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.