We know that Jesus is often called the Good Shepherd, but what does that mean? In John’s Gospel, Jesus explains, A good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep. Jesus will die for our sake; he will surrender himself to the Father’s will out of a deep and abiding love for us, his sheep, with whom he feels an intimate connection: I know mine and mine know me, he says. We are baptized into the life that Jesus shares with the Father; he also shares that life with us. And we are not the only ones; Jesus will lay down his life for all sheep, even those who do not belong to his fold. In the process, Jesus will be, in the words of Psalm 118, the stone which the builders rejected that becomes the cornerstone. In its original context, that stone was a reference to the people of Israel, to whom God gave the strength to be victorious, so long as they surrendered to God’s will and held fast to their confidence that his mercy endures forever.
In the Acts of the Apostles, Peter will similarly ask that all who hear him preach the good news of salvation surrender to God’s will through belief in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ the Nazorean, for there is no salvation through anyone else, nor is there any other name under heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved. God works outside our rules, allowing his Son to be rejected and crucified, that we might be saved. In baptism we pass from death into the life we share through Jesus with God. For to be called the children of God is to share in Christ’s resurrected life. This is our first identity, the primary way we are to understand ourselves, though it is not the fulfillment of all the promises. We are still becoming: what we shall be, the First Letter of John reminds us, has not yet been revealed. Our journey toward the fullness of life is predicated on our surrender to the love the Father has bestowed on us, that we may be called the children of God. This is God’s will for us; we have but to open to it.
This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
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