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 is the shepherd of green pasture and still water.

So I turned to Malcolm Guite’s sonnet version of psalm 23. 

In response to the corona virus, Malcolm Guite wrote this series of sonnets – “David’s Crown” – in which he explored all of the psalms. He wove them together (each poem starts with the last line of the previous one, until Psalm 150 ends as Psalm 1 begins “Come to the place where every breath is praise”) and also wove into them his understanding of Jesus Christ, who wore the crown of thorns for us. 

His Psalm 23 does not begin in the sunlight and meadows, but in the darkness, in need of a saviour.

To suffer my own dereliction for me,

To be my shepherd, and to lead me through

The grave and gate of death, in strength and mercy

 

Christ has come down. At last I’ve found the true

Shepherd and the false just fade away,

Before him. I will sing of how he drew

 

Me from the snares I set myself, how day

Dawned on my darkness, how he brought me forth

Converted me and opened up the way

 

For me, and led me gently on that path,

Led me beside still waters, promised me

That he’d be with me all my days on earth,

 

And when my last day comes, accompany

And comfort me, as evening shadows fall,

And draw me into his eternity.

The Lord is my shepherd, even in the darkest and most dismal and most dangerous of times and places. In Jesus we see the God who has come to seek us when we are lost, and draw us back to the life he offers, in God.

I was fortunate to be leading worship at one of our churches in Somerset in the early Spring, and had a lovely drive up from Taunton, glad to be off the motorway, and admiring the new-born lambs in the fields. When I arrived at the church, one of the Elders apologised that he might need to dash off for a while – “lambing” was all he said. He managed to stick it out through the whole service, then popped off back to the farm, returning in time for lunch. He explained that one of the ewes had needed a bit of help – the lamb’s nose had come a bit quickly – with the forefeet – and he’d had to help push the nose back to get the feet delivered first. 

I was surprised to see this hardy farmer crack a huge smile “all was well – lovely lamb”. 

I told him how much I enjoyed seeing the lambs – but asked him ‘do you ever get tired of seeing a lamb born – is it just work to you?’. 

His smile grew even wider - “Oh no, every lamb is a joy – I love them all!”.

I realised that “The Lord is my shepherd” would always make me think of that Elder – the delight he took in a safe delivery, the joy in, and the love for each and every one. 

When Jesus says he is the good shepherd, he isn’t calling us, his disciples, silly sheep, he is expressing his love and care for every single one of us – his delight in our safety.

And when the world is dark, and the future seems bleak, and we wonder who can save us, Jesus promises, as our shepherd, to call us, to lead us, and to keep us in safety, giving us eternal life -  “no one will snatch them out of my hand”.

If we had not been celebrating Eastertide this last 3 weeks this promise of Jesus might seem like empty words.  How can this Jesus of Nazareth help us 2000 years later?

But Jesus of Nazareth is Christ the Lord – the one who journeyed through the most terrible valley of death’s shadow we can imagine, to the suffering and death of the cross. He knows how dark the darkness can be – but it was not the end of him. God the Father raised Jesus from death – he travelled right through death to the eternal life he now promises us.

And when life seems bleak, we can be sure he is with us.

And when we listen, we might just catch him calling us by name.

And when we gather together, we see the faces of all those he loves.

And when we leave this place, we go to seek and to serve the lost sheep, in the name of Jesus. 

Amen.