If you read ahead to the end of Jesus’ discourse about being the
good shepherd, you see that it took place during the Feast of
Dedication in the Temple in Jerusalem. Now, why that fact is important
is that one of the scriptures that was regularly read during that
feast was Ezekiel 34, a text that absolutely blasts the shepherds, or
leaders, of Ezekiel’s day for seeking their own welfare rather than
the welfare of the sheep: “You eat the fat and clothe yourselves with
the wool; you slaughter the fattlings, but you do not feed the flock.
The weak you have not strengthened, nor have you healed those who were
sick, nor bound up the broken, nor brought back what was driven away,
nor sought what was lost; but with force and cruelty you have ruled
them. So they were scattered because there was no shepherd; and they
became food for all the beasts of the field when they were scattered.
My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and on every high hill;
yes, my flock was scattered over the whole face of the earth, and no
one was seeking or searching for them.”
It is a chilling passage, chilling because of its relevance to our
situation today. As we think of the leaders of our nation, who pass
legislation that enriches the rich and impoverishes the poor, who pass
legislation that cuts low-income housing, that cuts labor rights, that
cuts medical care for children, that cuts medical care for the
mentally ill, that increases homelessness by leaps and bounds…As we
think of the leaders of nations around our world, the leaders of
Ethiopia, for example, who instead of using their resources to feed
their starving population, are using them to fuel a border war with
Eritrea…
We see it over and over again, here and in countries around the
world, we see what the exploitation of the leaders, of the
‘shepherds,’ what their lack of care is doing and has done to their
people, to their ‘sheep.’ The weak have not been strengthened, the
sick have not been healed, the broken have not been bound up, those
who have been driven away, the homeless and the refugees, have not
been brought back home…
So, Ezekiel tells us, “For thus says the Lord God, ‘Indeed, I
myself will search for my sheep and seek them out. As a shepherd seeks
out his flock on the day he is among his scattered sheep, so will I
seek out my sheep and deliver them from all the places where they were
scattered on a cloudy and dark day. And I will bring them out from the
peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to
their own land. I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, in the
valleys and in all the inhabited places of the country. I will feed
them in good pasture, and their fold shall be on the high mountains of
Israel. There they shall lie down in a good fold and feed in rich
pasture on the mountains of Israel. I will feed my flock, and I will
make them lie down,’ says the Lord God. ‘I will seek what was lost and
bring back what was driven away, bind up the broken and strengthen
what was sick; but I will destroy the fat and the strong, and feed
them in judgment.’”
Ezekiel goes on to talk about how God will judge between those
sheep who have trampled what the others eat and fouled what the others
drink, those fat sheep who have pushed with shoulder and side, who
have butted the weak ones with their horn, and scattered them abroad.
“ I will save my flock,” says God, “and they will no longer be a prey,
and I will judge between sheep and sheep.”
And it is, perhaps, to this scripture that Jesus is referring when
he says, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives his life for
the sheep…and I lay down my life for the sheep.” [continue]
