John 10:11-18 (NRSV Updated Edition)
“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and my own know me, just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason 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 of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.”
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"[T]his Sunday we move on from the Easter Sunday evening meetings in the different Gospels, and we start to look at some of the great Johannine texts, the 'I AM' texts. And what these enable us to do is to get some sense, to dwell, in the shape, the form, the feeling of the resurrection life. The Risen One's here in our midst. What does he feel like? What is it to be moved by him? What are we undergoing? In what way is the sap rising, as it were, amongst us? These images which Jesus used in his teaching are images of, by which, we can detect the presence of his risen life in us. That's the purpose of these texts being given to us in this Easter season.
"... [The Good Shepherd] is a slightly misleading image for us since we tend to think of shepherds principally as to do with people in the countryside looking after sheep. There are good reasons why we think that: because that's actually what shepherds are! But for anyone attuned to Israel's texts, a shepherd had a far greater significance than that. It referred to a royal leader, a king figure, a promised king leader who would keep people safe. This is the great promise of Ezekiel. But it's particularly the link with keeping people safe. Someone who is very free, very powerful and creates spaces of safety. That's the first thing that I want to bring out. We're talking about power and safety here. One of the things about the presence of the good shepherd in our midst is to enable us to feel that he has great power and this power is designed to make us very safe. That's absolutely central to what [is] going on.
[...]
"“I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me.” And here this is one of the things I think that is difficult for us to dwell in: ... what's this quality of being known by the risen Jesus, knowing Jesus? Being known by one who has gone through death and therefore is able to look at us without being frightened of what's going to become of us, because he knows that he holds us in his hand and is able to take us to where is good for us. And our sense that we needn't be frightened of him because he's not a bully, he's not someone who's going to make us do impossible things to make him look good. There's no ulterior motive, if you like, in his knowing us and us knowing him. Which is one of the reasons why the Holy Spirit is not frightening. It enables us to relax into this very safe being known and being led.
"He says: “I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me.“ I know my own and I know the Father. He's saying: “Actually yes that love with which I'm going to love you, that sense of being together with you - that's the same as the Father has with me. It's this shared love which includes, therefore, an immense fondness, an actual liking you as you are, wanting to take you somewhere good. And I'm not doing that out of some moralistic commandment. Actually, later on, I will refer to it as a command, but it's merely the fact that that's what my Father is and that's what the love between us looks like: the tenderness of active bringing into being.”
[...]
"“No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.” So he's showing us actually, yes that awful business of him being crucified, being murdered, being lynched, that looked awfully like other people doing something to him, but in the middle of it all there was this sovereign peace. It's that sovereign peace that he's sharing with us. It's that sovereign peace he wants to know you don't need to be frightened. There will be all these wolves, there'll be all these attacks, but I've opened up this space for you to be able to live without fear of that. Not to be run by it, not to be scattered by it, not to be grabbed by it.
"“I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again.” This if you like is the quiet and sensational power of the risen life. This is what we are being asked to allow to penetrate us during this Easter season. To sit in the space the world doesn't even know exists, a quiet, powerful space, following one who is powerfully and actively leading us beyond ourselves, taking us into new pastures, into new ways of living with other people who first we might not even think are like us. Who is making it possible for there to be new forms of unity and all out of this huge sovereign peacefulness. ...
"“I have received this command from my Father.” ... But notice the commandment is not a word. The commandment is a gesture, which includes the gesture of laying down his life and taking it up again, thus demonstrating the power of his Father's love and inviting us into doing exactly the same thing. Saying, this power is now available to you, therefore you will be able to do my commandment, which is love each other as I have loved you - in a later speech.
"But it's this making present of this coming-alongside gesture of sovereign power. And asking ourselves, praying, I think, during this Easter season, during this week: how is this coming through to me? How is this penetrating me? How am I being lifted up, enabled to receive the 'being taken up' from the One who was able to lay down? [And] understanding how gentle and yet how powerful this is."
- James Alison, from video "Homily for Fourth Sunday of Easter Year B" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaAxhh_6vv8)
[For extensive discussion and reflections on all of the lectionary texts for this week: https://girardianlectionary.net/reflections/year-b/easter4b/]
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