11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13 The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep.
John 10: 11-15 (NRSV)
STORY
Marin De Boylesve was a nineteenth-century French Jesuit priest. He wrote a meditation for each day of the year. He arranged his meditations following the church’s liturgical calendar. In 1877 they were published with the title A Thought for Each Day of the Year. In one meditation he reflected on Jesus’ teaching of a hireling and a shepherd watching over the sheep, protecting them from the wolf. The wolf, De Boylesve wrote, represents evil that draws a person to vice. The hireling flees when the wolf approaches, for he has no love for souls. Then there is the good shepherd who stands fast against the wolf, remaining obedient and faithful. De Boylesve ends his meditation by asking, “What, then, would you be?” A hireling or a shepherd?
What, then, would you be?
DEVOTION
The message from this morning’s reading is understandable simple. It is easy to interpret and it is absent of debate – you will either care for others or you won’t. This message is really very easy to comprehend – you will care for an individual beyond what you are being compensated for; or, with personal sacrifice, absent of any compensation, you will dedicate yourself to the welfare of another individual.
A heiring’s interest as a shepherd for another individual will never exceed his own personal selfish desires. In contrast, for a self-sacrificing shepherd, motivated by love, there is no limit to the self-denial that he will endure for the well-being of another individual.
In biblical times a young man would be selected to be a shepherd and assigned a flock to watch over and protect. One could say that he was born for the task of shepherding this particular unique herd of sheep. The sheep became his friends and life-long companions. This is why the sheep would always know his voice. It would become second nature for him to think of the sheep before he ever thought of himself. Such devotion, absent of any forethought, would have the shepherd lying down his life to protect his flock. The hireling, on the other hand, was strictly in the business of shepherding for the money. When danger approached the hireling would depart.
Jesus is the Good Shepherd for you and me. As we share in the ministry of Jesus, we are to be a good shepherd to others.
Jesus described himself as the Good Shepherd. In the Greek there are two words for “good.” One word is agathos, which refers to moral conduct. The other word is kalos, which means that goodness has been intergraded into one’s life. It means that goodness has become synonymous with an individual’s loving and caring personality. In the Gospel of John the apostle describes Jesus as the Good Shepherd using the Greek word kalos. With Jesus, as it should be with us, there is an undisputed loving nature towards others.
Jesus’s message in the parable is that those who work only for self-interest will never exceed involvement beyond the fulfillment of selfish desires. This is opposed to those who are motivated by love and will think only of those individuals to whom they are dedicated to serving, absent of any personal desires except for a sense of self-satisfaction.
Jesus is the Good Shepherd who for the love of his sheep and for their safety – for our salvation –he laid down his life for us, the sheep of his fold, on Calvary Hill.
What then, would you be?