Sermon Easter 4 2014

Image: vatican.va

Acts 2.42-47

1 Peter 2.19-25

John 10.1-10

Last week I was in Rome, admiring the many treasures of Christian art from across the ages.  The earliest images of Christ that we have are found in the catacombs, underground cemeteries outside the city walls dating from the first to the fourth centuries. There are no images of Christ on the cross from those early times. Sometimes Jesus is shown in glory, or teaching his disciples. But often he appears as the Good Shepherd: a youth carrying a sheep securely over his shoulders. It is an appealing image, not great art but fresh and hopeful, full of the vitality of a new faith that offered to all the hope of eternal life beyond death.

The use of this image in the catacombs is not a surprise, because the image of sheep and shepherd often appears in the Bible as well, and would have been familiar to the first Christians. In the Old Testament sheep are used as an image of Israel, the people of God. Sheep go around in a flock, not as isolated individuals, so this tells us that the people of God belong together.

But sheep also need quite a bit of looking after. They are not very clever creatures, apt to wander off into danger, falling down holes or into ditches or the jaws of wolves. So they need a shepherd to keep them together, to protect them and keep them from wandering off. Sheep are very dependent, and need to be able to trust their shepherd. They need a good shepherd.

In the Old Testament God himself is described as the shepherd of his people. That is a very comforting and reassuring, not only that God is described as our shepherd, but also that we are described as sheep. Admittedly it’s not very flattering. Sheep, as I’ve said, are a bit daft, and need a lot of looking after. So, too, do the people of God. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, says Isaiah. We are inclined to wander off and get ourselves into trouble and difficulty. But God knows this and understands it. When a sheep falls into a ditch, does the good shepherd blame the sheep, or get angry with it? No. The good shepherd just goes to the sheep, and carefully drags it out of the hole, and brings it back to the flock. And then patiently does the same again, and again, as the sheep, being still daft, keeps wandering off.

Or if a sheep goes astray into the den of wolves, does the good shepherd say, well, that’s your fault, you’ll just have to take the consequences of your actions – that’ll teach you! No. The good shepherd goes in and drives the wolves off and rescues the sheep.

And this is the story of Israel, a people who often wandered off after other gods, or forgot the covenant, or acted unjustly, getting themselves into messes, exiles and disasters over and again. And again and again their experience was that God came to meet them and save them in the mess they had made.

So, if the image of the people of God as sheep is not very flattering, it is at least comforting and encouraging. God is the good shepherd. He knows what we are like, and he doesn’t want to blame us or punish us, but to save us.

Now, in the Old Testament the kings and rulers of Israel were also described as shepherds of the people. Their authority was from God, but it was authority to serve and protect his people, not to exploit them. Kings and rulers needed to be good shepherds too. But sadly, according to the prophets, often they were not. They exploited and abused their authority, using it for their own ends. And so prophets like Jeremiah promised that one day God would send someone who would be, at last, a true and good shepherd for his people.

These Old Testament images are very much in the background when Jesus speaks in the gospel today about sheep and shepherds. Jesus calls himself the good shepherd, which is to say that he is in the place of God, come to rescue his people and take them to peaceful pastures. And unlike the Kings of Israel of old, he is the good shepherd, not a thief or a bandit. Jesus will be what the Kings of Israel had failed to be: one who acts like God for them.

In Jesus, that Old Testament promise is fulfilled. In Jesus, God has come to his people to save them and gather them in. And not only to save them, but also that they might have life, and have it abundantly.

“I am the gate for the sheep”, says Jesus today. That’s a curious expression. He is not just the shepherd, but also the gate. This means that Jesus is the way in to safety, to pasture, to abundant life. But it may have a more specific meaning, too. Jesus gives this teaching in or near the Temple in Jerusalem. And one of the gates in the Temple was called the Sheep Gate. It’s mentioned a few chapters earlier in John chapter 5: “Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool”.

So when Jesus says “I am the gate for the sheep”, an equally valid translation could be “I am the Sheep Gate”. This is quite likely, as John has already drawn this gate to our attention. But the Sheep Gate, if you were a sheep, was a bit grim. Because it was the gate through which sheep were brought to be sacrificed in the Temple. It was a one way gate, leading to death.

But Jesus says that the sheep who enter through him, “will come in and go out and find pasture”. They will have life abundantly. The old Sheep Gate, the gate of sacrifice, is a bit like the “thief [who] comes only to steal and kill and destroy”. Jesus as the Sheep Gate overturns all that. He is the way in to life without limit, the life that God lives.

Jesus shows us what God is like. God, in Jesus, does not require death and destruction. God is not a thief or a bandit. God in Jesus has not come to kill and destroy, but to give life, and give it in abundance.

And, to show that, Jesus himself has gone in through the gate of sacrifice. Through his death on the cross, his life freely given, he has transformed sacrifice into love. Jesus is the way, not to death, but to life without limit. God, in Jesus, is the good shepherd, who has come to save his sheep, not to punish them.

St Peter in our second reading today says, “you were going astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls”. In Jesus all those Old Testament promises are fulfilled. God has come to save his people, not just Israel but all people who turn to him in faith. He is the good shepherd: loving, patient, going to any length to seek out and save his silly wandering sheep.

That image of scripture is one we can rest in, in great confidence and trust. God understands that we are like sheep: we need saving, and he is our saviour. This is what God is like - he is not a thief or a bandit. He is the Good Shepherd. And we are the sheep who are being held securely, no matter how far or how often we have wandered, carried safely on his shoulders into the pasture, which is his life that he wants to share with us, life in all its abundance.