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 considered membership in the flock, but from Jesus’ perspective, as we focused on knowing, being given, and following. Today we consider the oneness of Jesus and the Father. 

The Oneness of Jesus and the Father are at the heart of our Christian confession – there is a unique relationship between Jesus and the Father (and the Holy Spirit).  That oneness is expressed in Scripture as a oneness of nature, of will, of knowledge, and many things, all the while being a distinct persona.  Some Christians point to v.30 (The Father and I are one.) are a simple proof text of the uniquely Christian confession.  While this verse is part of the confession, this verse is actually quite limited in what it claims.

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 v.29 it is clear that it is the Father who has given the sheep to Jesus.  This small part of one verse, when reflected upon can be a quite challenging revelation. We are part of Jesus’ flock because of what God has done, not because of anything we have done, (cf. “You did not choose me but I chose you””15:16a). Can we refuse to be God’s gift to Jesus? Jesus is clear that “the Jews” to whom he is speaking do not belong to his sheep. Why not? Clearly they have heard Jesus words – yet they refuse to listen and follow. What is the word they refuse to hear? It simply this: “God has given you to Jesus.”

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 

This coming Sunday is the 4th Sunday of Easter. “This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have power to lay it down, and power to take it up again. This command I have received from my Father” (John 10:17-18) Continue reading →

This coming Sunday is the 4th Sunday of Easter.  “I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” Verse 11 pushes beyond the imagery of Ezekiel 34 in its reference to the shepherd’s willingness to lay down his life for the sheep. A possible OT antecedent may lie in the messianic oracle of Zech 13:7-9, in which the death of the shepherd is required so that the flock can be purified. Verse 11 may also have points of contact with Palestinian shepherding practices; a good shepherd may indeed have to give up his life to prevent the decimation of his flock by wild animals. Yet the reference to the shepherd laying down his life is cast in a distinctive Johannine idiom, so that the reader of the Gospel cannot help hearing in Jesus’ words an allusion to his own death. Verses 15 and 17-18 will make those associations with the death of Jesus explicit, but at this point Jesus stays within the metaphor of shepherding. He works to build the interpretive frame of reference before he turns more directly to his own life and death. Continue reading →

This coming Sunday is the 4th Sunday of Easter. Jesus uses the figure of the Good Shepherd to differentiate his ministry from that of false shepherds of the scribes, Pharisee, and in fact, all the kings and leaders of Israel. Jesus will also stress the voluntary nature of the shepherd’s sacrifice for his people. This chapter should be read in the light of Old Testament passages that castigate shepherds who have failed in their duty (see Jer. 23:1–4; 25:32–38; Zech. 11; and especially Ezekiel 34, the Parable of the Shepherds (which I encourage you to read). Equally as condemning is this passage from the Prophet Isaiah: “All the sentinels of Israel are blind, they are without knowledge…Shepherds who have no understanding; all have turned their own way.” (Is 56:10-11)  In this passage the leaders are both “shepherds” and “watchmen” and are castigated as “blind” and as those who “lack knowledge” (cf. John 9:40–41; 10:6). Continue reading →

This coming Sunday is the 4th Sunday of Easter. To appreciate this parable it is important to understand its setting in a small first century Palestinian village. It would be quite the norm for a family to own but a few sheep. The sheep were sources of income (wool) and clothing, and so the animals were protected usually within small walled courtyards next to or connected to the house. If each family had only a few sheep, a shepherd for each household was not justified, so several households would have one shepherd to look after their sheep. Often the shepherding was done by a child from one of these families. If no child was available a hireling was employed. Continue reading →