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Sermon - The Fourth Sunday in Easter (B) - 3rd May 2009
St Aidan's Anglican Church West Epping 8:30 am
Readings: John 10:11-18
As Australians we may find today’s Gospel reading a bit of a struggle. When we think of sheep farming we have images of large pasture lands, huge flocks of healthy sheep and farmers on horse back looking after their herds. Its an Australian image. Its one we warm to. It’s a picture of both health and prosperity, part of a chapter in Australia’s history that we can be proud of.
It’s a very different picture to the one Jesus was describing. Shepherds and sheep had very low status in Israel. Sheep, when you get close to them are quite smelly. Shepherds lived all their lives with their sheep, and slept near them at night for their protection. So you could always tell a shepherd just by his odour. Shepherds were regarded as always ceremonially unclean because of their association with their sheep and particularly with handling dead carcasses. And because of that they were forbidden entry into the Temple and unable to participate in the religious life of their community. So shepherds were at the bottom of social life in Israel.
Yet remarkably, Jesus used shepherds and their care for their sheep as an example to describe his ministry to the world. He could see among these rejected people something wonderful, something which demonstrated what he was doing in the world. Here is a love of the shepherd for his sheep which involves total commitment. The first thing that Jesus notes is that the shepherd lays down his life for his sheep. It’s a life and death arrangement. We often remember Jesus’ parable of the lost sheep. The shepherd loves the sheep so much, he goes in search until it is found. But the image here is more dramatic. Sheep were always vulnerable. At night there were many predators, some quite dangerous to shepherds as well as sheep. Can you imagine sleeping in an exposed open field and listening to the wolves howl through the night. And whey they attacked the shepherd placed himself between the sheep and the attackers. “The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”
This is how the shepherd’s love in demonstrated. This is how Christ’s love for the world is demonstrated. This is a plan that was devised by God and executed by Jesus. The Father loves his Son and his Son shows his love to his father and to the world by this obedience, by his giving up his life for the world.
When I was a child I thought Jesus had got embroiled in an argument where things got out of control and he was killed. I thought if he had been more careful he need not have died. It could have been avoided. And this is why you don’t make children theologians. I missed the point that Jesus was prepared to die. He had planned to die. This would be the demonstration of his love for the world and the means for rescuing the world. No one took his life from him. He laid down his life of his own accord. He had power to lay it down and power to take it up again. So his death was never an unfortunate accident of history. It was always the means to put his love into action for the benefit of the world.
And its this essential quality of love that got Peter and John into trouble with the Pharisees. They had gone to the Temple to pray. They met a lame beggar outside the entrance. Rather than give him any money, they healed him in the name of Jesus Christ. The Pharisees had worked hard to put down Jesus’ movement, yet here it was again. So Peter and John were arrested by the Pharisees and asked by what name or power they were doing these things. Peter brought out the irony of the moment. He was arrested and tried for doing good for someone. He was arrested for healing a lame man. This made the Pharisees look very foolish.
But Peter quickly moved to the heart of the matter. He and John had healed in the name of Jesus whom the Pharisees had crucified and whom God had raised from the dead. Notice how free Peter feels in discussing Jesus’ resurrection. This passage only makes sense if the resurrection was an event that could not be denied by the Pharisees. But notice how Peter shows the Pharisees are on a collision course with God. He was preaching Jesus whom the Pharisees crucified and whom God had raised from the dead. It puts the Pharisees in a very dangerous place. Then Peter goes on to show that what had happened was a fulfilment of scripture. Peter quoted Psalm 118 to show that the Pharisees rejection of Jesus is like the rejection mentioned in the Psalm. It is a way of showing everyone how far away from God the Pharisees had moved.
Then Peter explains the supremacy of Jesus over everyone else and that salvation is found in no one else. The Pharisees saw themselves as followers of Moses and the children of Abraham. But they had still gone astray. Now they needed to recognize the power of God through his Son – Jesus. Even through this healing, the supremacy of Jesus is demonstrated. Even this trial itself shows the Pharisees were misguided. Peter and John were on trial for healing a lame man – its ridiculous.
But that’s where laws can lead us when we forget love. When love and law part company we are on dangerous ground. And so John, in his letters reminds us of the importance of love, but not in the sense that love overturns the law. Rather, love has the power to restore humanity in a way that the law lacks. So John took Jesus example of love as the example for us. He laid down his life for us, just as the good shepherd does. And then we have John’s very simple logic – he laid down his life for us – so we ought to lay down our lives for one another. He goes on to say that we don’t love by word or speech, but in truth and action.
The rest of the passage is all about action. We are called on to obey God’s commandment, and that will be demonstrated by what we do. But not only that, John leaves us with a promise. If we love as he has loved us, if we obey his commandments, then this is evidence that he abides in us, and that he has given the Spirit to us. At first we can be daunted by the size of the task. But in fact, John is suggesting we take the opportunities presented to us. We make the most of the time we have, and the places we go to show that love, and to demonstrate that we abide in him, and he abides in us.