I can't remember where I live!
Being lost is terrible.
So to today's gospel - the Good Shepherd. When we think of the term good shepherd we immediately think of Luke 15, where Jesus gives us the parable of the shepherd who went after the one sheep that was lost, and left the 99 waiting. He found the sheep that was lost. So our immediate image of the good shepherd is Jesus searching for the one who is lost from the flock.
In today's gospel from John 10 we have a different image of the good shepherd - and St. John always gives a deeper meaning for us. Firstly he says the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
So in Eastertide one Sunday is set aside for us to contemplate the image of the good shepherd from St. John's gospel. St. John reminds us that when Jesus gave up his life for us He was showing himself to be the good shepherd.
So the Good Shepherd is an Easter image, along with the lamb carrying the banner and Jesus the High Priest.
In the first century in Rome when the Christians were being persecuted, they put up various symbols in the catacombs to show where Christians met on Sundays. They were the fish symbol, with which we are familiar, and also the image of the shepherd with the sheep around his shoulders. It was an early Christian symbol of the resurrection.
I must confess I have not always found the image of the good shepherd helpful. To me the idea of Jesus with a crook and a sheep over his shoulder is a bit sentimental. Growing up in Australia, sheep are looked after by young men wearing jeans and cowboy boots and driving trucks. We can hardly imaging Jesus saying: "I am the good cowboy”!
So now to take a serious look at what St. John is saying in today's gospel - for there is little sentimentality attached to it.
I would like to begin by referring to the verses before
today's gospel reading, 1:1-10, where Jesus said "He that enters not through the door of the sheepfold is a thief and a
robber."
St. John says that the apostles did not understand what Jesus was saying. So in verse 7 Jesus says: "I am the door." Similar to the words: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life" - all indicating access through Jesus. Jesus is the one through whom we have access to the Father. Every prayer we say usually finishes "through Jesus Christ Our Lord" because it is only through Jesus that the Father accepts our prayers.
Jesus is not only the door to the Father for us - he is also the door to the sheepfold. Therefore for us who are members of the church, his flock, our purpose is to follow Jesus. This leads quite naturally to today's gospel, verses 11-16. In this section Jesus refers to several things: He talks about hirelings, wolves, he says "the good shepherd knows his flock", he says "I lay down my life for the sheep." And it concludes with a reference to other sheep not of his fold.
When Jesus is quoted by John about the hirelings John was making a reference to the Gnostics in the first century of the church. They were the Christians who had gone astray from the gospel. They had a different version of the gospel, and it was not true. They were a select group who had secret mysteries and rites, which only the initiated were allowed to enter into. And one group even had women priests.
St. John makes it plain that these Gnostics were false shepherds that Jesus was referring to. They were the hirelings. Their hearts were not in it. They were not doing it for the right reason. That was so long ago, 2000 years ago. And yet with the release next week of the movie ‘The Da Vinci Code', all those ancient heresies are suddenly modern, up to date and relevant. Why after centuries and centuries should these ancient heresies become popular again? Why this sudden interest?
Probably because the church no longer wields the influence in western society it did. Certainly these days many people long for religion but don't want to go in for what the church teaches: all the disciplines and morals and ethics the church bases its life of faith on. People want a religion which appeals to them which is part of this age, just like the Gnostics.
As I said on Easter day, for such people the resurrection is too difficult for them to comprehend. And it is in reference to people who teach that, that St. John understood that Jesus regarded them as hirelings.
But Jesus goes further. He uses the term "wolves" to indicate the great danger that these teachers pose to Christians. By saying that the hirelings flee when the wolf comes, He saying there is great danger for what we believe and practice.
Then the punch line. Jesus says: I am the Good Shepherd". As if Jesus is saying I am the only one - but there will always be distractions, errors, people who want to lead you astray - hirelings. Recalling verse 11, it is in laying down his life that Jesus shows himself to be the good shepherd. He didn't just say things - he backed them up by what he did. But it is not just a matter of what Jesus did on Good Friday. He says: "I know my own and my own know me." At the heart of our life as members of the church is the relationship of Jesus with us.
And he proved that on Easter Day!
Here we see a fundamental truth about the New Testament. The New Testament is not just a record of raw facts. The writers are not neutral observers of the career of Jesus Christ. What we read in the New Testament is already filtered through the faith of the early church. What we read in the gospels is the testimony of both fact and faith together. As the hymn Tantum Ergo that is sung at Benediction says: "Faith the outward sense befriending makes our inward vision clear."
When Jesus declared that he was "the Good Shepherd" it was not just an historical fact - it was revelation. Christians believe that God has disclosed his presence to us in Jesus and in historical events surrounding his life - not in timeless myths or coded secrets.
The only code connected with Jesus is what St. Paul says in Romans 1:19: "All that may be known of God by men lies plain before their eyes."
To the eyes of men and women of faith Jesus is the living incarnate Son of God. Even though we know that in his day the same man provoked the response "Is not this the carpenter's son?"
In the good shepherd image St. John is not giving us a sentimental image that we can use for Sunday school or in pictures and statues. He is showing us how to view the story of Jesus. And reminding us that because Jesus rose from the dead nothing else avails for our salvation.