Good and Bad Shepherds Easter 4A

 Good and Bad Shepherds   

Jesus says, “I am the gate for the sheep.” [John 10:7] And in the next verse he says, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd risks his life for the sheep.” [John 10:11] In high school English, we would have called this a case of mixed metaphors! But this is the Son of God we are talking about. He can be a shepherd and the gate to the sheepfold whenever he wants.

 

To even begin to understand this Good Shepherd passage requires context: first, to look back at chapter 9 and the dispute over the healing of the man who was born blind; and second, to look further back to the prophet Ezekiel in the sixth-century BCE.

 

Before that, however, there is the history of shepherds throughout the Bible. It begins with Abel, son of Adam and Eve, who kept flocks of sheep. Jacob began with nothing and through clever and faithful shepherding of sheep and goats amassed great wealth. [Genesis 30:25-43] Moses, originally living in the palace of Pharaoh, took care of his father-in-law’s flock and eventually shepherded God’s people in their escape from slavery in Egypt to the edge of a new homeland. [Exodus 3] David, the youngest of the sons of Jesse, was a ferocious protecter of the family’s flock of sheep, and was chosen by God to be the second king of Israel: ‘You will shepherd my people Israel, and you will become their ruler.’ [I Chronicles 11:1-2] Then there was King Ahab who worshiped any god but the God of Israel, and he married Jezebel, a princess from Sidon who led Israel far away from worshiping the true God [1 Kings 16—22]. In a tragic encounter, the prophet Micaiah uses shepherd imagery to foretell Ahab’s death in battle: “I saw all Israel scattered on the hills like sheep without a shepherd, and the Lord said, ‘These people have no master. Let each one go home in peace’” [1 Kings 22:17]. Some good shepherd, some bad shepherds; some real shepherds, some metaphorical shepherds – kings, priests, Pharisees, Sadducees, political appointees of foreign empires – even a foreign king, Cyrus of Persia is one of the best shepherds ever!

 

Jesus, no doubt, refers to the prophet Ezekiel writing some two hundred years after the bad shepherd King Ahab: “The word of the Lord came to me: Mortal, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy and say to them: To the shepherds—thus says the Lord God: Woe, you shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep? You eat the fat; you clothe yourselves with the wool; you slaughter the fatted calves, but you do not feed the sheep. You have not strengthened the weak; you have not healed the sick; you have not bound up the injured; you have not brought back the strays; you have not sought the lost, but with force and harshness you have ruled them. So, they were scattered because there was no shepherd, and scattered they became food for all the wild animals. My sheep were scattered; they wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill; my sheep were scattered over all the face of the earth, with no one to search or seek for them.” [Ezekiel 34:1-6]

 

Among the real everyday shepherds, Ezekiel refers to the royal, political, and religious leadership of Israel who have been bad shepherds. He contrasts them with good shepherds who feed their sheep, strengthen the weak, heal the sick, bind up the injured, seek those lost and strayed, and protect them from danger. Bad shepherds care only for themselves and their cronies.

 

After restoring the sight of the man born blind, the Pharisees are questioning Jesus on just who does he think he is? They are hoping to trick him into saying something for which they can have him arrested by the bad shepherds in charge: Herod, king of the Jews, and the Jerusalem Procurator Pontious Pilate. They were put in charge by Caesar to reduce the population to poor slaves and tenant farmers to enrich Caesar’s empire, Rome. The Pharisees consistently do not seem to get it: Jesus is literally a good shepherd sent to care for the castoffs, those exploited by the Empire who had been were reduced to being land-poor, resource-poor, and tax-poor. Jesus employs the shepherd metaphor of Ezekiel’s prophecy hoping to remind the Pharisees of their nation’s past, so that they might recognize the bad shepherds operating in Jerusalem.  

 

Earlier in the Fourth Gospel it is stated that Jesus did not come to judge the world, and in today’s episode in chapter 10 he states categorically that he is here on behalf of God his Father to serve his Father’s sheep, the sheep of God’s pasture, so that they might “have life, and have it abundantly.” As he continues the extended metaphor (I am the gate to the sheepfold; I am the Good Shepherd), he also makes it clear in no uncertain terms that he is willing to risk his life on behalf of God’s people, God’s sheep, who are being reduced to lives of poverty by the bad shepherds: both the Roman government functionaries, the Roman legions, as well as those Pharisees, Priests, and Scribes who have been forced to serve the Roman exploitation.

 

It does not take a genius to see that the use of metaphor is both theological and political. And when the Pharisees recall Ezekiel’s warning about the bad shepherds, and Zeke’s assertion that the only truly Good Shepherd is YHWH, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob/Israel. When Jesus says “I am the Good Shepherd,” he is making an audacious statement about who he is. So audacious, that our group of holier-than-thou Pharisees are split: half want to stone him on the spot, while the others are moved that Jesus would wield the compassion of God and the power of God to restore the man reduced to being a beggar his sight back. The man has new found confidence that when he is interviewed a second time by this group of Pharisees that he begins to push back on them asking, “Do you also wish to become his disciples?” They reply, “Are you trying to teach us?” Looking at the wrong end of the miracle, they drive him away!

 

Jesus seems to let Pharisees off the hook when he says, “You do not have to believe in me. Just believe in the works themselves. Just look at what I am doing for the sheep of God’s pasture. Let the works speak for themselves. And by the way, I have sheep not of this fold who also hear my voice and follow me. We are all in this together. You just might want to join us.”

 

We do well to note that as the Pharisees refuse to believe neither the man born blind nor Jesus, they in effect judge themselves as being “bad shepherds” like the political power brokers in Jerusalem. Jesus characterizes the bad shepherds as thieves and bandits out to corrupt the sheep, steal the sheep, and whatever resources they have: their land, their fish, their grain, and ultimately their “selves,” as they are reduced to being, slaves working for Caesar and Herod.

 

We still live in a world of Good Shepherds and Bad Shepherds. The narrator of John tells us the purpose of sharing these particular stories of Jesus: so that we who were not there can read these stories and be convinced by the works themselves to follow in the Way of Jesus, the Good Shepherd, the Son of God, and thereby enjoy abundant and eternal life with God in Christ here and now. The alternative, of course, is to join with the bad shepherds and ignore the needs of those who are weak, hungry, and homeless. There is no coercion, says Jesus; it’s entirely up to you to choose. Jesus, the Risen One is going nowhere. He is here to stay! Amen.