Fourth Sunday of Easter – May 11, 2025
As we move into the middle of the Easter season and, for some, the warmth of summer, we might be feeling a post-meal nap coming on following last week’s breakfast on the beach with Jesus. Today’s short Gospel passage may even lull us with its soothing sentiments: “My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me” (Jn 10:27), and “The Father and I are one” (v 30). Surrounded by lilies beginning to wilt along with our Alleluias, it’s easy to forget the fatal consequences of Jesus’s words. But now is not the time to snooze.
The very next verse in John’s Gospel after today’s passage is this: “The Jews again picked up rocks to stone him.” What to us had sounded like reassuring words were enough to rile the crowd to try to murder him … again! And Jesus knew it would.
We call Jesus “good” because he knew the risk he was taking through his words and actions and chose to shepherd his flock still.
The Good Shepherd discourse, from which today’s passage comes, is sandwiched between Jesus’s healing of the man born blind, when the Pharisees took offense at his words about their own blindness, and the raising of Lazarus, after which the plot to kill Jesus intensifies.
Jesus already had experienced violence against him. We call him “good” because he knew the risk he was taking through his words and actions and chose to shepherd his flock still. May we, too, follow his example.
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