Archive for the ‘Shepherd’ Category

Shepherds and gates

April 25, 2026

Sheep at dawn, Bethsaida 2015.

Dry, harsh, landscape, small flock, nomadic shepherd (not in shot)

Easter 4 – 2026

Good Shepherd Sunday John 10:1-10

Marian Free

In the name of God, Source of all being, Eternal Word and Holy Spirit. Amen.

It is fascinating how images can take hold of us even when they bear no relationship to reality. For. example, I often ponder about the biblical image of the shepherd which holds a place in our imaginations that seems to have little resemblance to actual shepherding – either here or in the Middle East. I imagine that most of us picture Jesus as shepherd in the way that he is depicted in religious art rather than from our own experience. The Good Shepherd is clean and neat, the grass in the pictures is a beautiful green and the sheep or lambs are white and fluffy – content to be held in Jesus’ arms or to rest motionless across his shoulders. In reality, shepherds in the Middle East, certainly in Jesus’ time, were considered to be thieves and drunkards –  not respectable members of society and certainly not selfless leaders. Israel is not covered in lush green pasture and sheep in the Middle East are often more like goats in appearance and are certainly not clean, cuddly, white lambs, willing to be held in one’s arms.

All this aside, images of leaders as a shepherds and of the people as sheep have ancient roots stemming from a pastoral, nomadic culture in which the wealth of anyone individual was dependent on their flock. Protecting one’s flock when always on the move required constant attention and finding adequate pasture was a priority for the health of the sheep. In the Near East in ancient times, a shepherd’s rod and staff were used as symbols of royal authority – a reminder of a leader’s responsibility to protect and to build up their people.

It is not surprising then that this imagery is found throughout the Old Testament. In  Numbers 27:16f Moses addresses God saying: “Let the LORD, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint someone over the congregation who shall go out before them and come in before them, who shall lead them out and bring them in, so that the congregation of the LORD may not be like sheep without a shepherd.” Isaiah 40:11 imagines and intimate relationship with God as shepherd: “He will feed his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead the mother sheep.”  And of course there is the familiar imagery of Psalm 23. 

The longest reference to shepherds occurs in Ezekiel 34 in which, through the prophet, God assures Israel:” I myself will search for my sheep, and will seek them out. As shepherds seek out their flocks when they are among their scattered sheep, so I will seek out my sheep. I will feed them with good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel shall be their pasture; there they shall lie down in good grazing land, and they shall feed on rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep.

 The leaders of Israel at this time are not good leaders. “Thus says the Lord GOD: Ah, you shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep?  You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fatlings; but you do not feed the sheep. You have not strengthened the weak, you have not healed the sick, you have not bound up the injured, you have not brought back the strayed, you have not sought the lost, but with force and harshness you have ruled them”.  

Ezekiel’s image of the “good shepherd” and his tirade against the “shepherds” of Israel is not too dissimilar to the imagery of John 10.

John 10, like all biblical texts has to be read in its literary context – Jesus’ giving sight to the man born blind. In typical Johannine fashion Jesus’ action is followed by a lengthy discourse or explanation. 

In today’s gospel, Jesus doesn’t directly name the Pharisees as the thieves and bandits who have come before him, but it is clear from the context that he has them in mind as those who do not hear his voice. After all, they do not believe that Jesus gave the man his sight. In fact, they have disparaged the once-blind man and driven him out of the Temple. They refuse to hear the voice of Jesus or see what he is doing.

As with much of John’s gospel, the imagery of chapter 10 is layered and complex, which means we will not find exact parallels with chapter nine. One this is clear – Jesus’ discourse on shepherding is a critique of the Pharisees leadership, their failure to hear his voice, and their assumed role as gatekeepers.  

As shepherds or gatekeepers of the sheep, the Pharisees have made it their business to determine how the people observe law and what they believe and to decide who does and does not belong. Such is their power and influence that even the parents of the man born blind do not have the courage to say that Jesus gave their son his sight for fear that they would be cast out. The Pharisees, believing they know what is best, and resisting any hint of change have taken away the freedom of the people to think for themselves, to act as they think best and their ability to grow and flourish. 

In describing himself as both the gate and the shepherd, Jesus highlights the difference between himself and the Pharisees. While the Pharisees want the people to live within strict boundaries determined by themselves, Jesus wants the sheep to be able to roam freely and to follow him of their own accord. He does not want limit and constrain his followers. His stated goal is for all “to have life and to have it abundantly”.

Throughout the history of the Christian faith (and the world in general) leaders have emerged who believe that they have all the answers – the leaders of the Inquisition, cult leaders and others – who believe that they have the right to impose their will and their way of seeing the world and faith on others. Jesus opens the gate wide, confident that those who have come to know and believe him may come and go but will always make their way home without coercion.

