Recent Articles, Easter 4, May 11, 2025 – Good Shepherd Sunday
Easter 4 – Good Shepherd Sunday
Lectionary- Easter 4
Commentary Easter 4
SALT Blog for Easter 4
Visual lectionary, May 11
Good Shepherd Sunday
Good Shepherd Sunday
What is the Good Shepherd?
The Good Shepherd in our hymns
Good Shepherd.. in the movies
Mother’s Day
Mother’s Day
Origin of Mother’s Day
A Mother’s Day Poem – To the Moms Who Are
Francis Perkins and Mother’s Day
After the Resurrection
What Changed after the Resurrection?
Jesus’ Appearances
Eastertide
Eastertide
Celebrate Easter Tide
Lectionary Easter 4, Year C
I.Theme – Jesus as the Good Shepherd
“The Good Shepherd” – Daniel Bonnell
The lectionary readings are here or individually:
Old Testament – Acts 9:36-43
Psalm – Psalm 23
Epistle – Revelation 7:9-17
Gospel – John 10:22-30
Today’s readings explore the image of God as a caring Shepherd. Scripture frequently uses the metaphor of shepherd and sheep to describe the relationship between the faithful and God. Easter 4 is often referred to as “Good Shepherd Sunday,”
In Acts, the apostles’ preaching and miracles bring many Gentiles to believe and follow. The familiar words of Psalm 23 illustrate our understanding of the relationship between the Good Shepherd and his sheep.
The Revelation to John gives us another image of the shepherd. As the seer looks around him, he sees a great multitude that no one can count. They come from all tribes, nations, and languages as they stand before the throne of the Lamb, wearing white robes and waving palm branches. The wrote robes signify their deliverance from tribulation, and the palms their victory over trials. Freed from hunger and thirst, those who were persecuted are now forever in the presence of God, able to worship God day and night in the temple.
In today’s gospel, Jesus pictures his relationship to the faithful as that of a shepherd who works for the life of the sheep. Jesus as a shepherd caring for his own flock provides more than green pasture and still waters. Jesus as a shepherd caring for his own flock provides more than green pasture and still waters – Jesus offers eternal life.
Our Good Shepherd guides us through the heights and depths of life, even during the most difficult times when we feel we are alone and abandoned, even when we feel the absence of God.
The sheep trust the shepherd. We who follow Jesus trust Jesus. We trust his voice, and we believe because we trust. It’s less a question of doubts verses faith as it is a question of trust verses mistrust. We may have doubts and questions about faith, but if we trust in Jesus, we still have faith. It is when we do not trust that we have lost. Trust leads to faith, and what Jesus calls us to do is to know his voice.
Visual Lectionary Vanderbilt, Fourth Sunday of Easter, Year C
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The SALT Blog for Easter 4, Good Shepherd Sunday
Shepherdess with a Flock of Sheep, by Anton Mauve, c. 1870-88, Dutch painting, oil on canvas
1. This is the 4th week of Eastertide The gospel readings for the first three weeks were resurrection appearance stories; the next four weeks will explore Jesus’ teachings about living in intimacy with God.
2. Many early followers of Jesus would have been familiar with describing the promised messiah as a caring and skillful “shepherd”: Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel each use such language, and likewise, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Zechariah contrast the divine shepherd with “worthless shepherds” who neglect, exploit, and scatter the flock. For listeners today, Psalm 23 (this week’s psalm) is likely the best-known reference to God as a shepherd, with the “rod and staff” evoking the hazards of the wilderness: the rod is for fending off wolves and lions, and the staff for rescuing sheep trapped in thickets or crevasses.
3. In the phrase “good shepherd,” the Greek word translated as “good” (kalos) means not “morally good” but rather “real and proper” or “true,” as in, “I am the true shepherd” or “I am the genuine shepherd.”
4. The goal of the true shepherd’s work is to give the sheep abundant life. For John, Jesus’ death makes possible this surprising chain of events, this grand reversal and ever-opening entrée into “abundant life.” It’s for the sake of this chain of events, and ultimately that abundant life, that “the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” And what is “abundant life”? According to John, it’s a life of love and intimacy with God . To give the sheep this vibrant fullness of life, Jesus is willing to lay down his own.
