Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for April 25, 2021

First Reading: Acts 4:5-12

The Fourth Sunday after Easter is often called “Good Shepherd Sunday” because its readings focus on God’s protective love in the metaphor of shepherd.

The Good Shepherd Lays Down His Life for the Sheep (1616), oil painting on canvas by Pieter Breughel the Younger (1564-1638). Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels, Belgium. (Click image to enlarge.)

In our first reading, Peter has come a long way since having denied Jesus three times on the night of Jesus’ arrest. Peter and John have been arrested by the Temple authorities, who were alarmed because they healed a paralyzed man and took advantage of the attention to preach about the resurrected Christ. Peter responds to the authorities with bold confidence. He declares that the disciples are healing through Jesus – adding pointedly, “whom you crucified” – and whom God raised from the dead as the cornerstone of salvation. What changed Peter? Sent forth by the risen Christ to “feed my sheep,” he is filled with the Holy Spirit.

Psalm: Psalm 23

When Christians read these familiar verses, we tend to visualize the loving face of Jesus as the Good Shepherd who walks beside us. After all, Jesus declares himself the Good Shepherd in the verses of John’s Gospel that we hear today. Originally, however, the people sang this Psalm in the time of the Second Temple as a hymn of praise to the God who brought them out of exile and led them home. We enjoy with the original listeners its comforting hope of a shepherd who keeps us from want and guides us to rest comfortably, fearing no evil. There’s a hint of repressed anger at the one-time oppressors, too, as the Psalmist imagines reclining at a lavish banquet while their vanquished enemies can only look on.

Second Reading: 1 John 3:16-24

Jesus loved us so much that he laid down his life for us. This beloved idea from John’s Gospel – which we see reflected here in the first letter in John’s name – is just about as reassuring as the 23rd Psalm. But the rest of this reading becomes challenging when we hear that we are to lay down our lives for one another too. Just as God loves us, we are to love each other, to help our brothers and sisters in need, not just in what we say but in what we do. We are to be not only sheep, but shepherds, too. Filled with God’s love, we are called to be bold, just as Peter was bold, fired by the Holy Spirit just as Peter was inspired.

Gospel: John 10:11-18

In its context with the verses that came just before it in John’s Gospel, this seemingly simple “Good Shepherd” narrative resonates unexpectedly with Peter and John in Acts: The Pharisees are angry because Jesus healed a blind man on the Sabbath, and they are alarmed that many people, seeing these miraculous healings, are beginning to speak of Jesus as the Messiah. Seen in this light, it appears that Jesus is pushing back. He likens the people to helpless sheep, and the Pharisees to wolves who prey on them. In words that the writer of the later first letter of John will invoke, Jesus declares that he will lay down his life for the sheep – all the world’s sheep, “one flock, one shepherd” – and that he will live again.