Abundant Life and Good Shepherds

Perhaps my favourite Bible verse is John 10, verse 10 – which is not to say that there are not other contenders – but John 10.10, and indeed just the second half – I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.  The Message has it - I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of.  It’s that idea of abundance.  When I think of God, I think of extravagant generosity.  I think of grace overflowing.  It is the picture provided by the psalmist at the end of the 5^th verse of Psalm 23 – my cup overflows. 

Some things, of course, are better not overflowing – but that doesn’t apply to love.

The statement comes, of course, in the context of talk about good and bad shepherds. I suppose that, in the first place, being the gate in this context indeed suggests images of care, or of looking after.  The shepherd takes care of the sheep.  The shepherd is the sheep’s protector.  The shepherd is concerned with the welfare of the sheep.  And that is all positive stuff.  We like to be taken care of.  We like to be looked after. I guess there are times when we like our independence too – that’s a bit like the stroppy sheep that wanders off, who jumps the fence.  And that’s OK.  In the Luke 15 story, of course, the wandering sheep got lost and caused all the hassle of a search party needing to be set up.  We do that sometimes too,  But wandering off doesn’t have to be so.  It can be just taking a bit of space for a while, and we all need to do that sometimes.  But I think we all have those times when we want to be looked after. 

But that, of course, isn’t the whole shepherd story – and when we tell it like that we run the risk of exploring this image through rose-tinted glasses.  Our view of shepherds, and perhaps particularly shepherds in Jesus’ time, is likely, unless we are careful, to be coloured by our experience of contemporary nativity plays put on, usually, by the younger members of the church community.

There is, in fact, a very tough side to this image.  Shepherds in Biblical times were pretty cut off from human society, spending all their time, as they did, out on the hills with the sheep.  In the religious terms of the day this put them on the margins of society as they were quite simply unable to comply with the various liturgical practices of the time.  In short, they were, for the most part, unclean.  It is also true that they lived a risky existence doing their best to protect the sheep from the various predators that might attack.  A shepherd’s life could be a dangerous one.

They had the task of finding water and good pasture, not easy in the semi-desert.  And perhaps a very strong indicator of the care they might offer comes in the ‘I am the gate’ image.  Often at night the sheep would be gathered into a rough pen, really just an open space enclosed by four walls, but with a gap left so that the sheep could go in and out.  When the sheep were safely in for the night, what would happen is that the shepherd himself would lay across the entrance, and that’s where he would sleep.  Nothing could get in or out except by going over his body.  And so, quite literally, the shepherd was the gate.

Once we take all these things into account, we can see that shepherding was not for the weak.  We are also left with quite a broad view of what was involved.  The caring and protecting is there, definitely – but so is being on the margins of society.  So is danger and taking risks. 

We might also note, of course, how this chapter contrasts the good shepherd and the bad shepherd, the good shepherd and the robber.

The true, or good, shepherd cares for the flock.  He is not in the business of destructive behaviour.  He is not trying to wear us down with guilt, nor to demand of us more than we can possibly give.  Sadly, we have to admit that the church has sometimes given the impression that it is like this and has sent the sheep scurrying away in understandable alarm.  But Jesus, like David before him, explains the reality in terms of a trustworthy shepherd, one who has all the best interests of the sheep at heart, who wants to ensure their food supplies and their safety, who will use his power to provide wisely and faithfully for those in his care.  The sheep are thus free to enjoy their lives without panic or confusion.  One writer sums up these ideas by saying: "I think Jesus was a specialist in lost persons; and I think this characteristic specialisation is powerfully expressed in the idea of the good shepherd.”