John 10:1-10 Gospel Reading for Sunday 15th May 2011
For most of us the imagery of Jesus as shepherd of the sheep, as the gate by which the sheep enter is familiar, even though much of the deeper insight through a proper understanding of the nature of the shepherd vocation in the Middle East two thousand years ago is probably lost in our largely urban culture these days. (Mind you, verse 6 suggests that the people then had no idea what he was talking about!)
As a matter of routine when looking at this section of John's gospel we often follow the voice recognition, care and protection themes. We focus on Jesus as THE WAY, the gate by which WE ENTER - or our means of access to God / heaven / eternal life.
Amongst all of that it is very easy to miss something. "He calls his own sheep by name and LEADS THEM OUT!" (verse 3).
He leads US out. Where is He leading us from? Probably more importantly where is He leading us to?
Jesus is centuries ahead of where the people are at - and maybe still well ahead of where we Christian people generally are at even today. Do we get drawn too strongly into the straight and narrow line of thinking and the tough demanding call for sacrifice in the Christian life?
Jesus in combination with the inspired writing of John gives us a whole new collection of imagery ...
He leads us to freedom
He wants us to go out into the world
He leads us to live life abundantly
He leads us to the abundant life NOW
He leads us to new opportunities and challenges
He is with us all the way
This surely says something to us about the task of Lutheran Schools. Ours is NOT the job to restrict people to the protective confines of the sheep pen, but to help young people explore the world and give them the skills to navigate around it knowing that JESUS ...the Master GPS Navman, replacing the image of the good shepherd ... encourages us, guides us, travels with us and invites us into an abundant life safe for all time NOW with Him.
Nev
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