In today’s Scripture Readings (Acts 4:8-12; Psalm 118:1, 8-9, 21-23, 26, 28, 29; 1 John 3:1-2; John 10:11-18), it is important to see how Jesus the Good Shepherd cares for his sheep in his sheep pen, and how the sheep in his original sheep pen has been protected by the Good Shepherd and his appointed successor, Peter, in the context of the nascent Church’s growth. Also, it is important to see Jesus not only as the Good Shepherd to his flock of sheep but also the Cornerstone of the Church.
Upon Pentecost, the sheep in Jesus’ sheep pen have
become the Church, pastored by Peter. We see this in the Acts of the Apostles.
And, the sheep under the care of the Good Shepherd and his appointed successor,
are beloved children of God, those who make up the Church.
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Today, Fourth Sunday of Paschaltide, is known as
Good Shepherd Sunday. Having read Jesus’ discourse of the Living Bread of Life
and what the discourse entailed (John
6:22-69) from Monday through Saturday of the previous week, the Third Week of
Paschaltie, we read from Jesus’ Good Shepherd Discourse and Jesus’ response to
unbelievers on the Fourth Sunday (John 10:1-10 on Cycle A; John 10:11-18 on
Cycle B; John 10:27-30 on Cycle C) and continue to read from the Good Shepherd
Discourse on Monday (John 10:11-18) and Tuesday (John 10:22-30) of this week.
Besides Jesus, whom we continue to celebrate his
glorious Resurrection through Paschaltide, is the Living Bread of Life for our
resurrection and eternal life (John 6:51) but also the Good Shepherd for us
(John 10:11, 14).
First, we need to understand why Jesus gave the
discourse on the Good Shepherd, in which he made his Christological
identification as the Good Shepherd.
This discourse is a response to unbelievers, who
were blind to the salvific truth in Jesus’ sixth sing, healing a man born blind
(John 9:1-7), and accused Jesus for performing this sign (John 9:13-41).
Basically, it is to give a lesson to those who do not believe because of their
blindness to the truth in Jesus that they are not the kind of sheep in his fold
of sheep because they refuse to listen to him. So, there is a parallel between
being blind to the truth in Jesus and being deaf to the truth in Jesus’ spoken
words.
Remember what Jesus said in his Living Bread of Life
discourse, citing Isaiah 54:13?
No
one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him (to me), and I will
raise him on the last day. It is written in the prophets: They shall all be
taught by God. Everyone who listens to my Father and learns from him comes to
me
(John 6:44-45).
And Jesus implicated that this is how those whose
receive the Law not on the stone tablets but in their hearts open to God’s
teaching (Jeremiah 31:33-34).
Those whose eyes are bling and those whose ears are
deaf to the truth in Jesus and in his Christological teaching, such as in his
Living Bread of Life discourse and Good Shepherd Discourse, are the kind of
sheep that reject the Good Shepherd, who is Jesus, as they are not really sent
by the Father to him.
In response to the sixth sign in healing a man born
blind (John 9:1-8), those who failed to believe in Jesus were implicated as
truly bling by Jesus (John 9:35-41). Then, Jesus went on to start his discourse
on the Good Shepherd and his flock (John 10:1-21). In the first part, which is
read on Good Shepherd Sunday, Cycle A, John 10:1-10, Jesus first identifies as
the sheep gate through which the sheep that he saves enter so that they may
have life in full (John 10:7-10). And Jesus also said thieves and robbers do
not enter the sheep pen though the sheep gate, while the shepherd enters by the
gate (John 10:1-2), indicating that those religious leaders, the Pharisees, who
reject Jesus and his teaching in his sign and words (John 9:13-41) are
equivalent to the thieves and robbers, reflecting false shepherds (i.e.
Jeremiah 23:1-4; Zechariah 11:17;13: 7-9).
So, Jesus proclaims that he is the true shepherd,
unlike false shepherds who do more harm to God’s sheep. In fact, the man born
blind, who was healed by Jesus, was denigrated by these false shepherd, the
Pharisees, for giving a testimony of Jesus, believing that Jesus is a prophet
(John 9:17) from God (John 9:33) (John 9:34). They are not only equivalent to
thieves and robbers who do not enter through the gate (John 10:1) but also those
of hired hand, who does not care for the
sheep (John 10:12). In contrast, Jesus is the Good Shepherd, who truly cares
the sheep under his care, to the point of laying down his life for them (John
10:11, 14-15, 18). And, the sheep under Jesus’ pastoral care are those who have
been brought to him by God for listening to and learning from Him (John 6:44-45;
cf. John 10:29).
