This coming Sunday is the 4th Sunday of Easter for Year C of the Lectionary Cycle. The gospel is taken from John 10:27-30.  In yesterday’s post we focused on the idea that if Jesus is the Good Shepherd – then what/who constitutes the flock? Who are the sheep that follow the promised Messiah? And in the course, we spend some time nuancing some of the language used in the text.

²⁷ My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me. ²⁸ I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one can take them out of my hand. ²⁹ My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can take them out of the Father’s hand. 

This coming Sunday is the 4th Sunday of Easter for Year C of the Lectionary Cycle. The gospel is taken from John 10:27-30.  In yesterday’s post we explored the scriptural foundation of shepherd and flock – today we continue that trajectory and its implication: fulfillment of the promised Messiah described in Ezekiel 34

A key element of our Sunday gospel passage is an indication of who is part of the flock of believers. The people know Jesus and they, like folks in every age, want straight answers:

²⁴ So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.” ²⁵ Jesus answered them, “I told you and you do not believe. The works I do in my Father’s name testify to me. ²⁶ But you do not believe, because you are not among my sheep.” (John 10:24-26)

This coming Sunday is the 4th Sunday of Easter for Year C of the Lectionary Cycle. The gospel is taken from John 10:27-30.  In yesterday’s post we provided some context for the gospel reading, discussing a little bit about the use of “shepherd” imagery in Scripture but also about some of the feasts that Jesus was celebrating as part of John 10. Today we explore the image of shepherds in more detail.

This week’s passage is succinct and calls to mind the image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd (cf. John 10:11) – as it is meant to do.  The gospel establishes a certain cluster of associations around the word shepherd (poimen.) Each time the image reappears it evokes and develops the associations found elsewhere in the narrative. John 10:1-5 introduces the image of the shepherd by describing how a shepherd enters the sheepfold, calls the sheep by name, and leads them out to pasture. In 10:7-18 Jesus identifies himself as the good shepherd, who lays down his life for his sheep. In 10:22-30 he adds that no one will snatch the sheep out of his hand. At the conclusion of the Gospel, Jesus enjoins Peter to “feed my lambs…. Tend my sheep…. Feed my sheep” (21:15-17). The emphatic use of the shepherd imagery suggests that Peter’s task must be understood in light of what Jesus said earlier in the Gospel about what it means to be a shepherd. Jesus makes a prophetic statement that reinforces the connection by anticipating that Peter, like Jesus the good shepherd, would lay down his life (21:18-19).

This coming Sunday is the 4th Sunday of Easter for Year C of the Lectionary Cycle. The gospel is taken from John 10:27-30. The gospel invokes one of the most often used images of God: the shepherd. The Prophet Ezekiel couches the promise that after a long succession of bad shepherds (kings) who fed themselves off the flock, God himself will come as the Good Shepherd. That pastoral imagery is a central part of John 10 and is always used as the gospel for the 4^th Sunday of Easter:

Year A – John 10:1-10 (sheepfold, gatekeeper, sheep recognizing the voice)

Year B – John 10:11-18 (“I am the good shepherd”)

Year C – John 10:27-30