How do we respond to our shepherd giving his life on the cross for us?
1. Good Sheep are Humble and Hopeful of salvation
This insight comes through in the Acts of the Apostles (4:8-12), where Peter credits Jesus for what he and the early followers of Jesus are doing: healing, preaching, conversion, good works, etc.
Instead of taking personal credit for the good works he is doing, he refers his listeners instead to the source of all good gifts: God in Jesus Christ. He explains that the healing is done in Jesus’s name and lives out a stance of humility that allows him to become an instrument of God’s good action in the world, while giving all credit to God. A good sheep lives similarly, following the example of Peter in Acts, aware of the goodness of God’s gifts in his or her life and world.
But there is a second point that comes toward the end of this passage when Peter talks about the Salvation that has also been given to us in Christ Jesus. This is the source of hope that grounds the good sheep in their daily lives. Aware of what Christ as already accomplished for us, good sheep reflect that hope in a world that is in desperate need of good news (i.e., “The Gospel”). A good sheep is hopeful.
2. Good Sheep will remain as Part of his Flock
There is no such thing as a solo good sheep! Nor are there independent-contracting good sheep! Good sheep know that they are part of a flock. We hear this insight in the Letter of John, the second reading, in which we are told that we are all “Children of God now.” We share a connection, a union, a family bond in God as children and with Christ as brothers and sisters. What is often missed in that assertion is how we children of God. It is not who we are, what we do, what we think, with whom we associate, and so on — the Scripture says that it is simply God’s love that makes us who we are. But good sheep must come to recognize that relationship as a member of God’s family.
This comes through strongly in the Gospel, when Jesus uses the flock imagery to describe who is “in” and who is “out.” Jesus tells us that there are other sheep that do not appear to be in this flock, but nevertheless they are part of it, because there is one shepherd, the Good Shepherd, and one flock, His flock!
We need to be aware of this today as it is often far too easy to exclude others, to pretend so-and-so or “this or that type of person” is not part of this flock. But that is our division and our fabrication, as children of God loved into existence, we are all part of the flock. And we should live that way. Good sheep come to recognize their relatedness to the stranger, the other, those with whom we disagree, and those we choose to ignore, and the good sheep sees a kindred sheep in that person, recognizing they are all part of the same flock.
3. Good Sheep Hear the Shepherd’s Voice and Know Him
Jesus tells us in John’s Gospel that He knows his sheep and they know Him; they hear his voice and know Him. But do we hear the voice of the Good Shepherd today? To we know how to recognize it?
I think it’s very difficult to hear the voice of the Good Shepherd today, not because His voice is quiet or challenging in its own right to find, but because we are bombarded by far too many voices in our world. Voices of other shepherds that Jesus warns us of in the Gospel, shepherds who are only in their ‘line of work’ for themselves, for money, for ulterior motives. They do not actually care for their sheep, let alone risk their whole lives for the sheep. We find these other shepherds all over the place in every sphere of our social, cultural, political, religious, familial, and work lives. And this makes it very difficult to recognize the voice of the one, Good Shepherd.
See, the thing about hearing the voice of the Good Shepherd, is that it requires our attentive listening. And listening takes work. Good sheep set aside time, make space, create an environment in which they can learn to hear the voice of the Good Shepherd so that they know where to go. This can happen at Church, throughout one’s day, during a retreat or day of recollection or the like, but it needs to be intentional. Good Sheep listen in order to hear and recognize the voice of the Good Shepherd and follow His lead in life.
4. Good sheep are obedient:
In laying down his life and taking it back he is obeying his Father. He knows his Father’s voice and obeys, just as we are to hear his voice and obey.
It is in this light that we must understand his statement that the reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life–only to take it up again (v. 17). This statement seems to imply that the Father’s love is based on the Son’s obedience, but it is clear that the Father’s love for the Son is from all eternity (17:24;).
In the case of Christ, his sinless obedience maintains the harmony of relationship between himself and his Father–therefore God’s love remains fulfilled toward him. Jesus refers to this when he says, “If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love” (15:10). Such obedience is the expression of love (14:15, 21) and is the condition for intimacy (14:23). Thus, in our passage Jesus would be saying that the Father is able to fulfill his love for the Son because the Son does the Father’s will..