Jesus, the Good Shepherd, also knows the sheep under his care, and they also know him (John 10:14), as the Father knows him, and he knows the Father, so that he will lay down his life for them (John 10:15), as so commanded by the Father, to make sure that none of his sheep will be taken away from him (John 10:18). This reflects Jesus’ statement to express the Father’s will that everyone who is not blind to Jesus, those who can see Jesus and believes in him as the Son of God will have eternal life and raised on the last day, for eating the Bread of Life in John 6:40. This is also why Jesus said that he have come so that his sheep may have life in abundance, as they are protected from those who break in and try to destroy or snatch sheep (John 10:10). For this, he lays down his life (John 10:11, 15, 1, 18).
The sheep brought to Jesus, the Good Shepherd who
lays down life for them, by the Father (John 10:29a), are already in his fold.
This means that they are those who believe in him and know him (John 10:14) and
listen to and follow him (John 10:27), as they are in essence, those who have
been drawn to Jesus, listening to and learning from God (John 6:44-45; cf. John
10:29a). For them, Jesus lays down his life – offers himself as the salvific
sacrifice. And this also validates the Living Bread of Life, as his living
flesh with blood, to be consumed for resurrection and eternal life (John
6:29-59). This way, the sheep under the Good Shepherd’s care receive eternal
life from him (John 10:28). The sheep under Jesus’ care are fed with the Living
Bread of Life, which is, in essence, the Holy Spirit, as well as the Word of
God, the life from God (John 6:63).
Jesus, the Good Shepherd, also said that he has
other sheep that are not yet in his pen to be brought in (John 10:16). They are
like Nicodemus, who came to Jesus to learn the truth (John 3:1-21), the
Samaritan woman by the Jacob’s well (John 4:1-26,39-42), the Roman centurion,
who exclaimed Jesus on the Cross as the Son of God (Matthew 27:54), the thief
crucified next Jesus, asking him to remember him in the Kingdom (Luke
23:40-43). They can be even like Paul,
who used to be more like a false shepherd and robber, but converted directly by
God’s power and brought in the Good Shepherd’s pen to serve (Acts 9:1-20). Or,
they can be like a pagan woman, who impressed Jesus for her faith (Matthew
15:21-28). This set of sheep are those who do not know Jesus yet but to know
him as Jesus continues to teach with his Word of Life (John 6:63) and as the
apostles are sent out to make disciples in all nations (Matthew 28:19). In
fact, his sheep pen – sheep fold points to the Church, for which Jesus is the
cornerstone (Psalm 118:22).
Today’s Second Reading (1 John 3:1-2) describes that
the sheep of God, under the pastoral care of Jesus, the Son, the Good Shepherd,
are, indeed, the beloved children of God. And, there are more to be revealed
about this truth, as well as the truth in our Good Shepherd, as well as, the
Living Bread of Life, Jesus.
We know Jesus through our faith, because we can see him in his Christological truth, as our Good Shepherd, and
he knows each of us, just as he knows the Father, and the Father knows him as
His beloved Son (John 10:14, 17a; cf. Matthew 3:17; 17:5). And this reflection
of intimacy between Jesus and his sheep, those who believe in and see, listen
to, and follow him, is comparable to the intimacy between the Father and the
Son, implicates the union in Jesus’ desire (John 14:20). And with other sheep
being brought in, the growing one flock (John 10:16) will become one Church of
unity, envisioned in John 17:21.
In today’s First Reading (Acts 4:8-12), Peter, who
was commissioned to represent Jesus the Good Shepherd (John 21:15-19; cf. Matthew
16:17-19), defends the truth of the Good Shepherd and his pastoral ministry
against the thieves and robbers, who attack Jesus’ sheep in his pen, the
Church. And, it was enabled by the Holy
Spirit, filling and empowering Peter. This way, even Jesus, the Good Shepherd,
has ascended, the sheep are kept safe and more of other sheep are brought in,
as the Church continues to grow.
Jesus is now the eternal Good Shepherd, upon having laid down his life to save us on the Cross and having risen and having ascended. And nobody can take his life away, but he is willing to lay it down (John 10:18) through the shepherd, to whom he gave the keys of the Kingdom, and his successors and associates.
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