John 10:27 - 30
The 10th chapter of John’s gospel is all about Jesus as the good shepherd. There are many images in there that do not resonate with us because, unlike Jesus’ audience, we don't have much to do with shepherds these days. But to the Israelites, the image of the shepherd was very prominent. When you think about it, a lot of the big names in Jewish history were shepherds --- Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the twelve patriarchs were all shepherds. Moses was a shepherd during his exile, when he tended the flocks of his father in law. King David was a shepherd, and the author of the Psalm that starts out “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want”. And we could go on. In the New testament we see that the first people to hear about the birth of Jesus are shepherds.
If we had heard a few verses before today’s gospel, we would have heard Jesus call himself the Good Shepherd. Today’s gospel is why he can claim that title. Sheep follow the shepherd. They are herd animals like cows, horses, and human beings, if you want to be honest. Herd animals feel more secure when they are part of the herd, when they have a leader to follow. When the leader is in dispute, there is trouble. In the wild, flocks of sheep follow a single leader until that individual begins to show some sort of weakness. Then rivals try to take over; they either replace the leader or end up splitting the flock. Domestic sheep look to the shepherd as the leader, and he outlives all of them; sooner or later if you're a sheep you end up being mutton. And that’s why Jesus is the Good Shepherd; he gives his sheep eternal life.
So what is eternal life and why do I want it? If you were to talk to a devout Buddhist, he would look at you blankly -- why would anyone want to keep living, to keep reincarnating, over and over again, with all the pain and suffering that comes into even the richest and
wealthiest life? Vlaidimir Putin a few years ago rode around on a horse with his shirt off -- easily the image of a very strong, powerful and rich man. And we hear that he’s got cancer, and may have to go through surgery soon. No one is immune, and to the Buddhist, the best thing is to get off the train -- to rid yourself of all desire so that you won’t keep coming back in a new body. And I think we tend to see eternal life this way as well -- It’s all well and good to never die again, but being human beings, we know that deep down sooner or later we’d get bored. And to talk about enjoying the beatific vision is abstract; I look forward to that because I’m told that this is what awaits the saints. But is that going to be an everlasting subscription to Netflix? I hope not.
But listen to Jesus’ words: “I give them eternal life”. He doesn’t say, “I will give them eternal life”. IF you are one of his sheep, if you know him, if you hear his voice, you already have eternal life. Eternal life doesn’t just mean living forever -- although that’s implied. But we haven’t got the faintest idea about how things would be if we did not experience time passing. It just can’t be put into words. But eternal life has already started for us. So what is it? Jesus defined it. He said, “And this is eternal life, that they might know you, the eternal God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” So eternal life is knowing God. Kind of disappointing.
But knowing God is not the same as knowing about him, that he exists, that he is Trinity, that he is all powerful, all knowing, and so forth. Knowing God is really on the order of responding to his offer of friendship, of a relationship of intimacy. This relationship is life-changing; just read the life of any saint. And I think most of us have known people that we knew had a deep and strong relationship with God. But I suspect that God lets us sense that in some people, but not all. More importantly, you and I already have this relationship, but it’s like any human friendship; it can grow, or diminish. If I want a friendship to grow I have to hang out with my friend; I have to learn about what gives him joy, where his interests are. To grow a friendship requires conversation with that friend, which is why God became a human being, so that we could relate to him.
You and I already have eternal life -- Jesus gave it to us. We can reject the gift of course. But most of us probably won’t. But what Jesus offers is an eternity of increasing intimacy with him, with God, which will completely satisfy us. No one can really put it into words, we can only experience hints of it during this life -- some more than others. And I suspect that what we call purgatory is that state in which our loving God will continue to call us out of unselfishness, our self-centeredness, until we finally give up resisting. Because we do resist. You would think intimacy with God would be something we would want so badly that nothing would stand in our way. Saint Jane Francis de Chantal had a mystical experience of this and described it as a drip of water falling into an ocean. You stop being the drop and become the ocean -- or perhaps you lose yourself and become God. But most of us really don’t want to lose ourselves. But our Shepherd keeps after us, and sooner or later, will achieve what he wants. So listen to his voice, and be confident that nothing can snatch us out of his hands.
