Jesus the Good Shepherd

For the next several Sundays of this Easter season we will be hearing some familiar themes from the Gospel of John. Jesus makes many imaginative “I am “statements. “I am the light.” “I am the bread of life.” “I am the living water.” “I am the way, the truth and the life.” When the guards come out to meet him in the Garden, they are asked about whom they seek. Jesus says simply, “I am.”

In today’s Gospel we hear Jesus say twice “I am the good shepherd.” John has Jesus continue Jesus’ discussion and confrontation with the Pharisees after his having healed a man who was born blind. This man, who was blind, first heard the voice of Jesus and through believing in that voice came to believe and that was his new way of seeing.

The Pharisees are blinded by what they see and so are impaired of hearing and do not believe. Hearing and believing becomes the central message of Jesus’ saying that he is the “Good Shepherd”. It is the shepherd’s voice that is important and the sheep are not ignorant, but attentive and responsive. Jesus is telling those who can hear and want to hear important aspects of just what the Shepherd does for His flock.

In other chapters John has presented Jesus as teacher, finder, healer, feeder and forgiver. In this reading, Jesus is presented as the Shepherd Who will lay down his life for his flock. He will stay faithful to whom he is while the “hired” or the Pharisees turn away and have turned away from their vocation of tending their “flock”. Jesus is very direct with his listeners who do not want to hear, but they obviously do. He announces that he will stay faithful to himself and his mission and thereby to the “flock”, because of the love of his Father. The Pharisees hear that they are interested only in their being paid and so have made that their mission and not caringly guide their “flock”.  

Jesus claims that He is living this through, because the Father loves him and and desires that all of God’s people become one holy family with the Father. This ultimate uniting will depend on the mission of Jesus being continued through the verbal and non-verbal preaching and living of his voice, the good news.

Each time John presents Jesus as saying “I am”, John is also saying that Jesus claims his followers as those who can also say with confidence, “I am” and “we are”. In this section we are not sheep, but listeners who learn the tenor and timber of his voice and message. We have learned and continue to learn the other voices within and around us. They can sound so inviting, comforting, and of Grace. They just might truly be, but it takes a long time to be so in tuned with the Voice of Jesus, that we need experiences of life and prayer to figure out the difference.

Larry Gillick, SJ