7th May 2006Fourth Sunday of Easter
Fr David Cherry
Acts 4:5-12; 1 John 3:16-24; John 10:11-18
“Jesus said, I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.”
In these fifty days of Easter, between the Death And Resurrection of
Jesus and his Ascension and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at
Pentecost, we find ourselves in the company of the disciples.
We ask forgiveness so that our hearts will crack open to receive his ‘already, uninterrupted’ love
With them in the Light of the
Resurrection in which they now stand, represented here by the Paschal
Candle, something new is being revealed to them. They are
beginning to reflect on the ministry of Jesus, his gracious words, his
gestures, his creative, restoring acts – in a new light.
They are beginning to get it; it is coming home to them; and they are
beginning to record it. And this is how the New Testament was
written.
Today, with the first disciples of the Johannine community of
Christians, we reflect on the words of Jesus as the Good
Shepherd. As post-resurrection disciples ourselves what is the
meaning that can come home to us and bring new life to us?
First, we need to readjust our lenses and acknowledge that the
significance of Shepherds and sheep in the Bible is more than the
pastoral scenes of Psalm 23, more than a matter of agriculture.
Texts about sheep in the scriptures are overwhelming to do with
sacrifice. Sheep are kept to be killed. The words of
Jesus in St John’s gospel this morning are about who have gone
through the sheepgate in the Temple to await sacrifice. The Good
Shepherd is the one who doesn’t take these victims to the gate
and abandon them to their fate. The Good Shepherd goes ahead of
them through the gate and is himself a Victim, the one who undergoes
death for them. This is a different kind of Shepherd.
This Good Shepherd, is one who lays down his life for his sheep; he
lays it down willingly, knowingly for them. He is the willing,
intelligent victim of a horrible sacrificial system of human devising.
This Good Shepherd so identifies with his sheep that there is no
distinction between Shepherd and sheep : he is the lamb of Isaiah 53
that is led to the slaughter, never opening his mouth in.
[St John introduces us to Jesus at his baptism with:
“Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the
world.” And before communion we sing to Jesus, present in the
sacrament: O Lamb of God; O Salutaris Hostia as we sing at
Benediction – O Saving Victim.]
And he does this because he wants us to understand how we live in fear
of death and what that leads to – victims like him. He is
showing us how we do live and what it might be like not live in this
way because he he wants us to inhabit a new life: eternal life –
life without end, a life free from the fear of death which leads to violence. And this Eternal life
has about it a sense of abundance, plenty for all.
At the end of mass we will sing : Now is eternal life / If risen with
Christ we stand… No more we fear death’s ancient dread /
In Christ arisen from the dead.
What makes this revelation possible is love which we receive as
forgiveness. Faced with the love of our Saving Victim we realise we
need to ask forgiveness: we stand judged, we realise we need to recover
from living in a certain way and begin to live in a new
way. Asking forgiveness is how we receive this gratuitous,
restoring love into our lives.
Let us be reminded that we don’t ask forgiveness so that God will
change his mind and say it’s okay. We ask forgiveness so
that our hearts will crack open to receive his ‘already,
uninterrupted’ love; we ask forgiveness because we are realising
that God loves us and that we don’t return his love by loving
others.
In the first lesson this message is brought home to the high priest and
his retinue. Peter and John, after healing a cripple st“Jesus
said, I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life
for the sheep.”and accused. They are making this
forgiveness known to the court. It comes to them with the
opportunity to own what they have done. We do this in the name of
Jesus Christ of Nazareth ‘whom you crucified’ – you
did it. It was you who rejected the One whom God ordained to be
the cornerstone of a new civilisation of love. In his name
we proclaim his love to all – what you have done is
forgiven. Enter into a new life, a life without end, eternal life.
It is this life without end, eternal life, that we celebrate now in the
eucharist. This life is already, in part, present and we
anticipate its completeness in heaven. Holy Communion is to bring
you and me into this new life, to restore us and heal us of a life that
is constituted by
the fear of death. Holy Communion is God’s way of saying – now
is eternal life, unity with me IS eternal life. And Holy Communion is to make of you and me
a Communion of Persons (not individuals) – a community of love so that others may find among us and see
among us what it looks like to live by faith: a quiet confidence and assurance
that we are God’s very own.
Here in mass we come to the Good Shepherd, the Lamb of God who has gone before us through death and lives for ever that we may live anew in him.
“Jesus said, I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.”