Nine years ago, on the second Sunday of 2017, we were about to start the 9.30am service at St Mary’s, when one of our welcomers came and found me urgently. ‘Come outside, you’ll want to see this,’ they said. So I hustled out and watched one of the more unusual sights I’ve seen in my thirteen years here. Running along the road, and just passing the churchyard gate, were about 50 sheep.
We had no idea where they had come from or where they were going. I don’t think they had any idea where they were going either! There was great excitement – some wag commented that our flock had swelled considerably that day. But anyway we delayed the start of our service to work out what on earth we were going to do with them. It took quite some time… but eventually, by lunchtime, the sheep were safely back in a nearby field.
What’s the moral of this story? ‘Never leave your gate open’ would be one of them. But more simply, sheep need a shepherd. Look what happens when a large flock is left to its own devices.
Jesus tells us today: ‘I am the good shepherd.’ Or to make it more personal: ‘I am your good shepherd. I know you and you know me. You know my voice, you know that life is better with me, because my life is dedicated to you.’
In these times we need the reassurance of that voice perhaps now more than ever. To know that we have a good shepherd leading us through the chaos and uncertainty, one who is totally dedicated to us, who walks with us and will never leave us, who comes to meet us where we are.
And our shepherd ultimately means to give us life – life in all its fullness. The Greeks had two different words for ‘life’ – bios and zoe. ‘Bios’ means physical existence – simply being alive, breathing. ‘Zoe’ is real life – spiritual life, wellbeing, wholeness. This is the word Jesus uses here when he says that his purpose for us is abundant life – abundant zoe.
We are wired for zoe life. It’s built into our DNA, because we are made in God’s image, so therefore we long for the same things God already has within himself. Even those who would not profess our faith long for deep relationship, strong community, fruitful lives and to rejoice in the beauty of our world.
But to really know this kind of wholeness, this abundant zoe life, we need to receive it from the one who made it – the Good Shepherd himself, Jesus Christ. By God’s grace we can all experience it in part: but the fullness is only found in Christ. He is the gate, he’s the way to know this true life, he’s the one who can plant it deep in our hearts. Without him, we get the temporary ‘hired hands’ version, not the real thing.
So today, let’s give thanks for our Good Shepherd. Let’s acknowledge our need for him, let’s invite him to lead us again. And let’s do that confident of this great truth: that his plan for us is true life, zoe life, life in all its fullness. Amen.