We know that we are following the Good Shepherd because we have been set free to live life to the full.

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Searching for the lost

September 9, 2022

Pentecost 14 – 2022
Luke 15:1-10 (Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28)
Marian Free

In the name of God who searches for the lost and brings them safely home. Amen.

I have often said that I am not sure what lies behind the thinking of the compilers of our lectionary. When read out of context, passages such as those from Jeremiah this morning, make little sense. One wonders about the relevance of the words of a prophet, spoken to a faithless people, apply to us today. Certainly, in view of the current climate crisis, we could argue that the water crisis in many parts of the world is God’s punishment for the world’s turning away from God. The problem with that argument is not only that we are appropriating the prophet’s words for our own purposes, but worse is the implication that follows – that (for example) those forced to flee their homes to refugee camps in northern Syria, and who are now facing water insecurity, brought the situation on themselves.

If one reads: “I looked, and lo, the fruitful land was a desert, and all its cities were laid in ruins before the LORD, before his fierce anger” (Jer 4:26) and other such passages out of context, it is not difficult to understand why there are many Christians who find the Old Testament writings to be both disconcerting and discouraging. They find in its pages a vindicative, demanding and angry God – a God who is vastly different from the one that they experience in the pages of the New Testament – and so they abandon the Old Testament (and the riches it contains).

It is true that the writings of the prophets (as Jeremiah this morning) are often judgemental, bleak, and full of foreboding; but, despite this, many will tell you that the Old Testament is God’s love letter to God’s people.

To understand this concept, we need to understand that (despite the story of Abraham), establishing a faith in the one true God did not happen overnight. The Israelites (the children of Abraham) found themselves in the midst of nations who worshipped a multitude of gods and, it appears that it was sometimes difficult for the Israelites to hold fast to a God whom they could not see when their neighbours worshipped idols whom they could see and touch. (Among other things, this led to the creation of the golden calves when Moses, who was receiving the ten commandments from God, left the Israelites alone in the desert and the building of the ‘high places’ and worship of Baal in Israel.)

If we read the Old Testament in its entirety, instead of picking and choosing passages, we will see that over and over again, the Israelites abandon God and serve the gods of the surrounding nations. Over and over again God (through the prophets) expresses disappointment and warns them of the consequences of deserting the faith of their forbears. Over and over again God urges the people to return to God and promises to make them a new creation. And, over and over again, God reaches out in love to bring God’s people home. For example, were we to read further in Jeremiah we would find the beautiful words of reassurance in chapters 30 and 31: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you” (31:3).

Neglecting the Old Testament means that we never discover the image of God with which the book of Hosea concludes. After several chapters in which God expresses anger and frustration at a people who constantly chase after other gods, God seems to pull godself up, remembering that it was God who taught Ephraim (another word for Israel) to walk, God who lifted Israel to God’s cheek. Then follow these heartrending words of yearning:
“How can I give you up, Ephraim?
How can I hand you over, O Israel?
How can I make you like Admah?
How can I treat you like Zeboiim?
My heart recoils within me;
my compassion grows warm and tender.
9 I will not execute my fierce anger;
I will not again destroy Ephraim;
for I am God and no mortal,
the Holy One in your midst,
and I will not come in wrath”.(Hosea 11:8,9)

“My compassion grows warm and tender, and I will not come in wrath.”

A solid knowledge of the Old Testament reveals it to be a revelation of God’s love for God’s people. It is important that when we read the Old Testament, we read it in context, but more than that, we have to remember that it was foundational for Jesus’ image of God, that the God depicted in the Old Testament was the God whom Jesus knew. This means that when Jesus speaks of God, or the kingdom of God, he is informed by his faith, a faith rooted in the Old Testament ideas of God. Jesus knew the story of Israel and of God’s longing that Israel be restored to God. Jesus knew the shepherd/guide of Psalm 23; the God who, in verses omitted in today’s reading from Jeremiah says: “If you return to me and remove your abominations from me .. then the nations shall be blessed by him” (4:1,2); and the God of Isaiah who: “will feed his flock like a shepherd; gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead the mother sheep” (40:11). Jesus shares God’s compassion for and love of Israel and, while he too gets frustrated by hypocrisy and waywardness, Jesus shares God’s longing that the lost be found and restored to the people of Israel.

So, when Jesus tells the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin, he is saying no new thing, he is describing the actions of the God of his forbears – the God of Jeremiah, the God of Hosea – a God who never loses hope in God’s people, a God who, no matter how far God’s people stray, never abandons them and a God who continually seeks out the lost and brings them home.

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