Second Sunday after Easter
John 10:11-16

Some farmers criticized Mr. Worley's sow raising. He had converted some old horse stables into a small pig farm. They didn't think that was an appropriate place to breed pigs; nevertheless, those sows were Mr. Worley's pride and joy. He had six of them ­ Queenie, Princess, Ruby, Marigold, Delilah and Primrose. To Mr. Worley's sow farm the veterinarian James Harriot was summoned in order to treat Queenie. She was a huge animal with a cluster of suckling piglets. However, she was suffering from a hoof problem. She could hardly hobble on it. James Herriot diagnosed the problem as an overly long toenail. The claw had curled down and around to pierce the sole of the sow.

The veterinarian cut away the overgrown part and dressed the punctured foot with some ointment. While Harriot rubbed it in Mr. Worley knelt by Queenie's head and patted her and sort of crooned into her ear. Herriot commented, "I couldn't make out the words he used ­ maybe it was pig language because the sow really seemed to be answering him with little soft grunts. Anyway, it worked better than an anesthetic and everybody was happy including the long row of piglets working busily at the double line of teats." [ All Creatures Great and Small , p. 231.]

This kind of tender care paid off for Mr. Worley. His sows responded by producing litters of unprecedented size. They were all good mothers and didn't savage their families or crush them clumsily under their bodies. Mr. Worley liked his pigs and they liked him. He became a good swineherd, that is, a good keeper of pigs.

"I am the good shepherd." That is what Jesus declares in our Gospel lesson. Now, the adjective "good" has two words in Greek. There is the word agathos that simply describes the moral quality of a thing; there is the word kalos which means much more. Jesus chose kalos. Kalos implies competence, excellence, and efficiency along with grace, kindness and strength. This is the kind of competence we should all aim at in our various vocations. One Christian author noticed that too many Christians had become addicted to mediocrity. Not only were they satisfied with inferior quality in their choice of the arts, but they had carried that same mediocrity into their callings. That is a sad state of affairs. Christian endeavor should always be associated with excellence and beauty.

Second rate work sometimes, but not always, marks the hireling. John 10:12-13 suggest that the hireling is primarily motivated by money. "But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep."

Not every hired person does a bad job. But in general hirelings don't have a high level of commitment. A couple summers ago we hired a neighbor boy to take care of our house while we were away on vacation. He was to water the grass and feed the animals. When we came home we found the grass nearly brown, the cats up and gone, and the guinea pigs in survival mode. The cats had run off in search of food because they had not been fed for days, and the grass had scarcely been sprinkled. We reluctantly paid him after complaining, and he quickly spent his money on ice cream and candy. The hireling only thinks of payday. Under difficult circumstances he cannot be trusted to do a good job. The person who works for love thinks more of the people he is trying to serve than anything else. The good shepherd is worthy of admiration.

How does the Good Shepherd show His goodness? He "gives His life for the sheep." Why is it necessary for the Good Shepherd to "lay down His life for the sheep?" The fact that the Good Shepherd must die for the sheep indicates the grave danger they are in. A salivating wolf secretly circles, seeking an opportunity to devour the sheep. Could the wolf be the devil? Could the wolf represent false teachers? Possibly so. Whoever or whatever the wolf symbolizes, the danger is real. Take away the Good Shepherd from His flock and the wolf moves in to slay the sheep. The ones he doesn't slaughter he scatters in the wilderness. Once the sheep are separated, their peril increases. Besides isolation and starvation, a lost sheep is vulnerable to snake bites, cougar attacks, and bears. The disoriented sheep must quickly be rescued. This is the condition of everyone who strays from the ways of the Good Shepherd. We are lost in our sins.

Jesus, the Good Shepherd, goes in search of the wandering sheep. He finds the defenseless lambs, lifts them up on his shoulders and carries them home. More than safety, He "gives His life for the sheep." If we dig below the surface we discover how His death benefits the sheep. It has to do with the preposition, "for" in the sentence: "the good shepherd gives His life for the sheep." That word is hyper in the original language. Hyper is an ordinary term that takes on extraordinary significance in John's Gospel. When the Bible tells us that the Good Shepherd "gives His life for the sheep" it means that He "gives His life on behalf of the sheep." He gives His life in place of the sheep, and as a substitution for the sheep. His ministry of dying for others and taking their punishment is reflected in Isaiah chapter 53. Isaiah 53:4 states, "Surely [the Lord Jesus] has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities;... And by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the Lord has laid on Him [that is, on Christ] the iniquity of us all" (Is. 53:4-7).

Throughout the New Testament we see that Jesus repeatedly applied Isaiah 53 to Himself. He understood that His sufferings were meant to take the place of the sufferings of the sheep, and He understood that His death would be a laying down of His life as a substitution for His people. Christ did lay down His life for the sheep. He did it once for all when He was crucified. When He saw that nothing but His blood could deliver them from Hell and the devil He willingly gave up His life as a sacrifice for their sins. The sheep are saved for all eternity because the Good Shepherd died for them.

It is for you and me to give attention to the Good Shepherd, who He is and what He has accomplished. If you decide during your lifetime to ignore the voice of the Good Shepherd and refuse to follow Him, it will be horrible at the awful Day of Judgment. If you love life and desire Heaven, join His flock. Jesus warns you in Matthew 25 that unless you come into His fold you will be set on the left hand with the goats, and He will give a chilling sentence: "Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire" (v. 41). Much better to be set on the right hand with the sheep and hear pronounced, "Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom" (v. 34).

