How to follow the Shepherd

Clay Hill United Methodist Church, April 21, 2024

My drawing of the Four Chaplains, which won a ribbon at the 2021 Bedford County, Tennessee, Fair.

John 10:11–18 (CEB)

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. When the hired hand sees the wolf coming, he leaves the sheep and runs away. That’s because he isn’t the shepherd; the sheep aren’t really his. So the wolf attacks the sheep and scatters them. He’s only a hired hand and the sheep don’t matter to him.

“I am the good shepherd. I know my own sheep and they know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. I give up my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that don’t belong to this sheep pen. I must lead them too. They will listen to my voice and there will be one flock, with one shepherd.

“This is why the Father loves me: I give up my life so that I can take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I give it up because I want to. I have the right to give it up, and I have the right to take it up again. I received this commandment from my Father.”

The Gospel lesson from this week’s Lectionary has Jesus calling himself the Good Shepherd. Now, according to the commentator William Barclay, there are two different Greek words which get translated as “good” in English. One is agathos, which only refers to the moral senses of something. The other is kalos, which…