April 21st, 2024

Dear Parishioners,

Happy Easter!

The Good Shepherd Gospel reading on the Fourth Sunday of Easter appears out of place in the context of the previous three Sunday Gospel Readings. It takes us back in time before the Passion, death and Resurrection of Jesus while the previous three Sunday of Easter readings focus precisely on Jesus’ Resurrection appearances.

The Good Shepherd passage, however, further reveals the vocation of Jesus out of love and in love to shepherd and carry out the will of God the Father in love and for love of us: to willingly lay down His life for those who know and are known by Jesus and the Father.

In the time of Jesus, most owners of sheep and cattle took their livestock out to pasture themselves. They helped one another keep watch over each other’s flocks. They kept watch until the sun began to go down. The animals were kept in pens with walls made of stacked rocks and an entrance with no gate. The shepherds slept with their sheep at the entrance to the pen; keeping the sheep safely inside and guarding against predators, ready to give their life for their sheep if necessary. The concern of the shepherd was the safety and well-being of each and every one of his sheep.

Wealthier owners of sheep and cattle would hire shepherds to tend their sheep during the day, but at night they either retreated to their own homes or to a cot to sleep in prepared either in the owner’s house or a separate unit. The concern of the hired man was for the wages to be made from taking the sheep out and bringing them back in. Since they weren’t his, he had no concern to know how many sheep there were. To him all look the same and he only watched for the flock he was being paid for.

The true shepherd learns to recognize each of his sheep from one another because he spends time with them. He knows them and they know and trust his voice.

The message of the Good Shepherd is for us a reaffirmation of the love of God and of Our lord Jesus Christ for us. It is also a halfway checkpoint for us. Halfway through the season of Easter, how are we doing in our resolve to “repent and believe in the Gospel” accepted with the ashes of Ash Wednesday?

Like the two types of shepherd, the good shepherd, and the hired hand, we can have two approaches towards our sheep. We all have a flock to shepherd. The fact that not all of us are ordained ministers (typically identified with the position of pastors) does not exclude us from the vocation to shepherd. Our sheep are our family, our friends, our classmates, our co-workers, our employees, our followers, etc.

Are we Christ to them? Are we concerned for their well-being and care as the good shepherd is sleeping at the gate to keep them in the safety of our care or are we in it for the compensation received, whether it be recognition, selfaggrandizement or material and monetary gain?

A good shepherd is one who watches day and night, ensuring that he does not lead his flock into erroneous ways; assuring they remain within the light of truth. A good shepherd does not make exceptions as to which sheep to shepherd and which are out of his concern. A good shepherd keeps watch over his own and those who wander off from other flocks.

A hired man will only do what is convenient and advances his or her own cause. A hired man does not plan out the best route, but the shortest route. He has no concern for those he can’t profit from.

“Why do you call me good?” Jesus asked. “Only God is truly good” (Mk. 10:18). Therefore, Jesus-God with us is truly the Good Shepherd and we, being made in His image are called to that vocation of goodness and pastoral care.

Father Luther