Christ the Good Shepherd
Although there are a surprising number of similarities between the issues facing Jesus and the first disciples and our contemporary Australian society, there are of course also many differences. Sometimes the differences are quite subtle, so that we miss them in our first reading of the biblical texts.
One such subtle difference arises when we start to read about sheep, believe it or not! Jesus says to some of the people who didn’t believe in him, “…you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep. My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me” (John 10: 26 & 27).
Well, I don’t know about you, but my personal experience of herding Australian merinos, in the summer after I finished Year 12 at St Peter’s College, was a far cry from the idyllic pastoral picture painted by Jesus in this conversation! I remember helping herd the sheep towards a water trough, using a tiny Suzuki four-wheel drive, in the heat and dust of sheep country in the mid-north of South Australia, with the Border Collie more than earning his dinner (little champion that he was!) only to have the sheep refuse to drink and all bolt off at once. When you’ve done that, Jesus’ image of the sheep hearing his voice and following him seems a bit unrealistic!
This is where the context of the biblical passages is so important. In that part of the Middle East, the relationship between the shepherd and the sheep was quite different. The true shepherd, as Jesus refers to himself in John’s Gospel, had a relationship with the sheep, that we Australians sometimes struggle to understand. The flocks were much smaller, for a start, so that the shepherd would know each sheep individually. Perhaps even more significantly, the shepherd’s very life depended on the sheep. There was no social security to speak of back them. So, if the sheep died, then the shepherd’s very existence and livelihood, and that of his family, was threatened. Wool, milk, flax, lanolin, all came from the sheep and were used or traded by the shepherd. In old age, when a sheep was finally too old and tired to keep going, the shepherd, with a prayer to God, would take the sheep’s life; its final gift to him would be its very self as food for the table.
No wonder the true shepherd, the one who really cared for the sheep, would defend the sheep from wolves, lions and bears. We can start to understand the context of the young David, in trying to impress on King Saul that he was indeed capable of defeating the giant Goliath, saying to Saul, “Whenever the sheep are attacked and snatched by a wild animal, your servant will rescue them, even out of the jaws of the lion” (see 1 Samuel 17: 34–37). Moreover, the sheep (more intelligent than we Australians sometimes given them credit) know the shepherd’s voice. The seem to know, in that instinctive way that domesticated animals often do, that their lives depend on the shepherd; they are prepared to follow him.
This then is the context of Jesus saying, “My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me.” We are those sheep. Jesus knows us, and we follow him. It is wonderfully comforting to think that Jesus knows us. He knows us intimately. He knows all our strengths and our weaknesses. There nothing we need to hide from him. We do not need to pretend with him either. He is like an old friend or a spouse, someone who knows us better than we know ourselves, and in whose company we need not pretend. Now and again, he will gee us up and get us going, but we need never pretend to be happier or more enthusiastic than we’re really feeling. He knows us too well, and that fact brings a certain amount of comfort and encouragement.
There is also great encouragement in the words, “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand.” Whatever happens, Jesus will not abandon us.
As I like to say, God always wants the best for us. God wants to bless us. If we can say anything about God with certainty, it’s that God is love. God knows us intimately, loves us greatly, and wants to bless us abundantly.
The Reverend Dr Theo McCall
School Chaplain
