Jesus Establishes a New Foundation

Each year on the 4th Sunday of Easter we celebrate Good Shepherd Sunday.


Shepherds are less familiar to us today, while they are still abundant around the world in less industrialized areas. Many of us only associate shepherds with Christmas stories and pageants. It is a comforting image. And I think our reading from John today offers much more comfort.


In the first Century, there were shepherds who worked in big areas along with other shepherds. A single pen might hold several flocks. The sheep knew their shepherd’s voice amidst many other shepherds.
And, a Good Shepherd knows a sheep’s voice. Like a child in a group of others - or crying out from a nursery: the parent recognizes their individual child’s voice. It was a kinship relationship.


This is why we relate Jesus to the shepherd who knows your individual voice; hears you - and is looking out for you.


We may not always feel that in our moments of panic or pain… but you are known individually.


Good Shepherd Sunday is a reminder that Psalm 23 (while we often recite at funerals is not about death) but it is about Life.


It is about eternal life!
This Sunday is placed in Easter Season, because we are looking forward to the ascension. We believe that Jesus laid down his life for us as a shepherd does for his sheep- and something very significant happened.


The World was forever changed.


In our passage Jesus says that like a good shepherd he lays down his life for the sheep: His soul and his spirit, not simply this earthly life, but he lays it all down: his eternal life.


And eternity has no bounds. Jesus’ love for humankind has no bounds.




Before Jesus is risen… We have this tradition that he descended to the dead (as we say in the creed) and broke the chains of hell - and closed the gates of hell - and raised everyone up from the depths who had not yet seen his revelation - raised them up to be brought into the flock. It is called the Harrowing of Hell.


Personally as a child I found this very comforting: that you wouldn’t be going to hell, because Jesus had gone down to close it up - and raised those who there out of that separation from God… pulling them all into the fold; To be named; to be healed; and brought into the abundance of communal life!


This was helpful - very comforting for me, and it still is to this day…


This idea - there is a God who searches for me  - even when I am lost - unable to even find myself…And that I belong through him (along with many others) in an abundant life. It is a life that transcends death - and connects us across the ages.


A second very important and comforting piece of John’s Gospel, is that Jesus tells us that he has the power to lay down his life and pick it back up again….by his own mastery. John uses the word “authority” - which also translates into power and skill and mastery.


Jesus establishes his life for the sheep. The sheep are his purpose. We are his very purpose. In the Greek to “lay down” - is also translated as “established." He created a new foundation; a new relationship between God and humans.


Often we only think of laying down his life in terms of the sacrifice of the crucifixion, rather than in terms of this new foundation that he is establishing…


And we may have wondered and cringed at the words of the Eucharistic Prayer…why would God ask him to suffer upon a Cross??


I don’t think that’s what was asked of Jesus. I believe he was asked to lay down his life for humanity; to establish a new foundation. What transpired in these efforts was that Jesus was crucified.  Do you see the difference? I think it is very important and also comforting.


He has accepted, what he been commissioned to do by God - Yes, he offered himself in obedience to God’s will… but this is not simply about martyrdom.
This is about a new foundation for the World of love and healing which Jesus comes to establish in this life.


And in the horror of the crucifixion we see the new foundation play out because this new foundation is affirmed in the resurrection and ascension.


It is God receiving and also forgiving all human trespasses willingly. The crucifixion was human will and Jesus’ offering freely given, as he in God knows that God will not lay down retribution, but will establish reconciliation.


To be seated at the right hand of God, means that Jesus brought humanity into heaven.




Our outline of faith affirms that Jesus (fully Human and fully God) was not only bringing God to live among us as flesh and blood, but through his ascension he brought humanity to God in this realm we refer to as heaven; To co-exist; In intimate familial kinship.


These spaces in eternity do not occupy different time. They co-exist. This was not simple martyrdom, but a cosmic act that changed the shape of the universe.


A new foundation:


The Lord of your life knows you and loves you. God is alive and God is present. Hear the call of the shepherd who calls you to kinship in a kingdom of love.


You belong with this flock. Christianity is about belonging. It is not about membership. To me these differences are very clear. We may be an organization that calls people to be members of our flock… but our community is open. We are not exclusive. We are members - members of the body of Christ, which is vast and eternal and cosmic in scope.


Jesus says, I am the gate. And there is no better comfort than to know that we are welcomed in - and free to roam in these pastures - of eternal love.


Amen.