May 1, 2009
Sunday Scripture
Fourth Sunday of Easter
BY FATHER DONALD DILGER
In the context of this reading the Johannine Jesus, (meaning Jesus as presented in the Gospel of John) just created vision for a man born blind. Jesus then comments on the blindness of his critics. They excommunicated the man who could now see with faith in Jesus. This demonstrates their failure as shepherds of God’s flock. They themselves are guilty of blindness because they claim to see but do not. The author compares the shepherd of the sheep with thieves and robbers. Only the shepherd enters the sheep pen by climbing over the wall. It is obvious that the author thinks of Jesus as shepherd, while his critics are the thieves and robbers. John is not in an ecumenical mood.
By way of further introduction, John gives the job description of the thieves and robbers. They enter the sheep pen to kill and destroy, while the shepherd enters to offer the security of life in abundance. Here the introduction ends and John now reveals what this is about. The parable begins, “I am the good shepherd.” Jesus is the good shepherd in contrast to the wicked shepherds who excommunicate those who believe in Jesus. Ezekiel 34 is the old Testament foundation for the parable of the good shepherd. The time of the prophet Ezekiel is about 600 to 580 B.C. From at least 3,000 B.C. the rulers of the ancient Near East had referred to themselves as shepherds. Israel picked up on this, and through Israel the shepherd/sheep metaphor entered Christianity and endures to this day.
Ezekiel sees the shepherds of Israel in his time as evil shepherds. The shepherds feed themselves and ignore the sheep. The sheep stray and scatter. They become prey for wild beasts. They do not care for the sick or the crippled. They use the sheep only to shear them and eat them. What an indictment of pastoral neglect! The Lord had enough of bad shepherds, and says with an oath, “I myself will become shepherd of the sheep. I will feed them with good pasture. I will seek the lost, bring back the strayed, bind up the crippled, strengthen the weak, and watch over the fat and the strong.” (The Lord in the Old Testament inclines favorably toward those extra pounds!)
A major attribute of Jesus as good shepherd is this, “The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” Those who are not shepherds but work only for money flee when the wolf approaches. They care nothing for the sheep because they are not their own. The good shepherd knows each of his sheep by name. He knows them as completely as the Son knows the Father and the Father knows the Son. The ecumenical character which was so lacking in the introduction to the parable now comes into view. There are other sheep who do not yet belong to this flock. The shepherd will also go after them to bring them in to the security of the sheep pen.
The beauty of this parable in describing the person and mission of Jesus often obscures a major point. The parable of the good shepherd is another in a long series of John’s proclamations of Jesus as God. The role of Yahweh/God in the Old Testament is taken over by Jesus in the New Testament. Just as Jesus is accorded the God-Name “I AM” in the Gospel of John, so John also bestows on him the Old Testament role of Yahweh/God as Shepherd. John adds the reason why the Father shares such a role with the Son, “The Father loves me because I lay down my life for the sheep. This command I have received from him, and I do it freely. I have power to lay down my life, and to take it up again.”
After Pentacost Peter and John spent much time around the temple of the Lord in Jersalem. A man, lame from birth, sat begging at the entrance to the temple by a gate called “Beautiful Gate.” He begged alms from Peter and John. Peter replies, “Gold and silver I have none, but I give you what I have. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk!” The man started leaping around like Neil Armstrong on the moon. This made quite an impression. The fame of the apostles aroused the envy of the chief priests. The apostles were called on the carpet. That is the background to this first reading. Peter accuses these rulers (shepherds) of killing the one in whose name this stupendous cure had taken place. The major theological statement, “There is no salvation through anyone else. Nor is their any other name given to the human race by which we are to be saved.” The cure of the man born lame serves as the material example of “being saved” in the name of Jesus. His “saving” becomes a sacrament of sign of spiritual saving.
The author affirms his parishioners with this thought, “Beloved, see what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called children of God. But that is what we are.” Our childhood of God will be perfected only in the next life, when “we shall see him as he is,” the beatific vision which promises to transform or transfigure us.