The Fourth Sunday of Easter (Cycle A)

The tie in between today’s readings: The Way of the Shepherd

Psalm 23:1-6, Acts 2:36-41, 1 Peter 2:20-25, John 10:1-10

I asked a pastor acquaintance of mine one day tell me what his job was like. “Basically,” he joked, “I hatch (baptize), match (wedding), and dispatch (funerals), and throw in a little golf on the side.” Of course, the job of the clergy is much more difficult than my friend lets on. There are meetings to run, bills to pay, tears to dry, wrongs to right, sick to see…and all before lunch. The job is so tough, so special, so unique, that when a person enters the ministry, we say that they have a calling. When you answer that call, it is life’s most important and rewarding pursuit. Not everyone in religious work has that calling, though. Today’s gospel, John 10:1-10, introduces us to two quite different people who enter the ministry. The shepherd, who should be there, and the others, who should not.

“Do you love Me?” That was the question Jesus asked Peter three times in John 21:15-17, while telling him to tend to His sheep. Jesus is the door to Shepherd University (John 10:1-3;9). You can only pass the entrance exam by loving Christ and being saved by the blood of the Good Shepherd yourself. Salvation in Jesus is key to any calling. We love Him because He first loved us and gave His life as a ransom for us (1 John 4:10). Let’s face it. You really can’t relate the Gospel’s message if you don’t know it in your own life. That said, others can and do enter Shepherd University by a different way. They don’t know the Savior as they should. They have no calling. The ministry is a job to them. They run the Church as a business. The parishioners are their customers and worst of all, they lack a shepherd’s heart.

True shepherds have a servant’s heart and they’ll need it for the tasks ahead. An outline of their duties can be found in our reading, the famous Psalm 23:

• The shepherd knows his sheep by name and has a connection with them (vs 1).
• He is a guide and a resource for the spiritual, emotional, and physical needs of his flock (vs 2-3).
• He gives moral guidance by counselling and lifestyle (vs 3).
• He is there when times are hard and dangerous (vs 4).
• He shares in the good times (vs 5).
• He is concerned that you reach heaven (vs 6).

There is no better way to see the servant shepherd’s concern for the souls of his flock than in the Sunday message.

It is Pentecost, in today’s reading in Acts 2:36-41, and Peter, the man that Jesus entrusted to tend His sheep, IS ON FIRE! He’s just finishing his most straight forward, in your face, “Jesus is the Lord of Glory and you crucified Him” sermon. No equivocating! No misunderstanding! In the Power of the Holy Spirit, he warns the crowd to repent and be baptized in the name of Christ for the forgiveness of their sins. Three thousand souls were saved on that day. Many of those other graduates of Shepherd University would judge the Apostle’s approach as being a little heavy handed. They have learned that to be successful in the modern ministry the message of the Gospel needs to be more nuanced. Forget about sin and Judgement. The Gospel should be more socially relevant. The Church should remind people about God’s love and encourage them to love one another just as Jesus taught. Keep the message unchallenging. Keep them happy in the pews and the collection plates full. Our Lord calls these ministers thieves (John 10:10)! They never give the other side; the offensive message of the Good News about sin. The purpose of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross is never explained as it should be and so, they rob their people of a critical component of salvation.

To be fair, the flock gets the pastor they want, too. Paul tell us in 2 Timothy 4:3, that people will look for these types of ministers who will jettison sound doctrine to tell them what they want to hear. Not that every week needs to be “Fire and Brimstone Sunday”, but when was the last time you heard any message on confession, repentance, and escaping condemnation? It is all too easy to preach half of a Gospel focused solely on the love of God while never confronting the sacrifice that this very love effected. By avoiding the hard and upsetting truths in the Gospel these pseudo shepherds prove that they have no love for their flock and tragically, when the time comes for the sheep to pass through the valley of the shadow of death…few make it.

Our reading in 1 Peter 2:20-25 comments on the sheep’s role in the flock. The Apostle reminds us that life is not fair…and that’s OK. He encourages us to endure hardship, deserved or not, just as Jesus did for a higher calling: to save us from our sins. It is now our higher calling to trust in the Lord, endure all things, and become more like Him. Our ministers are there to help us in this. So, respect your pastors, who are due a double honor as it says in 1 Timothy 5:17. It’s a tough job. Obey them, but hold them accountable to teach the whole gospel of God: the wages of our sin and the saving love of Jesus. Now, if you haven’t dedicated your life in faith to Christ, know that the Good Shepherd is calling you. Answer Him! He laid down His life so that you may be forgiven! Trust in His sacrifice! Leave your wilderness of sin! Join His flock! So that, in the end, we may all dwell in the house of the Lord forever.