Christ the Good Shepherd
Texts: Psalm 23, 1 Peter 2:19-25, John 10:1-10
Today is Good Shepherd Sunday, the day in the Easter season when we celebrate Jesus leading us and guiding us like a shepherd with their sheep. Shepherds were not of high status in Israel, but they were important. Stories involving shepherds, imagery of leaders as shepherd, and the image of God as a shepherd run throughout the entire Bible. It was especially emphasized when God chose David to be Israel’s king, a lowly shepherd boy. It’s no mistake that Jesus, a carpenter, used this imagery even though none of his disciples were shepherds. This is imagery and language the people of Israel knew well.
Jesus is the leader, the guide of the people. We bask in the beautiful imagery of following Jesus, the joy of mutual aid in our Acts lesson, the still waters of Psalm 23, and then we get to First Peter. Suddenly we hear of enduring unjust suffering willingly and are told that Jesus’ wounds heal our wounds. It’s a bit jarring. What does that all mean?
It’s important to know who Peter was talking to when he wrote these words. Peter is in the middle of changing up Roman household codes, expectations of household relationships, which were originally written to help guide the masters of the house in their treatment of slaves and wives. Many teachers in the Roman empire wrote household codes, it was a common format people would have recognized. But instead of addressing the man of the house, Peter addresses the slaves and the wives of the house, those who don’t have power in the household. It’s easy to see why Peter would do this, the slaves and the wives of these households were coming into the early Christian community in droves. In Jesus they found someone who understood them and could relate to them, a God who cared about their plight.
The verse before our reading for today reads: “Household slaves, submit by accepting the authority of your masters with all respect. Do this not only to good and kind masters but also to those who are harsh.” (1 Peter 2:18 CEB) Now this doesn’t sound great, right? It sounds like he’s just telling those in slavery to suck it up. But that’s not what he’s doing. In our reading from First Peter today, he expands on why he said that.
If you’re a slave, you don’t have much control over your life. Slavery in Rome was different from slavery in the American South, the idea of hereditary enslavement was a uniquely evil idea formed to justify the African slave trade. But slavery is always bad. There is always injustice. It doesn’t matter how many household codes of conduct are written for the master to obey, slaves suffer. Peter highlights that fact. He says, “I know what happens to you.”
Peter wasn’t seeking to lead a slave revolt, just like Jesus wasn’t seeking to overturn Rome. As much as we’d like the writings of the New Testament to firmly say, “This must end”, they don’t do that. Perhaps that is to the world’s detriment. However, if the masters of the slaves listened to Jesus’ call, if they saw the nature of Christ overturning the structures and powers of the world, making the first last and the last first, the institution of slavery would not be able to stand. It doesn’t make sense to enslave people in God’s world.
But in the power structure that existed in the world around him, Peter empowers those in slavery to take control of what they could control: their attitudes and actions. He tells them that they can choose to endure, not for their master’s benefit. They are to endure because Christ endured. Christ was under an abusive system that crucified him, yet he entrusted himself to God and didn’t sink to the level of his accusers. Christ took the high road, and through it Christ brought us all to everlasting life.
The slaves whom Peter was addressing had the power to be like Christ. They knew Christ’s sufferings deep within their bodies. They felt Christ’s pain. They were able to have an even more intimate relationship with Christ than their masters because they were the ones experiencing injustice, not the ones inflicting injustice.
Jesus entrusted himself not to people on earth, who could do all sorts of evil things to those deemed less than, but to God who is just and only ever saw Christ’s belovedness. The slaves are beloved too, having come to Jesus who can protect them and claim them as whole and beloved children of God. They are not less than in God’s kingdom. They are greater. They can endure because Christ endured too. Those who had almost no power over their lives did have power over their actions and attitudes, and in embracing the way of Christ, they were able to assert their full humanity and status as God’s children, even when others only saw a slave. Those who have no power in human empires have greater status in God’s kingdom. If their masters truly believed this, the institution of slavery would necessarily crumble as they lived in the reality that those who are least in human society are greatest in God’s.
The key message of all of these readings is that of an intimate relationship with God. Jesus in our Gospel message today describes the intimacy of that relationship using the imagery of a sheepfold.
Now being corralled in a pen with a bunch of others can sound more restricting than loving, but there is a reason why sheep get put into these enclosures. Sheep are prey animals. A lot of other animals can attack them, especially at night. They get put into enclosures so everyone can sleep in safety. They need the pen, they need the gatekeeper in order to rest without fear. It’s not about what sheep can come in and out, it’s not a matter of sheep trying to prove they are worthy of being within those walls. Even the sheep who don’t know the shepherd’s voice are in there. The point is that God does indeed care and want good things for people.
