Sigh
Every year on the 4
th
Sunday of Easter we hear again the parable of the Good Shepherd. Every year. Outside of the birth and passion narratives of Jesus and the Transfiguration, this parable, this proclamation, gets central billing. Right in the middle of the great 50 days of Easter, every year.
Maybe we repeat the parable of the Good Shepherd every year because as the text says …
they did not understand
.
Can we see how much Jesus desires to be in relationship with us? Protecting us, caring for us, keeping us safe. Hmmm.
We, of course, have to trust that the gatekeeper will do that, does that always.
Jesus declares at the end of the Gospel for this week,
“I have come that they may have life and have it abundantly”.
This intention is definitely not the intend of a thief or a bandit. That is the intent of the beloved. That everyone who hears the voice and follows will have abundant life.
Trust in that. The resurrected life is an abundant life. Even if the life we currently experience doesn’t necessarily feel very abundant, at least not compared to what we are used to.
We might this week read again the whole chapter of John 10 and then imagine the resurrected Jesus offering himself abundantly to those who hear the voice of God. Imagine and then listen to Jesus calling each of us by name to join in the circle of all live and all love. That is the Easter message. Its relational, its personal, its communal. Yes, there are times when I don’t always understand that it’s for me. But it is. And thankfully Jesus will repeat it beloved, I do trust that. And I do believe that God’s intention for God’s beloved is abundant life.
Rev. Alison +
