Traditionally known as “Good Shepherd Sunday,” the Fourth Sunday of Easter portrays Jesus in His mission as both the Shepherd of the flock and the gate of the sheepfold (John 10:1-10), ensuring the welfare of the sheep. He has come that they may have life and have it in its fullness, a life of communion with God.
The true Shepherd
IN John, the gospel for the Fourth Sunday of Easter corresponds to the gospel for the Fourth Sunday of Lent. With the healing of the man born blind (John 9:1-41), the rejection of Jesus by the Pharisees became outright. The Jews, who claimed to see but were actually blind, judged the light, pronouncing that they did not know “where this one is from.” The man born blind saw and experienced Jesus in His compassion and believed in the Son of Man. In an immediate follow-up, the evangelist presents Jesus in His mission of love and self-sacrifice as the Good Shepherd, even as the biting contrast with the Pharisees refers to them as thieves and robbers who come only to steal and slaughter and destroy.
The incomparable character of the mission of Jesus comes out in His encompassing and dedicated service to the flock entrusted to Him by His Father. He is the true Shepherd. He does not break into the sheepfold; He enters by the gate, unlike the thieves who try stealthily to get inside. The gatekeeper of the communal pen knows the Shepherd and opens the gate for Him. And His sheep hearing His voice as He calls them by name readily follow Him, when He collects them from among the other sheep, just as they would shy away from any stranger whose voice they do not recognize. As the legitimate Shepherd, Jesus
(compared unfavorably with Moses by the Pharisees, cf. John 6:30-33) leads all sheep out like a Moses in a new exodus for the good and wellbeing of God’s flock.
The gate of safety
TO avoid any ambiguity, Jesus explicitly states, “I am the gate for the sheep.” The Shepherd is now appreciated as the gate. Far from a mix-up in metaphors and figures of speech, the continuity of concept is obvious: the good Shepherd literally becomes the gate as He posts Himself at the entrance of the sheepfold to ensure the safety and welfare of his flock. Jesus is not only the Shepherd-leader sent by God like Moses who brings out the sheep to the needed pasture, he is the very “gate” guaranteeing protection and the sure way for the flock. Jesus is the only way to salvation.
Jesus came so that we “might have life and have it more abundantly.” Anyone else before Him or after Him trying to fill up this role of necessary mediator would be an impostor, a thief disguised like a Shepherd but out to steal and plunder the flock and bring destruction to the sheep. Utterly unacceptable to Jesus would be “false prophets” who come in sheep’s clothing but are actually ravenous wolves underneath (Matthew 7:15). John notes that the Pharisees did not realize the point Jesus was making as He contrasted Himself from them.
Alálaong bagá, Jesus’ clear condemnation of those who do harm to the flock is together with the invigorating promise that as the gate guaranteeing the well-being of the flock, he gives the assurance to all that “whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture.” Anyone who has communion with Him and follows Him is sure of belonging to God’s flock and shares in the salvation for which the crucified and risen Lord is the gate. But we must be on the lookout against other voices and pretenders today that come to steal and destroy.
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