This is so called Good Shepherd Sunday.  Every 4th Sunday of Easter we reader some part of the 10th Chapter of the Gospel of John which is all about Christ the good shepherd..

 Today’s selection from that 10th chapter gives us a time frame.  John tells us that these events took place during the feast of the dedication.  That would be Hanukkah to our modern ears.  You see the word Hanukkah actually means dedication.  Hanukkah celebrates the re-dedication of the temple after it had been desecrated for several years by the Syrians.  Judas Maccabeas and his clan bravely defended and then re-established worship in the temple.  As you can imagine, this kind of holiday sparked a nationalist spirit among the Israelites.  Judas Maccabeas was a symbol of the Messiah who would come and once and for all establish Israel over their enemies.

 

We have to keep this Hanukkah frame work in mind when we read today’s Gospel.  Jesus was walking in the temple.  John tells us that Jesus was in Solomon’s Portico which gave shelter from the cold East winds in December or the time of hannukah.  A group of Jews gathers around Jesus.  They have heard the claims that Jesus is the Messiah and perhaps they are a little tipsy with the fervor of Hanukkah.  Would Jesus be the new hero who would drive out the Roman invader? Would the nation be free and independent once more?   They approach Jesus directly and say,  “If you are really the Messiah tell us so in plain words.”  The people want him to speak with authority about weapons and strategies, benchmarks and timetables; instead, Jesus speaks cryptically and talks about sheep. They want him to take charge and assume the leadership for which they have been hoping.  Jesus answers with a claim of leadership so astounding that many of them pick up stones to kill him on the spot: he claims to be one with God the Father.

Perhaps when  we think of Good shepherd Sunday, we imagine fluffy sheep, pastoral settings and maybe we hear parts of Beethoven’s pastoral Symphony in our head.  But in today’s Gospel the Jesus we meet  is no gentle, meek and mild or romantic Jesus, roaming the green hillsides; this is a fierce, uncompromising Jesus, a Jesus who refuses to meet any earthly expectations, a Jesus whose frame of reference is so far removed from that of the people around him that it is a wonder he escapes with his life. And indeed, John tells us that the next time Jesus dares to show his face in Jerusalem, the chief priests cook up a scheme to have him crucified. 

"It isn't what I can say: it isn't political claims that establish who I am or what my mission is. It's what I've been
doing.  And you can't hear what I've got to say because you can't recognize what it is being told in what I do.  It is the works that are my witnesses.  You can't see this for the simple reason:  only those who are the shepherd's own sheep respond to his voice. Only those who are intimate with Jesus know his voice and recognize in his works that he and the Father are one.  
No political party in the Church, in the nation or in the world can lay claim to Jesus. Jesus is not anybody’s tool or club.  Jesus is not on anybody’s side.  That was as true during the crusades as it is today.  Jesus as  good shepherd came for all.

  Jesus leaves the ninety nine to rescue the one lost sheep.  No one is left out of his compassion.

AS Good Shepherd, Jesus promises his flock and those other sheep not of his fold that no human life is meaningless or forgotten by God. Love, joy and life await even those whose lives, barely unfolding, were snatched away, when “God will wipe every tear from their eyes” (Rev. 7:17).