You know all of those pictures and images of Jesus the Good Shepherd? How gentle and meek he appears? What if those pictures do not depict the image that Jesus was really getting at? What if Jesus’ self-identity as the good shepherd was not so pastoral, so walk-in-the-meadow, beside the rolling brook? What if Jesus meant to reveal his role in he conflict between good and evil? How does Jesus confront the wolves? If we are going to identify with this gospel passage, then we are going to have to identify with our own vulnerabilities and weaknesses. Like sheep. We don’t like to hear that we are sheep or at least that the gospel requires that we acknowledge our own vulnerabilities and weaknesses. We like to live strong and to depend on no one. We like to believe that we are in power and in control. We are not victims. Americans don’t like to see the poor, the sickly, the dying, wandering aimlessly into the snares of predators. But we hear about such things, the elderly being preyed upon by various money-making schemes. Children being preyed on for sex. I’m not saying that this is a dangerous world in which we need to beware and from which Christians ought to withdraw because we already live in a culture of fear and anxiety that is often misplaced, itself becoming a danger. Fear becomes dangerous when it causes deep mistrust of others and an unwillingness to connect. Fear of cities keeps a lot of people with resources from entering into the lives of needy urban dwellers. We are not called to live in a protective bubble with fellow Christians, huddled together in fear waiting for Jesus to come and give us the “all clear”. Quite the opposite. Jesus allows us to be vulnerable, but also to pay attention to the ways we expose others weaknesses, to the ways we impoverish others, to the ways we allow other sheep to be devoured. 40 million Americans are being devoured by poverty, 13 million of them are children. But what if you are or have been a victim? What if you’ve been robbed or raped or lied to or cheated on? What if you’ve been neglected or abused? What if you’ve been swindled out of money? What if you are sick or struggling in a relationship or struggling financially in the recession? I think of people who have been victimized by a broken health care system that bankrupts working class families who lack adequate health coverage and accrue medical debt. I think about working families who live at or below poverty, getting laid off and wondering how they’ll buy food, pay rent, pay off debts. I think about people who have been victims of identity theft or other forms of fraud. I think of men and women, ex-offenders, who paid for their crimes in jail and prison, in shame and in fines but continue to pay for them as unwelcomed, unloved, sub-members of society. I think of millions of African children who are robbed of fathers and mothers because of HIV/AIDS. I think of 26,000 children who will die today of hunger related, preventable diseases. There are sheep among us and wolves too. Jesus says hired hands will not protect the sheep. I thihnk of all of the agencies, institutions, and governments we entrust with protection of the innocent. But we are not trustworthy keepers of the sheep, he says. No one, not the government, not the church, not any human institution will walk with the sheep when the wolves are near. Our lack of enthusiasm over the sufferings of others around this world attests to that. We, with our wealth and power, do little to nothing to help the Mexican families with no water who want to wash their hands to prevent flu. We are unaware of the ways we let the wolves in. This world needs some protection, some help, some shelter from the wolves, the predators, the injustices and systemic evils that plague us. Whether we are sheep, the most vulnerable--- or the hired hands---we need the good shepherd to save us from the prowling wolves. This is no benign, gentle savior as the pictures show. This shepherd, like all shepherds, is prepared to defend the flock. We need a shepherd who will run interference, who will distract the wolves, who will overcome them with His own ferociously protective powers.
Jesus confronts them, but not with military might or with imperial wealth. He confronts them in a much more revolutionary way. Jesus’ power is not that of the White House or the Congress or the pentagon. Its not the power of capitalism or the free market. Its not the power of celebrity success by the world’s standards. Jesus’ power is His own body and His willingness to use His body as a shield and as a target. His power is in His capacity to lay down His life in order to take it up again. Jesus recognized that, like moths to the flame, his brilliant life in the world would draw out the wolves to attack Him. And so they did by nailing Him to the cross. But he also knew that in his divinity, his was not limited to the confines of grave. The grave is where the wolves want him to be. The grave is where the devil and his predatory minions hoped he would stay. But oh no. Not this one. Alleluia, he is risen. He could assume all of the pain and suffering of the world in His body and then, rise to a life beyond the reach of injustice, evil, suffering and death. And in so doing, he would show the world the way to live as God’s holy, just, peaceful and merciful people.
We know there are vulnerable people in our midst, people suffering from illness, poverty, hunger, addictions, fears, secret sins. We know because we are some of them. Maybe you have been poor or sick or abused. And maybe as a result, you’ve abandoned the sick, the suffering, and the abused. Its hard to help someone get up out of the pit when you are sittin’ in the bottom too. How do you free someone from inside your own prison cell? How can you save others when you can’t save yourself? They said it to Jesus. You can’t save yourself, how can you save others? But this shepherd has a secret. And he teaches us the way out. He gives us the keys. He shows us the door. He unbars the gates. He breaks down the dividing walls. He lifts us out of the pit. He unlocks the prison cell. If you cannot identify with the suffering in this world, you will not identify with Jesus and His saving act of mercy. Let me say that again. If you cannot identify with suffering, discomfort, and some form of poverty you will not understand Jesus’ life-giving death and its implications for us. Jesus gives himself to the wolves. He lets the wolves eat his body and drink his blood. And in so doing, he makes them human. So we don’t bite one another, so we don’t victimize any more, so we see everyone as an equally valued creature of GOD. So we recognize the vulnerability and weakness, not to exploit, but to serve and offer mercy.
But if you do get it. If you understand or see how your life is part of the cycle and cause of suffering in this world, how your indifference and mine to the cries of the most vulnerable among us, is a cause for lament and repentence; if you recognize that our prosperity and comfort and the world’s needs invite a generous response from each one of us, then you have heard the Bible’s and our God’s call to share the good news.
No other statement in all of Scripture is more binding on our actions as Christian followers of Jesus than the one we hear from First John 3:17. “How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses to help? Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.” Where we have been indifferent to the worlds’ suffering, where we have been afraid to confront the wolves let us repent. And let us put our lives in the hands of the good shepherd, so that we might offer ourselves to His service as merciful caregivers of all the ones that he loves. Amen.
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