5. Both Jesus and Peter frame the crucifixion as an enactment of the psalm’s ancient choreography: a stone is rejected, but it then becomes the cornerstone (or “the keystone”) of an even greater edifice. For Peter, that edifice is the community of the church — and similarly, for John, the fact that Jesus is rejected and killed ultimately makes possible his resurrection, ascension, and the birth of that community. Unbeknownst to his killers, Jesus’ death is just the first act in this larger drama.
6. Beneath and throughout all of this is the dynamic of an ever-expanding circle of salvation. The Jewish messiah, Luke and John and the whole New Testament insists, will also welcome Gentiles ( Jews + Gentiles = everyone!). Jesus ascends and “will draw all people to myself” (John 12:32). In this week’s passage from John, Jesus puts the same theme this way: “I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold” (John 10:16). Precisely who these sheep are is left unspecified; that’s the shepherd’s business, not ours. The practical effect of this teaching for us today is that we dare not imagine anyone to be outside of God’s love and care (even those who reject Jesus!); as Jesus himself hints, in the end the flock may well include “all people” (John 12:32).
Good Shepherd Sunday
1. Good Shepherd Sunday – The setting for the Gospel – John 10:22-30
From Trinity Church New York —Dr. Kathy Bozzuti-Jones
Set in a moment of high tension in John’s Gospel, today’s Gospel passage is Jesus’s answer to the question: who are you, exactly?
Are you the Messiah? He responds by saying, in effect, “If you have to ask, then you are not one of my sheep.” Jesus claims his authority and asserts his unity with God when he says, “The Father and I are one.” At the conclusion of these words, John reports that the angered religious leaders intend to stone Jesus for blasphemy, but he escapes them.
In this brief passage, Jesus identifies so closely with God that they are not just close but “one.” In other words, to know Jesus is to know God. Jesus doesn’t just bring us closer to God, he puts us directly in relationship with God, removing any distance between us. Jesus invites all who hear the Good Shepherd’s voice to share in the life of God.
Few of us have direct experience with sheep, but the image of the shepherd speaks of care and protection and security; it is no wonder that Psalm 23 is one of the most beloved prayers throughout the ages.
2 Good Shepherd Sunday – Art Exhibit on Psalm 23
3 Good Shepherd Sunday Psalm 23 – the Most famous poem ever written
What is a Good Shepherd ?
John 10:1-20
- He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out (v3)
- When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice (v11)
- A willingness to lay down his life for the sheep (v11).
- Personal knowledge of the sheep (v14). I know my sheep and my sheep know me
- A missionary heart for other sheep (v16)
Psalm 23
In this passage, God is described as a shepherd who cares for his sheep. The speaker of the psalm (presumably David, the author of many of the psalms) identifies himself as a sheep who is under God’s care. Here are some of the ways in which God is depicted as a shepherd in this passage:
- God provides for his sheep’s needs (“I shall not want”), leading them to green pastures and still waters where they can find rest and refreshment.
- God guides his sheep on the right path (“he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness”), correcting and restoring them when they go astray.
- God protects his sheep from danger, even in the midst of the darkest valley (“though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me”).
- God provides comfort and sustenance in times of hardship (“thy rod and thy staff they comfort me”; “thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies”).
- God promises to care for his sheep always, and to welcome them into his house (“surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever”).
Another passage in the Old Testament where God is depicted as a shepherd is Ezekiel 34. In this chapter, God rebukes the leaders of Israel for their failure to care for their people and promises to be a shepherd to them himself. Here are some of the ways in which God is described as a shepherd in Ezekiel 34:
- God seeks out his lost sheep, rescuing them from danger and bringing them back to safety (“I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away”).
- God provides for his sheep’s needs, giving them food and water and protecting them from predators (“I will feed them in a good pasture, and upon the high mountains of Israel shall their fold be: there shall they lie in a good fold, and in a fat pasture shall they feed upon the mountains of Israel”).
- God cares for his sheep’s physical and emotional well-being, healing their wounds and strengthening the weak (“I will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick”).
- God judges between the strong and the weak, ensuring that justice is done and that the vulnerable are protected (“I will judge between cattle and cattle, and between rams and he goats”).
- God promises to be with his people always, watching over them and bringing them to a place of safety and abundance (“And I will make with them a covenant of peace, and will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land: and they shall dwell safely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods