This reflection was shared at the Episcopal Diocese of Northern California’s WordFest on Saturday April 23, 2022, following reflections on Psalm 23, Ezekiel 34.
The Good Shepherd tradition of the Bible continues and even reaches a climax of sorts in the Gospel of John chapter 10. Now the purpose of the Gospel of John is explicitly stated by the author. Many scholars make all kinds of conjectures when it comes an author’s intention, but in John we have the intention explicitly defined in John 20:31: “These things are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.” The Gospel of John is written so that the reader and the hearer/listener might have a life-changing encounter with Christ; may enter into a trusting relationship with Christ or to deepen a relationship of trust with Christ. So, when I approach John’s Gospel, on the Gospel’s terms, I am seeking an encounter with Christ that will deepen that relationship.[1] I’m seeking a conversation with Christ, and I bring to the Gospel (and the Jesus revealed in the Gospel) my own questions, my own desires, my own doubts, concerns, and heartaches. All of that is brought to bear in my encounter with the Jesus in John, the Johannine Jesus. So, this encounter calls for a close reading since, of course, we want to listen closely to what Jesus and the Gospel have to say to us. And this close reading is more than just an intellectual exercise. It’s also an exercise of the heart. We often think that believing that Jesus is the Messiah involves giving intellectual assent to a statement of faith. However, the Latin term Credo (where we get the word Creed) literally means “I give my heart to…” So, the Gospel is written so that we might give our heart more fully to the Christ who promises us life in his Name. And may that be our prayer every time we read and hear Scripture, especially the Gospel of John.
Now, just as the Good Shepherd discourse in John 10 is part of a larger biblical motif on the divine shepherd (Ps 23, Ez 34 and also Jer 23, Zech 10, Luke 15 and Rev 7) so too is the Good Shepherd part of a larger story and conversation in John, which begins with a question in John 9. The disciples see suffering in a man born blind and they ask their rabbi, “Who do we blame? Who sinned this man or his parents that he was born blind?” (John 9:2). The disciples represent all disciples who are baffled by life’s suffering and come to Christ for enlightenment. And they are asking the great question of suffering, which is often presented as a trilemma: If God is all powerful and all loving, why is there so much suffering in the world? They ask this question in their particular and unique way in reference to suffering right in front of them, as opposed to abstract suffering. And they frame their question in such a way that they are seeking the cause of suffering or the culprit or someone to blame.
The response to the disciples’ question is multi-layered. Initially Jesus responds by saying, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned. So, stop blaming the victim. We need to be about the work of healing.” And then the rest of chapter 9 demonstrates and exposes the dynamics of blame that undergird that initial question asked by the disciples.
At the end of chapter 9 and at the beginning of chapter 10, Jesus begins to directly address and talk to those who have been excluding and scapegoating the healed man (who was born blind.) So, that is who Jesus is addressing in the Good Shepherd discourse; and when the Johannine Jesus talks about the hired hand who leaves the flock when there is a real threat or even about the thieves and bandits, he’s riffing on Ezekiel, he’s standing on Ezekiel’s shoulders so to speak (just like St. John sat on Ezekiel’s shoulders in Chartres Cathedral), echoing and expanding on Ezekiel’s harsh words against the false shepherds. And this connection is not lost on the Pharisees, who know their Scriptures very well.
But before we fall into the trap of thinking that the Pharisees are always the bad guys, we need to acknowledge that Jesus remains fully committed to engaging honestly with them. He remains with them and they with him (met auto – 9:40). Some scholars even go so far as to say that Jesus was a Pharisee himself. Out of all the Jewish groups that were dominant at the time, Jesus seemed to have the most in common with the Pharisees. Portraying the Pharisees as always being the bad guys can easily perpetuate anti-Jewish readings of John, which have plagued the church throughout history and still plague the church today.[2]
Jesus is talking to the Pharisees when he delivers the Good Shepherd discourse. They are the audience, so the narrative is inviting us to stand in the Pharisees’ shoes in hearing these words. In this context, we are shown that whenever we are driven by the compulsion to blame and when we start expelling and victimizing others then we might be behaving as “false shepherds” and “lost sheep.” And Jesus brings us back to the fold and helps us return (shuv) by giving himself fully to us, by laying down his life for us, and by encountering and even receiving the most violent parts of ourselves. The temptation is for us to use this text to demonize others as the “false shepherds” and thieves and bandits and wolves, but the narrative invites us to see ourselves as the lost sheep and also to recognize and the acknowledge our own inner wolves. We’re invited to recognize our own sinful violence and to know that Jesus meets and receives that part of us, as the Good Shepherd who lays down his life, even to the point of becoming temporarily the victim of the wolf, the wolf within us.[3]
The Good Shepherd in John 10 lays down his life to protect the sheep and to transform the wolf, to transform the wolfish parts of ourselves. There are many layers to the Gospel’s response to the question of suffering (as asked by the disciples), but in general the response is not so much an explanation or a philosophical and theological defense, it’s more a revelation of our own addiction to blame and an invitation into a deeper relationship with the Good Shepherd who knows us by name and whose voice we have come to recognize by cultivating that relationship.
[1] Sandra Schneiders, Written That You May Believe: Encountering Jesus in the Fourth Gospel. Also, our great Anglican theologian Richard Hooker wrote, “The main drift of the whole New Testament is that which St. John setteth down as the purpose of his own history: ‘These things are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is Christ the Son of God, and that in believing ye might have life through his name.” Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, 1. xiv. 4, p. 217.
[2] This is especially tragic since the Gospel clearly condemns all forms of scapegoating violence, especially scapegoating in the name of religion. This is why I say that the Gospel of John is not anti-Jewish, it is in fact anti-anti-Jewish.
[3] The Good Shepherd offers himself as the Lamb, which is another important title given to Christ in the Gospel of John. In our reading from Revelation for Good Shepherd Sunday coming up, we learn that “the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life” Rev 7:17. So, we see these two titles coming together. When we bring our wolves to Christ, we are invited to behold the Lamb and be held by the Shepherd.
SESSION 3, WORDFEST, APRIL 23, 2022, Outline
Subject: Theme of the Good Shepherd
Scriptures: Psalm 23, Ezekiel 34, John 10
Close Reading for Divine Encounter (or Divine Reading for Close Encounter ):
- The Gospel of John was explicitly written for the reader to have a life-changing encounter with Christ (John 20:31). So that’s the goal and intent of John in the first place.
- When I read John, I’m seeking an encounter and a conversation with Christ
Larger Literary Context
- Just as the Good Shepherd discourse in John 10 is part of a larger biblical motif on the divine shepherd (Ps 23, Ez 34 and also Jer 23, Zech 10, Luke 15 and Rev 7) so too is the Good Shepherd part of a larger story and conversation in John, which begins with a question in John 9
- “Who sinned this man or his parents that he was born blind?” Who do we blame for this suffering? (9:2)
- Question of Suffering
- Gospel’s response to the Question of Suffering is multi-layered
- Jesus’s initial response calls us to discontinue blaming the victim and to be about the work of healing (9:3-5)
- Subsequent narrative demonstrates the dynamics of blame in excluding and scapegoating
- Jesus remains engaged with both victim and victimizer in dismantling the dynamics of blame.
- The Good Shepherd discourse is Jesus’s address to the very people who have expelled and victimized the healed man.
- In this context, we can see that those of us who are driven by the compulsion to blame are the “false shepherds” and the “lost sheep”
- Jesus brings us back to his fold [shuv] by giving himself fully to us, laying down his life to take it up again, even as a Lamb (Rev 7:17)
- Divine response to the question of suffering is not so much an explanation, but a revelation of our own addiction to blame and an invitation to a deep intimacy with the Good Shepherd who knows us by name
Suggested reading:
– Kenneth E. Bailey, The Good Shepherd: A Thousand-Year Journey from Psalm 23 to the New Testament [echoing Peter]
– N.T. Wright, Twelve Months of Sundays: Biblical Meditations on the Christian Years A, B, & C (New York: Morehouse, 2012)
– Daniel DeForest London, Theodicy and Spirituality in the Fourth Gospel: A Girardian Perspective (Lanham MD: Fortress Academic, 2020) [Shameless plug!]
DANIEL DeFOREST LONDON 