4th Sunday of Easter - Homily

Fourth Sunday of Easter – April 25, 2020

By Rev. Rudolf Ofori

The wandering figure of the good shepherd, anxiously tending his sheep to the point where he is willing to surrender his life for them, is the image Jesus uses about himself in today’s Gospel. That mixture of tenderness and toughness, care and self-sacrifice, is one that summarizes his own practice of leadership. It is not a leadership of detachment and defensiveness; rather, it is a leadership of physical involvement and self-sacrificial love. In the good shepherd’s foolish extravagant love, his own life matters less than that of his sheep. 

The good shepherd is not an image of religious authority that is eternally pleased with its own importance, blind to the useless pain it causes in those it leads. The authority of the shepherd costs the shepherd, not the sheep. The image of the shepherd cannot be separated from how the shepherd actually cares for his own sheep. His concern is not untroubled, his courage is not bloodless, his love is not detached. When we see how Jesus actually behaves as a leader, we see his tenderness and courage. Jesus tackles his opponents, face to face. He confronts those who steal the dignity of the little ones. He names the wolves in sheep’s clothing. He is willing to leave his enemies looking sheepish. He warns his followers about the rough terrain ahead. He goes there before them. He is defensive when people attack his own followers. He is realistic about people’s wayward ways. He endures isolation and insult. He faces his own fear but stays loyal. He risks being slaughtered himself. He does lay down his life for his sheep. 

In his life and in his death, Jesus sought out the lost and the least and the last. When he wanted to speak of a tender God, he told the people about a shepherd who, when he loses one of his sheep, leaves the other sheep and goes off in search of the lost one. The shepherd refuses to accept the loss of one sheep as ‘’just one of those things.’’ He searches for the lost sheep until he finds it, and then taking it on his shoulders he returns to share his joy with all his neighbors. 

That is Jesus’ image of pastoral care, a search that continues until a find can be made. We know, of course, that a search is not automatic after a loss. Many losses are not even registered. Where there is no love, there is no loss. Some people are regarded as ‘’no great loss.’’ Other people are encouraged to ‘’get lost.’’ But all of us hope that when we are lost someone, somewhere, will be looking for us. Like the good shepherd. 

The good shepherd challenges our own way of leaving people for lost: ‘’I have come to seek out and save the lost.’’ Probably all of us know two or three people who have wandered away from the Church, who have lost their sense of belong to. How will they know they are welcome back if no one tells them? How will they be helped back if no one offers to make the journey with them?