Easter 4A Reflection (John 10:1-10)

The gospel lesson shows us something about Jesus’s personality. As a teacher, he tries his best to help his students get his point. So, we hear two parables in the lesson. Let’s not forget that it is not his original intention to tell two parables. It’s supposed to be just one parable but his disciples don’t seem to get it the first time. So, he redacts his first parable to help them get it. If I may roughly summarize his original parable, Jesus is the shepherd and his followers are the sheep. The point of the parable is this: Do not follow the voice of a thief or a bandit but only the voice of the shepherd who calls you by name. Logically, it makes more sense to read John 10:1-5 and then skip to verse 11 where Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd, the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” Verses 7-10 make Jesus’s parable of the good shepherd less coherent, if not confusing. 

For some unknown reason, the disciples don’t get Jesus’s figure of speech. (Actually their lack of understanding of Jesus’s teaching is quite consistent throughout St John’s gospel. They just don’t seem to get it, which is a big relief for me personally. I don’t get lots of Jesus’s teaching either!) So like the patient teacher that he is (like our own Beth, Jackie, Sue, and Dana), Jesus changes his original parable. No longer does he identify himself as the shepherd, he is now the gate itself through which one joins the sheepfold. If I may paraphrase the point of Jesus’s revised parable, it goes like this: “Forget about following the voice of the shepherd. All you gotta do is to enter the sheepfold through this gate. Join the group through me. Just be in the sheepfold. Then we’ll go further from there.” As a good shepherd, Jesus does not want to lose a single sheep from the sheepfold. If there’s a lost sheep, he’ll go search for the lost. (Luke 15:3-7; Matthew 18:12-14)

It seems that Jesus finds it more crucial to tell the disciples to be in the sheepfold than to explain to them why they need to follow the shepherd. That explanation can always come after they join the sheepfold. It’s like you don’t and can’t teach anything to a hungry person. You gotta feed that person first. You can see what kind of pedagogical tactic Jesus is using in the gospel lesson. It’s always down to earth, which is the core of the incarnation. Find where people are and be on the same page with them. This downward movement, always beginning from the bottom, is pedagogically incarnation. In a spiritual sense, he displays the divine movement of God that refuses to be high above but among God’s own creatures on earth. 

In doing so, Jesus shows what kind of God he believes in: Emmanuel, “God among us.” He reveals our eternal unity with God here on earth. No matter where we are, how we are, who we are, beyond life and death, the risen Christ reveals and promises God’s eternal oneness with the entire humanity. Don’t look up to the sky to find God. Don’t make an idol to worship God. The reign of God, which is traditionally called ‘the kingdom of God,’ is among us according to Jesus. He doesn’t promote the image of God above, but of a loving parent, calling God as Father who is compassionate and ready to run to his prodigal child, and who is always ever present in us. This image of God is drastically different from a punitive figure who is all about moral codes. 

As Jesus becomes the gate from initially identifying himself as the shepherd, he creates the ground of God’s compassion in which everyone can enter. Thus, join the sheepfold through the gate of baptism, be on the sacred ground of God’s compassion in which you find your fellow sheep. Where is then this ground in our lives? It’s found in our parish life. I’m sure you would agree that the church is that ground where we gather as the sheepfold. (During this pandemic, we gather virtually.) 

Now, let’s not just settle in this sheepfold and become too comfortable. If we do so, we turn our Christian faith to a privatized, individualistic social club of like-minded people. We ought to return to Jesus’s original parable in which he is the shepherd who feeds us with his body and blood. Once we join the sheepfold, we are to follow the voice of our good shepherd. This means we’re recapitulating Christ’s own journey to the Father through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to the cross and resurrection. This is the main reason why we observe our church calendar: Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, and all the way to the feast of Christ the king. But again, this is to remind ourselves of that journey. What should be enacted is to actually live Christ’s journey to the resurrection in our lives. 

As a church community, our food pantry ministry is how we follow Jesus. I dare say that Saint Agnes Church exists because of her food pantry ministry. It’s not the church that creates her mission, but rather God’s mission that creates the church. The church only exists for God’s mission. Imagine our food pantry being the bread that is to be taken, blessed, broken, and given to those in need. During this time, I would like to thank all of you who are joining God’s mission of feeding the hungry and following the voice of our good shepherd in prayers and actions. In a way, those who are joining our food pantry mission are all priests who serve the people of God with Holy Communion. May God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit with the intercession of Blessed Mother continue to protect the sheep of his own and continue to bless and use us all. Amen.