Those who listen to Jesus as their shepherd can be assured that he is with them, even if things aren’t great, maybe even especially more in those moments. False teachers, portrayed as thieves and bandits, will come, but we don’t have to worry about them. We know Jesus’ voice. We can rest in knowing that Jesus won’t lead us into irreparable harm. Jesus cares. Jesus provides us with space of rest and renewal, Jesus seeks for us to have life to the fullest.
Who is it that gets in the way of everyone truly having this abundant life? It’s not Jesus. It’s human corruption. We sometimes personify this evil that is so much bigger than any of us individually as the devil. But perhaps the most evil is done by those who don’t see the humanity of those around them. These are the thieves and the bandits. The corrupt masters in our reading from First Peter seek to steal the lives of their slaves. People today try to steal the lives of those they think less than. We all know that there are people with higher status than others in the world today. If we aren’t careful, we allow those who are corrupt to climb over the protective walls of our society and toss vulnerable populations to the wolves. Jesus is not for that. We all deserve the safety to be able to rest and be renewed. We all deserve a sheepfold, a protective barrier against the cruelties the world can throw at us. Jesus wants us to have that. Whether or not we are Christian, it doesn’t matter. Those of a variety of beliefs are all in the fold. Some know Jesus’ voice, others do not. They are all there.
But it is also clear that we do need boundaries in society. We need the walls of the sheepfold to protect us. There’s a very good reason why we have rules and regulations. Jesus gives us those too. But the primary rule Jesus gives us is that of love. If something enhances a person’s life and does not harm another person’s life, then human dignity is preserved. We are called to help us all have life to the fullest.
We help each other out by creating rules and order. We need this because it gives us security. There’s a reason why Jesus says he leads us in and out of the sheepfold, from the place of rest into a place of action, and back again. We are called to a type of obedience. It’s like the boundaries parents set up with their children. A child is placed within a routine with structure because it enhances their life and provides them with security. If they know what the day will look like, they don’t have to be anxious about what might come next. They are also given clear rules and consequences to help them grow into responsible adults. If they know they cannot hit someone or they will be put in time out, they learn how to regulate their emotions and control their actions. There are boundaries around what the child can and cannot do. They are set to enhance the child’s life and wellbeing, not to exert undue control over them.
Similarly, we set up predictable routines and boundaries in our life with Christ. We make vows to follow God’s commandments. We have personal devotion times and times for corporate worship. We build routines for ourselves and patterns of living. In my own life, the first two hours of the day are fairly well regimented. I make coffee, I have the same breakfast foods, I do my devotions. I may flex things if the day requires, but these boundaries are life giving for me. I know what’s next. I can rest in God before the day takes me where it will. I am in the sheepfold, being protected by the great gatekeeper, who helps provide me with rest and renewal before being led into the pastures of the world. Routine and structure are God given and good. Boundaries are necessary. We need the sheepfold and the gate. Not to restrict us in ways that harm us, but to ensure that all have life in abundance.
We build routines and rules for our lives that center on our trust in and our love of Jesus, our shepherd. Jesus is a really good shepherd. He leads us just like the shepherd in Psalm 23. He is with us even when walking through the darkest valley, the toughest parts of our lives. He understands what we are going through because he has been crucified. He’s taken on all the evil of the world and overcome it. He promises that we can overcome it too. Even when everything hurts, when danger is all around us, we can come into the fold and find rest. Jesus will spread a table before us. Jesus’ goodness and love will follow us all the days of our lives, and we can dwell in the house of the Lord forever. When others seek to strip our humanity, when we are called less than, God calls us beloved. Jesus saves us. That doesn’t mean that the world won’t crucify us. Others certainly have enough power to do that. But even if we are crucified by the world, we are alive in Christ. Because Christ lives, we can live too. Even when others seek to break us down and call us less than human, Jesus calls us his own. We know his voice. We follow that voice. We can trust in his voice because Jesus is a really good shepherd.
So may we enjoy both rest in the walls of the sheepfold and the assurance of God with us in even the darkest valley. May we know that Christ is with those who are considered less than even as the thieves and bandits of this world seek to devour them. May we live out our call to protect human dignity and follow our good shepherd in all that we do. Amen.
