Good Shepherd

Where Are We?
John 10:11-18 (NRSV)
“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.”

I am the good shepherd. There is a lot to be unpacked in just that one assertion by Jesus. Shepherds play crucial roles in the life of God’s people Israel. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were all shepherds, as were, no doubt, Jacob’s twelve sons who were the heads of the twelve tribes of Israel. King David is the ideal king, warts and all, and began his life as a shepherd. He shepherded his people through repeated times of trouble.Perhaps the most important of all shepherds was Moses who was on the run from the law for having slain an Egyptian taskmaster.

As Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian, he encountered a bush that burned but was not consumed. A voice from that bush gave Moses instructions that would lead to the liberation of the Hebrew slaves from Pharaoh’s Egypt. When Moses asked the voice for its name it replied, “I am who I am.”

It is widely understood that whenever Jesus begins a sentence with the words, “I am,” that his is the voice from the bush – which the Fourth Gospel makes clear from the get-go – Jesus, the logos, the Word, was in the beginning with God and was God. And therefore is God.

Of course the words, “I am the good shepherd,” recall the familiar words of the 23rd psalm which once upon a time we used to have to memorize not just in Sunday School but in public school as well.  As comforting and pastoral as the 23rd psalm is, it often goes overlooked that it is written from the perspective of being under siege. “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.” At one time or another we all know what it feels like to be surrounded by enemies.

Enemies and hired hands abound.  Not much text analysis or cultural analysis is needed to know that that is true. Like the poor, Jesus may as well have said the false and bad shepherds you will always have with you. Often times they are so seductive, luring us into their snares – or running off when we are in most need of shepherding.

Not so our Good Shepherd who was, is and always will be the great “I AM.” His love is so wide, so deep and so broad. He is to be recognized by this love with which he is willing to lay down his life for his sheep.

At the end of the Fourth Gospel (chapter 21) is a scene that reflects back on this passage in chapter 10. The disciples are fishing but having no luck whatsoever. They are like sheep without a shepherd. A “stranger” on the shore shouts out that they need to throw their nets over on the other side of the boat. No doubt they ask themselves, ‘What does he know? Who is he anyway?” Since nothing else is working, they give it a go, and lo and behold – the net was filled with very many fishes! Peter declares, “It is the Lord!” Whereupon he puts on his clothes, jumps in the water and swims ashore. There is Jesus with a charcoal fire, cooking up fish and bread. “Come and have breakfast,“he says. It recalls the times when they fed the five thousand, and again when they fed the four thousand and had baskets and baskets left over. Life in God’s kingdom is to look like this.

Then comes the scene that is meant to define who we are and whose we are. He asks Peter, “Do you love me?” “Why of course I love you.” “Then,” says Jesus, “feed my lambs.” A second time he asks, “Peter, do you love me?” “Yes, Lord, I love you.” “Then tend my sheep.” A third time (remember Peter had denied him three times) he asks, “Peter, do you love me?” Peter says yes a third time. “Feed my sheep.”

When the great “I AM” outlines our job description one is left to wonder just what have we been doing? As a church that is. What was meant to be a sharp and tart put-down of Judas is still the case – the poor we still have with us. Hungry sheep abound.

There is a Hasidic tale about a Russian rabbi in jail. The jailer asks him some questions about Holy Scripture. “Why does God ask Adam, ‘Where are you?’ Isn’t God all knowing?” “Do you believe the scriptures are true for all persons at all times and in all places?” “I do,” says the jailer. “Then God is asking all of us, including you, ‘Where are you? What have you done with your life so far? You are forty-six, where are you in your life right now?”

How did the rabbi know his age? The jailer was shaken to his core. So should we be, for we are Peter. What sort of feeding and tending do we do as a church? As a nation that makes such bold claims to being a “Christian nation?”

Three years ago this Sunday I led St. Peter’s in singing this old gospel folk song made popular by Jefferson Airplane. It was to be sadly prophetic. Yet, this early 19th century hymn means to wake us up to what it means if we are going to become the good shepherds God is calling us to be. This version was originally recorded in 1936 by Alan Lomax in a Virginia State Prison Farm where Jimmie Strothers, a blind, itinerant street singer was doing time for having murdered his wife. It is a song that explores the boundaries between the sacred and the profane, just as Jesus does in this tenth chapter of John.


If you want to get to heaven
Over on the other shore
Stay out of the way of the blood-stained bandit
Oh good shepherd
Feed my sheep

One for Paul
One for Silas
One for to make my heart rejoice
Can't you hear my lambs acallin
Oh good shepherd
Feed my sheep

If you want to get to heaven
Over on the other shore
Stay out of the way of the long-tongue liar
Oh good shepherd
Feed my sheep

If you want to get to heaven
Over on the other shore
Stay out of the way of the gun shot devil
Oh good shepherd
Feed my sheep


The shepherd Moses says to his flock of assorted former slaves, “Today the Lord puts before you life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life.” We are all called, with our many and diverse gifts, to choose life, a life as God’s shepherds.  Jesus I Am asks us, “Where are you? Do you love me?” Our answer to these questions holds the power to change the world. Amen.

https://youtu.be/8UV592S-Jos