A Few Words On "The Word"

May 7, 2006
The Fourth Sunday of Easter

John 10: 11-18

I'm Not Paid Enough to Fight the Big, Bad Wolf

Do you work (as in a job for pay) besides the (way important) work you do in school? Maybe it's a store or a restaurant or an office of some kind. You do a good job, right? Yet it's not your whole life, is it? You got school, you got extra-curricular stuff, you got friends and a life. Makes sense.

Now imagine that the owner of the restaurant, store or office in which you work one day gives the business to you. It's yours, from floor to ceiling. Yours to make or break. Will your attitude toward working there change? What might you do now when something very, very important needs to be done, it's 9:59 PM Friday night, and the employees are all bailing? What might your new attitude be toward work now that you own the business and any profits that would come from it?

This is the example that Jesus uses today, although he sets it up in a rural context: a sheep ranch. The hired cowboy (sheepboy?) will do a good job, to a point. But somebody else's sheep ranch, somebody else's profits aren't worth dying for. "I'm not paid enough to get killed," the employee thinks. And not entirely unreasonably.

But what about the rancher's kid? Someday the rancher's son or daughter is gonna inherit the place, right? So he or she has a different attitude. He or she learns not to be afraid of the big, bad wolf. God's the rancher, Jesus is the rancher's kid and we're the sheep. And the big bad wolf? You name it! Hatred. War. Racism. Sexism. Homophobia. Discrimination. Hunger. Homelessness. Poverty. Lack of health care. And then some.

Jesus learned not to fear the biggest of the baddest big bad wolves-Death. Did it for us. And when he does something to teach us how to live more fully, what does he usually say? "As I have done for you, so you must do for others." Rising from the dead, Jesus proves that love is stronger than anything and everything. Baptized into Christ, we too, can learn not to fear the big bad wolf, to be good shepherds in his name to all those in our world who are weak and vulnerable.

Reflection Question

Name one way in which you were a "good shepherd" to someone this past week.

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