Moving on to the next verses. Jesus continues in John 10:14: "I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own. As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father" A good shepherd has intimate knowledge of all the sheep of his flock. Driving up Interstate 5 to Northern California one passes through some beautiful green hills and often you can spot flocks of sheep grazing over them. To me they all look the same; mostly white, a few black ones. But a shepherd can distinguish them. He knows the features and idiosyncrasies of each sheep. He can pick out individuals from the middle of a mass of other sheep.

At the rectory we have from 10 to 15 guinea pigs at any given time. I know about half of the guinea pigs, but I forget their names. My kids spend more time with them. They know their personalities. When the guinea pigs are let out in the backyard to graze on the grass and play, you can see how they interact with each other. We have a dark colored guinea pig who is full of fun. She likes to race around playing tag with the other guinea pigs. Some pigs are grumpy; others nervous; others gluttons. They all have their quirks. Over time, a swineherd learns these individual traits.

The experience of Christ as our Shepherd gives Him a great knowledge of us. The shepherd is the first to see the lamb at its birth, and he visits it daily to make sure it is safe. He keeps the lamb out of harm's way. He watches it frolic and grow. When it wanders off course He nudges it back with His staff. Sometimes the sheep looks up to make sure it can see the shepherd. Nothing gives it more comfort than the sight of the Shepherd standing at watch. The Good Shepherd leads His sheep to still waters and gives them rest. As night approaches He brings the whole flock into the fold. Once in, He leans on the fence watching their ways; He delights in the serenity of the sheep. Over time the shepherd becomes thus intimately familiar with His sheep, and vice versa, the sheep fondly acquainted with the shepherd.

Perhaps you are thinking, "How can I become better acquainted with Christ?" Many ways. You may experience His strength during Holy Communion, or when you pray and read the Bible. You study what He has taught you; you look at His example, and you ponder His sacrifice on the cross. Far more often, you are the one that has been in His thoughts. Every day He looks at you and studies you. He sees the working of your mind and the forming of your desires. He knows your habits, good and bad; and He aches for you to forsake the bad habits and form godly ones. He looks at your propensities toward evil and labors to nudge you away from them and guide you towards the green pastures of righteousness. You are not alone with your secret sins; the Good Shepherd understands your weaknesses, and is bent upon protecting you from them.

Slowly but surely the Good Shepherd wins the confidence of the sheep; doing for them a thousand kindnesses that are not recognized. His presence instills hope. Slowly but surely the Good Shepherd comes to know His sheep and they come to know Him. This mutual understanding between the Good Shepherd and His sheep is a healthy development. It must grow until Christ's words come to fruition: "I know My sheep and am known by My own. As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father." The mutual understanding between God the Father and God the Son is the only parallel to the mutual understanding of Christ and His people. Why didn't Jesus compare the mutual knowledge between Him and His sheep to the mutual understanding between a husband and a wife? Doesn't a healthy marriage highlight intimate understanding between two people? Yes it can. If one spouse is troubled by something the two will talk about it. There are no secrets. A slight movement, a look, a gesture can communicate a hundred words. Over the years a certain confidence and trust develops. The two of them are not satisfied until they can come to agreement on a particular question. Their worldviews begin to mirror each other. The same events provoke a shared joy or sadness. But even the one flesh marriage between a man and woman, though capable of attaining a wonderful union and high degree of understanding falls short of the ideal Jesus is putting before us. The higher and more intimate relationship is seen between God the Father and God the Son. That is the ideal. That is the goal. That is the kind of mutual understanding that should unfold between Christ and every believer. The knowledge that holds between the Father and the Son, the absolute confidence in each other, the perfect harmony in Their thinking and feeling, the delight They share in knowing and being known; it is to that knowledge that Jesus desires to bring us, and it is to that knowledge we advance in this life and the next.

"I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own. As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father." What does this mean practically? It means that it is your goal and my goal to know Jesus with the same level of intimacy that Jesus knows God the Father. It means that you will strive to live every day in the presence of Christ. It means that in the eucharistic celebration, through the secret power of the Holy Spirit, you will partake of the flesh of Christ by faith, and the Holy Spirit will pour the very life of the flesh of Christ into you. It means that you will take up your Bibles to learn the words of Jesus, and take up your cross to follow His self-denial. It means that you will seek the Lord in prayer, and you will speak to Him and know Him and please Him in your actions. Gradually your thoughts will become disengaged from what is trivial, and expand to take in the glory of God in all of its manifestations. You will see His omnipotent hand involved in the details of your life, indeed of history itself. You will recognize the goodness, wisdom and power of the Lord in the beauty of creation, and you will thank Him for it. Gradually your tastes and desires will be loosened from sinful attachments, to be reoriented towards the mind of Christ: thinking His thoughts, desiring what God desires, and doing what pleases the Lord. This Second Sunday after Easter is called Good Shepherd Sunday. The Church calls you today to know the Good Shepherd as He knows God the Father. Of course, such a relationship is impossible in your own power. You must rely on the grace of God Almighty for it to flower. Come now and partake of Christ, and by faith receive that grace.

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