May 8, 2022 - 4th Sunday of Easter

                                          Biblical Words                                            [771]

Acts 9:36-43;  Psalm 23;  Revelation 7:9-17; John 10:22-30.

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. 

Acts 9:36-43.  

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 Jewish 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). 

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.

Revelation 7:9-17.  

The Epistle reading continues the heavenly liturgy from the book of Revelation.  (This is a bit complicated, but the dramatic vista is impressive if you stay with it!)  

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).  [This is a superb anthem the Pomona College Men's Glee Club used to perform in the 1950's.]  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.  He 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. 

John 10:22-30.  

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.