Homily for Easter – 4th Sunday Year B 2018
Acts 4:8-12; 1 John 3:1-2; John 10:11-18
Introduction
I notice that we have many young people in Church today. And since in all likelihood you did not grow on a farm, you probably have never seen a sheep, much less a shepherd. So you might find Jesus' calling himself the good shepherd and calling his disciples sheep a little difficult to understand.
But Jesus used shepherds and sheep because there were plenty of them in Palestine. He wanted to teach about the love and care that God has for his people, using the image of the love and care that a shepherd has for his sheep.
Perhaps if Jesus had lived at our time, he would have used other images. He may have spoken about the care a high school football coach has for his players, a mother for her children, a teacher for her students.
Scripture and Theology
But this images of sheep and shepherd, can still speak to us. I am sure we have seen sheep and shepherds in movies. And more importantly, the helplessness of sheep really fits our situation as human beings who need God's help.
Now a good shepherd has many qualities; in today's gospel, Jesus highlights three of them: care, intimacy and inclusiveness.
- A shepherd, staying out in the fields with the sheep, was the only thing between the sheep and wolf. A good shepherd would fight off wild animals to protect his sheep, unlike a hired one, who did not care enough and would probably run away at the first sign of danger. And so when Jesus says that he is the "good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” he is pointing to the Cross, where in truth, he is going to die for the life of the world, so that we can be freed from our sins. His commitment and love for us makes him a good shepherd.
- A second quality of a good shepherd that he points out is the intimacy between sheep and their shepherd. Sheep were known to recognize the voice of their shepherd and would know him very well. In fact, when many shepherds combined their flocks and grazed them together, in the evening it would be easy to separate them, because each shepherd knew his sheep and the sheep knew their shepherd. That is what Jesus is and does. Like a good shepherd Jesus knows his disciples, his sheep; and his disciples know him, their good shepherd.
- But the quality of a good shepherd that we don't often talk about, is the third one where Jesus says: “I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold.” And then he goes on to say: “These also I must lead, and they will hear my voice, and there will be one flock, one shepherd.”
Who are these other sheep of Jesus that do not belong to the fold? And why does Jesus care about them too?
Now the Mormon Church claims that they are the “other sheep.” They claim that their ancestors were a Jewish tribe that came to America at the time of Jeremiah. And when Jesus speaks of other sheep, he is referring to this Jewish group, the ancestors of Mormon Church.
For Christians, however, and in fact even for the Jewish people, they have always understood this verse to mean the Gentiles, the non-Jews; they are the other sheep of Jesus. We see that in the gospels, Jesus usually directs his ministry primarily at the Jewish people; for it is this people that God had chosen as his special instrument for redeeming the world. You might recall in Matthew 15:22-28, a Canaanite, that is, a non-Jewish woman requests Jesus to heal her daughter who was tormented by a demon. When Jesus tests her faith saying: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,” her quick comeback is: “Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters.” And Jesus immediately heals her daughter.
And so, by focusing his ministry on the Jews, Jesus does not completely ignore the Gentiles. That is why he occasionally ministers to the Gentiles. They too are sheep, the other sheep; he must lead back into the fold. And that is why after his resurrection when Jesus sends out the disciples, he tells them to “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations . . . .” (Mt. 28:19); all nations, not just the Jews.
And so, Jesus the Good Shepherd came to save all the sheep, Jewish and non-Jewish alike, the Jewish nation and indeed all nations, including us here today.
Christian Life
Of the three qualities of a good shepherd that we have heard about today, care, intimacy and inclusiveness, let me try to apply the last one, the one about caring for the other sheep, to our lives today.
Sometimes we Catholic Christians might be tempted to think of Jesus as being a shepherd only to us; after all we are the new sheep, the new flock, for whom he died, whom he knows well. Sometimes we might feel like the kid who is jealous that his parents invite the neighbour's kid along to the movies or dinner at a restaurant or on a family trip.
But if Jesus indeed has other sheep, then we must accept those other sheep, as our brothers and sisters. And who, for us today, are these other sheep of Jesus?
- Let us look around in our own lives, at home, at work, in our families. Do we see people who don't seem to belong, who are on the margins. Think about the new kid in your class who just transferred from another school. Can you invite them into your group or at least get to know them and make them feel welcome, since they are the other sheep that Jesus wants to bring back into the fold, through you?
- Think about the odd kid at school, the one who is not as athletic as you are, not as good-looking as you are, not as academically oriented as you, or even the foreign kid. They might not feel like they are worth anything and so do not belong to the flock of Jesus Christ. What can you do to change that feeling, to lead them back into the flock? Can you point out one gift that they might have? I must confess that when I was in school, I was that kid; I often felt kind of like an outsider and quite a loser. Now when I look back, I realize that things turned around for me in my second year, when a couple of my teachers, took a greater interest in me, above and beyond their normal duties. One would go over my home work with me to show how I could improve. Another teacher worked with me on my really terrible handwriting. And the principal assigned me to work in his office, a job that gave me a sense of responsibility. With these interventions slowly I began to feel like one of the guys; they made me one of the sheep.
Conclusion
I hope you can now see why the Church from the very beginning, has not closed itself inwardly, but has always looked beyond its confines. Since we the Gentiles have been brought into the flock, we return the favour, by attending to the Gentiles of our time, people who are on the margins: the sick and suffering, children and elderly, refugees and immigrants, the poor and homeless, prisoners and the condemned, even people of other religions. We invite them into the fold by caring not just for their material needs, but also their spiritual needs.
Have you lately met one of these other sheep of Jesus? Have you acted as assistant to the Good Shepherd and helped him bring them back to the flock?
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