Easter 4 - Jesus the Shepherd
Psalm 23 & John 10: 22-30 I have to confess that at first my heart sank when I saw that today’s psalm was the 23rd Psalm: I immediately thought of the opening credits of The Vicar of Dibley – the soaring views of peaceful Oxfordshire countryside and the beautiful chorister’s voice “The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want…” It all seemed too lush, too perfect, too tranquil for the 21st century in a pandemic-ravaged, war-torn, desperate world. It’s a bit – the word I use sometimes is ‘mimsy’ – feeble, wet… And yet, in our reading from John’s gospel, Jesus is challenged ‘if you are the Messiah tell us plainly’ and Jesus uses the metaphor of the shepherd to describe himself and his work on earth: ‘My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand.’ Jesus is the good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep – he is a shepherd of the valley of the shadow of death just as surely as he