The Good Shepherd,
glorified in power, brings new life to God’s people who are in his care.
The fourth
Sunday of Easter season is the Pastor’s day. (“Pastor” in Latin means “Shepherd.”) Each year Psalm 23 and a portion of John
10 are read on this Sunday. The Pastor is the one who leads, feeds, and
protects the sheep from harm.
In the New
Testament readings it is the Risen Lord who does this shepherding of the
believers, though in the first reading it is Peter who carries forward the
shepherd’s work.
In the Acts
story, resurrection spreads among the people.
In the larger
passage, Acts 9:32-43 ,
two miracles by Peter are presented, the healing of a paralyzed man named
Aeneas and the resurrection of a woman named Tabitha (Aramaic) or Dorcas
(Greek). These two episodes have Peter
working in the coastal plain of Judea, the country ruled by the Philistines in
ancient times. His works are done in the
cities of Lydda (modern Lod , Israel ’s
International airport) and Joppa (modern Yafo, the closest seaport to Jerusalem ). The “saints,” who are Christian believers,
are already living there, Judeans who accept Jesus as the heavenly Anointed
One, and who now begin to receive benefits of the promised salvation.
Peter is
staying at Lydda when he is called to Joppa (10 miles away) to share the grief
at the death of a prominent woman disciple of the church in Joppa. (This is the only New Testament use of the
feminine form of the noun “disciple.”)
Peter’s
action is presented as a repetition of great
acts of resurrection in the past. It repeats what Elijah did for the Sidonian
widow who helped him during the famine (I Kings 17:17-24); it repeats what
Elisha did for the woman of Shunem to revive the son miraculously born to her
(II Kings 4:18-37); it repeats Jesus’ action in raising the daughter of Jairus
(Luke 8:40-42, 49-56); and it repeats Jesus’ raising of the son of the widow of
Nain near Nazareth in Galilee (Luke 7:11-17).
Peter’s
raising of Dorcas showed that great prophetic and Messianic power was
continuing for God’s people. All of these
resurrection stories are set outside Judea proper, outside Jerusalem
and its region. They happen on the
fringes of the Judean lands.
As the power continues to expand, as if in concentric circles, the next movement of the Spirit will be beyond the Judean people (next week’s reading).
As the power continues to expand, as if in concentric circles, the next movement of the Spirit will be beyond the Judean people (next week’s reading).
Psalm 23.
The Psalm
reading is the quiet but powerful affirmation of personal trust in the Lord,
presenting God in the image of the Shepherd.
Here are the familiar images as given in the Common English Bible
translation (CEB, 2011):
The LORD is my
shepherd.
I lack nothing.
He lets me rest in
grassy meadows;
he leads me to restful waters;
he keeps me alive.
He guides me in
proper paths
for the sake of his good name.
Even when I walk
through the darkest valley,
I fear no danger
because you are with me.
Your rod and your
staff –
they protect me.
(Shifting the imagery now to that of
a great ruler who hosts his faithful subordinates at a feast at the royal
palace, where they will always find access and security …)
You set a table for
me
right in front of my enemies.
You bathe my head
in oil;
my cup is so full it spills over!
Yes, goodness and
faithful love
will pursue me all the days of my life,
and I will live in the LORD’s house
as long as I live.
The Epistle
reading continues the heavenly liturgy from the book of Revelation.
The seventh
chapter of this book presents two hosts of peoples before the heavenly
throne while the impending doom for the old world is suspended for this
heavenly presentation. (The suspension
of the doom is commanded in verses 1-3.)
The first group of
people (prior to our reading) are the faithful souls of the past from the
twelve tribes of Israel . Twelve thousand from each tribe are marked
with God’s “seal” on their forehead, making one hundred forty-four thousand in
this host before God (verses 3-8). The
faithful of Israel
are gathered to their Lord in the heavens.
Our reading begins
by presenting the second group of peoples. They are an unnumbered multitude from all the
nations and peoples of the world.
These folks wear
white robes and have the palm branches of praise and the festival-shout in their
hands. When we see them, they are gathered
in masses around the vast heavenly auditorium and a three-fold sequence of song and praise unfolds.
First, this
multitude itself sings out, “Salvation belongs to our God…” (verse 10). Then, the great choir of angels responds with
a seven-fold acclamation of God, enclosed between two Amens (verses 11-12). The third phase of the song and praise is a
solo, by one of the twenty-four elders who are close to the divine
throne.
Before the singing
there is a recitative dialogue in which the elder asks the seer (John, the one
who has received these visions) who are these
folks massed in the white robes.
The seer politely
replies that the elder will know and say. The elder then explains that these unnumbered masses are the people who have
washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb, which means that they have held
fast in their confession of Jesus as the Christ to the point of death.
This is the cue for
the elder to sing his solo celebrating the glory and reward of these faithful
witnesses. It is at the climax of this
solo that we hear of the work of the
heavenly Shepherd, who (by a curious twist of imagery) is the Lamb.
“For the Lamb at
the center of the throne will be their shepherd,
and he will guide
them to the springs of the water of life,
and God will wipe
away every tear from their eyes” (verse 17).
The caring and
comforting Shepherd is the climax of the pilgrimage of the humble ones who
followed Jesus, even to the death.
The Gospel reading
presents Jesus speaking to Judean people who demand to know whether he is the
Anointed One or not. His reply is the
conclusion of this chapter, which has already presented Jesus as the Gate for
the sheep (10:7) and as the Good Shepherd (10:11 ).
Here the focus
is on the sheep. There is a special
link between the shepherd and the sheep:
he knows them, each and every one (see Luke
15:3-7 ), and they know and respond to
his voice. Their response is to
“believe” in the “works” that Jesus does in the name of the Father, and to
follow him.
The first emphasis
in this passage is that these “sheep” are in contrast to the Judean
questioners, who do not believe either Jesus’ works or words. This passage, like so much else in the Gospel
According to John, reflects serious differences and disputes between Judean
disciples of Jesus and their non-believing Judean opponents.
The last part of the selected reading emphasizes the
final blessing of the sheep who know Jesus’
voice and follow him. “I give them
eternal life, and they will never perish” (verse 28). This is the ultimate blessing in John’s
Gospel. The keeping and protection of
these humble ones, the sheep, is God’s own special concern, given to the
heavenly Jesus as an assignment.
“What my Father has given me is greater than all
else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father’s hand” (verse 29, NRSV ).
And the concluding affirmation separates Jesus most decisively from his Judean dissenters: “The Father and I are one” (verse 30). The Lamb and the one who sits on the heavenly throne (in the language of Revelation) are united in the saving work of the Shepherd.
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