Some years ago I was invited to spend a week-end in Riversdal on the family farm of a friend. Just outside my room was a little encampment of new-born lambs which were too small and weak to survive in the main flock. The farmer’s two daughters were looking after them, and had given them all names. When one of the daughters called a name, there was a little bleat from the lamb of that name. When I tried, they would not respond; they only answered to the voices they knew.
We so often do not realise how literal Scripture can be in small things. When we miss these small things, we can miss the power of Jesus’ message. Today’s gospel reading is a case in point. How familiar are we not with those words of Jesus, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.”? Jesus is not merely creating a metaphor using sheep; he is relaying a reality familiar to every one of his hearers. This is a literal fact about sheep, and Jesus was using it to communicate a truth about himself and his followers.
It is a fact that the tough shepherds of Jesus’ day took the same flocks out, day after day. The sheep became used to their shepherd, knew his voice, and followed and trusted him. It is true that they would flee a stranger. So they would follow the shepherd as he led them out to pasture, to places where there was good grass and water for them to eat and drink.
The shepherd was accountable for every one of the sheep; he had to count them when going out in the morning, and when he returned in the evening. It was his task to find those who had strayed from the flock. He was expected to fight off predators who wanted to steal or kill the sheep. If a sheep was killed by a predator, he had to bring to his employer the forelegs as proof of this.
All this would have been familiar knowledge to Jesus’ listeners, the hard facts of daily life. It is good that we understand this, too, because it reveals quite how profoundly Jesus is committed to protect and sustain the lives of those who know and love him, who “listen to his voice.” It is also a warning to those who would try and mislead his followers; that those who really know and love him will simply not listen to false religious leaders and teachers. This has been proved over and over during the two-thousand-year history of our Church.
As we reflect back on the saving events of Jesus’ death which we celebrated just a few weeks ago during Holy Week and Easter, another phrase from Jesus’ address on the Good Shepherd should come to mind: “I am the Good Shepherd…I lay down my life for my sheep.” He suffered, died and rose from the dead to bring us safely into his Father’s kingdom. We should also remember Peter’s words about Jesus in the very first Christian sermon on Pentecost day: “There is no other name in heaven or on earth by which we can be saved.” He is our Good Shepherd, and we should listen to his voice and no other. If eternal joy with the Father is what we really want, then that is what we must do.
Fr Phillip.
