Fourth Sunday of Easter
Happy Good Shepherd Sunday!
A few years ago they released a movie adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s book Far From the Madding Crowd. The movie is okay, but something I really enjoy about it is its depiction of a character named Mr. Oak, who is a good and humble shepherd. Before watching this movie, I had always pictured shepherds as these mute and boring men in robes just kind of milling around with their sheep, but this movie provided me with a much different image. Mr. Oak is this strong, brave, honest character who works hard at his trade and takes care of his flock with a surprising tenderness. There’s a scene in the film where Mr. Oak’s sheep break out of the sheep gate, and in their confused frenzy the entire flock takes off in a panic and runs off a cliff, every sheep plummeting to its death. Mr. Oak chases after his sheep in fierce concern, and when he finds them at the bottom of the cliff he pounds his fist into the ground, weeping at their loss. There’s another scene where his sheep eat clover that their stomachs can’t tolerate, and in order to save them Mr. Oak must take each sheep and pierce their stomach in this very specific spot to release air so that they can live. These might just sound like mundane scenes of a shepherd doing his job, but when I watched I couldn’t help but think of our Good Shepherd, Jesus, and how we are as helpless and needful of him as those flocks were of Mr. Oak.
In today’s Gospel Jesus describes himself as the gate for the sheep. This might seem like a restrictive image—something meant to hem us in or keep us from freedom. But Jesus’s protective shepherding is the very thing that leads us to freedom and that keeps us from charging off a cliff. Jesus is not a passive, simple shepherd—he is a strong, protective one who chases after us full force when we go astray, and who weeps if a single one of us is lost. He is a skillful, careful shepherd who desires our thriving, even if he has to pierce or prod us toward flourishing. In my pride I want to rebel at the idea of having a shepherd, but when left to my own devices I can see the many ways that I am a confused and vulnerable little sheep. Freedom isn’t found outside of the sheep gate, but inside its protective embrace, safe in the gaze of a shepherd who came that we might have life, and have it more abundantly.
Jule Coppa
