Pastor's Corner - Sunday April 29th 2012
“Good Shepherd” Sunday
In today’s Gospel,
Jesus identifies Himself as “the Good Shepherd” and calls us His sheep,
given to Him by His Father. Remember, sheep are stinky, lazy, far from
“bright”, helpless and defenseless. And yet, despite all these weaknesses and faults of character, Jesus still wants to be our good shepherd, and never gets exasperated with us, or angry because of our weaknesses.
"A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep."
One of the greatest signs of a good shepherd is that He never considers
His life as more important than the sheep. That means we can TRUST him
never to have ulterior motives or trick us. Even when his sheep don’t
understand why, they still experience his compassion and selflessness. Thank God, Jesus never asked "What’s in it for me?"
"I known mine and mine known me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father." Another
great sign of a good shepherd is that He knows each one of us
individually and loves us, and wants us to experience with Him, the same
security and trust between Him and his Father. He is never distant or
“above” even the smallest of needs. He never says, “not now, I’m
busy.” As the Baltimore Catechism said, "to know someone is to love and
serve that person." In essence, to know someone like Jesus does
is to accept them with charity and patience, with all their
inadequacies, hard-headedness and shortcomings.
"They will hear my voice, and their will be one flock, one shepherd." A
third sign of a good shepherd is teaching His sheep how to listen for,
trust and obey His voice. It is his loving and trustable voice that
gets our attention focused on Him long enough to follow… so we can how
and where to follow, what is healthy or dangerous, and how to work
together as one flock, instead of the two opposite extremes of either
selfishness or blindly following each other. He desires that we have
“one heart, and one will” acting in love as one body. Are you listening to or running away from his voice. Do you trust or fear what he will say?
Jesus is the Good Shepherd; are we being faithful sheep?
