SUNDAY’S GOSPEL – John 10:11-18

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.  The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away—and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.  The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep.  I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep.  I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.  For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again.  No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.”

 

POINTERS FOR PRAYER

  1. There is a qualitative difference between a casual acquaintance and a relationship characterised by understanding and care. What changes have you experienced in your relationships as your love and knowledge of the other increased? What was it like for you to experience that change?
  2. The good shepherd “lays down his life for the sheep”. When has your care for another led you to “lay down your life” for that person, e.g., as a friend, parent, spouse, son or daughter? When you have known another to do this for you?
  3. The parable also suggests that relationships should not be closed but open. Perhaps you have experienced the truth of the saying that love shared is love strengthened.
  4. Jesus speaks of the freedom of the Good Shepherd in laying down his life. Faced with the needs of others, we can at times feel trapped into looking after them, caught by duty, obligation, or guilt. We can become like the hired hands who do a job without care for the person. Perhaps you have experienced both attitudes, caring for others under duress and by free choice. What difference did it make when you chose to care for the other, even in circumstances where you had little option?
  5. What do these experiences of love and care in human relationships reveal to you about God’s love for you?

Jesus our shepherd, we know your care for us was costly as you laid down your life and took it up again. Help us to know again “the great events that gave us new life” in you, that we may hear you and follow you in all we do.

In John’s Gospel, Jesus is addressed as the Lamb of God — and now he becomes the shepherd — a fruitful mixed metaphor.  In real life, shepherds do not “lay down” their lives for their sheep, however caring. And so on. With such caveats in place, perhaps we can hear the familiar passage with fresh ears!