OVERHEARING - Our overhearing of Psalm 23 becomes acute at this juncture in
Jesus’ teaching: For Christians, Jesus becomes the fulfillment par excellence of the
Shepherd of the Psalms who leads and provides for God’s people.
A PREACHER LOOKS AT JOHN 10 . . .
My husband Ed and I were talking about the
difference between hired hands and owners and he told me a story about the time he an his
friend Tommy Brannon went duck hunting on the Flint River. They had been out all day in
Tommy’s boat, sharing equally in the care and pleasure of it, when it came time at
last to pack up and go home. . . . they heaved the prow of the boat up on the river bank
and began to haul their guns and decoys to the car.
On their second trip back to the river, however, the boat was gone. Looking
downstream they saw it floating away, about ten feet from the bank. So they dropped
everything and ran after it, crashing through he underbrush to draw even with it, but the
closer they got, the further it moved out into the main current of the river-first ten
feet, then twelve feet, then twenty feet away, gaining speed as it went.
Finally came the moment of truth. As cold and tired as they both were, it was clear
that one of them would have to strip and swim after the boat. They looked at each other
and they both knew who it would be. "It wasn’t my boat," Ed said, but he
helped out by cheering for Tommy as he tore off his camouflage jumpsuit and dove into the
river.
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep."
That is what makes him good, according to John-his willingness to get involved, to risk
his life for the life of this flock. His flock. Not somebody else’s flock, which he
gets paid five dollars an hour to look after, but his own flock-the one he has bought and
bred, doctored and protected. He is invested in it, in more ways than one. [1]
Jesus
is the Good Shepherd-the one who cares for you, knows you, and guards you from things that
can destroy you. What is ahead of you right now? Are you walking into green pastures or
dark valleys? Envision Jesus ahead of you as you walk. "I know my own and my own know
me" (John 10:14).
First, of course, check our
archives to see what homilies we have on this passage.