Living According to the Example of the Lamb of God

The gospel lesson for this, the Fourth Sunday in the Season of Easter, is a well known text from John's gospel where Jesus calls himself the good shepherd, and disciples as sheep under his care.

To the casual contemporary observer, this metaphor suggests that disciples are dumb and passive.  This certainly matches our perception of sheep.  However, the real meaning of the shepherd/sheep metaphor goes much deeper than that.  The key to understanding the meaning of the metaphor lies in what sheep were cultivated for in the ancient world.  The primary purpose of raising sheep (and all livestock, for that matter) in ancient cultures was not for food, but for religious sacrifice.  Jewish culture was centered in religious ritual; virtually every significant decision required some sort of ritual.  Rituals were particularly used where an individual was estranged from God through some act or omission, and needed redemption and reconciliation.

Jesus, as the Lamb of God, sacrificed Himself willingly to bring about our reconciliation to God and our redemption.  As the Body of Christ, we are called to imitate Christ and similarly sacrifice ourselves and seek the interest of our neighbor.  This means that if we accept the calling of Christ, we are called not to seek our own self interest, but to seek the interest of our neighbors.  We are cultivated by the Good Shepherd so that we might willingly be God's instruments to bring about reconciliation between our neighbors and God, and reconciliation between God and the world.  In the Wesleyan tradition, Christ's work in us as the Good Shepherd is called sanctification.  Sanctification is the process where God's Spirit is active in us to transform us and mold us into the image and likeness of Christ.

To the world that does not know Christ, being God's people may be perceived as a sign of weakness, just as those who do not understand the sacrificial role of sheep might look at sheep and see only weakness.  God's people know otherwise.  They know that the One sitting on the throne who is the source of all power and glory and honor forever and ever is Jesus, the Lamb of God.  The nature of the God who has always been and always will be is Jesus, the Lamb of God who thinks of nothing but the reconciliation and redemption of the world. 

In God There Is No Darkness At All

The gospel reading for the Second Sunday in Easter is an encounter between the disciples and Jesus after his resurrection. The miracle that is normally focused on is the fact that Jesus was raised. Perhaps an even greater miracle is the fact that Jesus appeared to the disciples to invite them to continue God's work of salvation and redemption.

As you will recall, the disciples compiled a pretty dismal track record during their time with Jesus. They misunderstood Jesus' message again and again, and in the end, abandoned Jesus when he needed them the most. Peter denied knowing Jesus three times in Jesus' final hours, and now the disciples are huddled in a room, terrified that they will meet the same fate as Jesus. If the tables were turned and Jesus had abandoned the disciples, it is highly likely that the disciples would have been searching for a new master. Instead, Jesus is concerned, as always, only with furthering redemption and reconciliation. Rather than the disciples seeking out Jesus to beg for forgiveness, Jesus actually meets the disciples where they are to continue to carry out God's plan.

Jesus' willingness to be in relationship with the disciples and to use them as God's instruments raises the issue about why Jesus did not seek out new disciples, given the disciples repeated failures. Perhaps the answer lies in the notion of grace and justification by faith alone. The disciples were cognizant of their failures and shortcomings, and were aware that they were still in relationship with Jesus not out of their own merit, but because of Jesus' willingness to forgive and seek reconciliation. The disciples could proclaim a message of justification by faith alone because they themselves experienced it and knew it. If Jesus chose disciples from the courageous, the wise, or the educated, those who were chosen would have assumed that they were chosen from their own merit; such persons could proclaim justification by faith, but they wouldn't be able to really, really know it because they had not experienced the wonder of being forgiven when they had not merited forgiveness.

God calls out to us in our weakness and calls us into relationship with Him solely out of love for us and a desire for reconciliation. Ironically, what makes us able and willing to be Christ for others is our own cognizance of our weaknesses and failures. When we are sitting alone in a room, preoccupied with our failures and mistakes, remember that God simply wants our relationship with Him to continue. And, the more that we need to seek forgiveness for, the more that God will use us in God's plan of reconciliation.

The author of the First Epistle of John puts it this way: in God there is no darkness at all, only light. If Jesus had come to the disciples seeking revenge, or if Jesus had abandoned the disciples because the disciples abandoned them, that would represent some kind of darkness in God. There is no darkness in God; there is only light. There is only forgiveness and reconciliation.