4 Easter A

April 13, 2008 

Acts 2:42-42

Psalm 23

1 Peter 2:19-25

John 10:1-10

He who knows he knows nothing knows something.

I can’t remember when or how I ran across that phrase, might have been on the inside of a bubble gum wrapper for all I know. More than likely it was a paraphrase of something attributed to Confucious. Anyway, it has stuck with me as sayings like that will do for years. On the rare occasion when I hear someone say he knows nothing (about a particular subject) I give him my full attention because it’s almost never true of anyone who would actually say that. Most of the time anyone who would say he knows nothing about a particular subject knows his limitations. He knows there is something he does not know. He knows that he does not know everything there is to know about that subject.

I have not forgotten the first rule of homiletics. Do not use your spouse or your children as sermon illustrations. They won’t like it. Eventually they will resent it. Oh, well…. As a crane operator, my husband has one of those occupations, like many others, that requires him to have a deep level of trust in the men who assist him in his work. Particularly in situations when it is impossible for him to see what he is doing. Let’s say he picks up something with the crane that weighs 10 tons, lifts it high in the air, swings it over the top of a building 100 feet or so away. Then he has to set it down on the other side. There are men on the ground walking under that 20,000 pound thing, ready to manually set it in place. But from where he has to operate that machine, Kevin can’t see anything on the other side of the building. He knows nothing about what’s going on under and around the very heavy load he’s holding in the air. He is totally dependent on the man who is guiding him with hand signals or verbal signals on a two-way radio to know when and where to set the thing down safely. And he has done enough rescue work when things have gone wrong that he knows just how wrong things can go. It’s critical that he knows his limitations, that he knows what he doesn’t know, and that he trusts the one who can see what he cannot see to guide him.

Now when it comes to sheep I learned on the web that they care more about eating than anything. In fact, they are routinely vaccinated against overeating. (Isn’t it a pity people can’t get that vaccination) Sheep love to eat grass and it’s good for them but they eat the dirt along with the grass and more than a little dirt is toxic to them. They aren’t capable of knowing their limitations. Left to themselves, without a shepherd, sheep can literally eat themselves to death. Besides green grass, another thing sheep are dependent on their shepherds for is protection from parasites that threaten to steal their lives from within their bodies, and wolves or other predator animals who could also steal their lives. To protect them from both threats the shepherd has to move the sheep to another pasture at least every 21 days. The sheep need their shepherd to keep alive. I don’t know if sheep know how truly dependent they are on their shepherd. What they do know, Jesus said, is the sound of their shepherd’s voice. And they will follow their shepherd if it means there will be something to eat around the corner.

Biblical scholars tell us Jesus spoke this parable about the sheep and shepherd with the scriptures in mind that were prescribed to be read at the Feast of the Dedication in Jerusalem, the eight-day festival of lights we know as Hanukkah. That is the setting of the story in today’s Gospel reading. The prescribed scripture for that feast is from Ezekiel. It was God’s word spoken through the prophet against the shepherds of Israel (who were the religious authorities) because they were (in the words of the prophet) getting fat themselves and starving their sheep. They were not tending to the lean and the weak of their flocks, not binding up the injured, nor looking for the lost. God’s sheep were scattered and left to fend for themselves. Without a shepherd to care for them the sheep would certainly die. God said through Ezekiel that God would rescue his sheep and send a shepherd who would be God’s servant. Who would tend and care for God’s sheep as God would.

We can’t know for sure but it’s possible that Ezekiel’s words were on Jesus’ mind when he spoke about himself as the shepherd sent by God to love and tend God’s sheep. The shepherd who would deny himself for the sake of the sheep. The shepherd who would through his own death lead the sheep of God not only to lush green pastures, but to abundant life on the other side of death.

What is most significant to us in Eastertide about the image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd is that he leads the sheep who will follow him in life and in death. Jesus called those of us who recognize his voice to follow him. He walked ahead of us into death and came out to life on the other side to lead us to the same life.

We have the testimony of the scriptures that Jesus was raised to life after he died and that his disciples were witnesses to that. Outside of that testimony we are as blind to what is on the other side of death as Kevin is to what is on the other side of the building. He knows he is dependent on the one who can see, the one who does know. Likewise we know we are dependent on Jesus the Good Shepherd to lead us to life on the other side of death because we can’t see the way ourselves. We do know this: life calls to life. Life is drawn to life. The life in us points us toward life outside us and beyond us. Transcendent life, abundant life, is something we want as much as sheep want green grass. That’s the reason, and it may be the ONLY reason, we are willing to trust Jesus to lead us -- independent, willful creatures that we are.

We are just as likely to overindulge in this life as sheep are to overeat. Our shepherd keeps us moving in this life too, for our sake. The abundant life we enjoy through our risen Lord is always, always about following in the way we are led. It requires us to know our limitations, to accept that we don’t always know what is best for us. It requires that we trust the One who does know, the One sent by God, Jesus, our Shepherd.