Good Shepherd Sunday – Second Sunday after Easter
On the Second Sunday after Easter, Our Lord tells us how and why he is ‘the Shepherd and Bishop’ of our souls.
On the Second Sunday after Easter, Our Lord tells us how and why he is ‘the Shepherd and Bishop’ of our souls.
Editor’s Notes
The Second Sunday after Easter is known as “Good Shepherd Sunday,” based on the reading from the Gospel. Having just celebrated the Resurrection, the Church turns back to this passage, because Easter reveals the full meaning of Christ as Shepherd: he lays down his life, rises again, and continues to gather and guide his sheep – now and for eternity.
It also points towards the Ascension and Pentecost, after which his Apostles will assume their roles as the Pastors of the Church.
Our Lord’s sermon, recounted by St John, takes place in Jerusalem during the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot). According to Fr Coleridge, John Chapter X0 recounts two separate events (the second being at the Feast of the Dedication, or Hanukkah).
The sermon explains the escalating conflict between Christ and the Pharisees and the Chief Priests, with Our Lord exposing the contrast between the way they relate to the “flock”, and how he fulfils his divine mission. He lays the foundation for the Church’s true pastoral office, refutes the claims of illegitimate religious authority, and reveals the divine charity at the heart of his mission.
As well as presenting himself as the Good Shepherd who will unify Jews and Gentiles, he foretells how he will reconcile all men to God through his voluntary Passion.
The Good Shepherd
The Preaching of the Cross, Part I, Chapter XV
St. John x. 1–21.
Story of the Gospels, § 96
Burns and Oates, London, 1886
Part I: Why does Christ call the Chief Priests ‘thieves and robbers’?
He would have embraced them—maybe they would have been our priests. But they chose to betray their sacred office, and to try to destroy Him.
Part II: Why Christ is ‘the door’ through which every good shepherd must come
Christ exposes the wolves in shepherds’ clothing—and warns that no true pastor can oppose Him.
Part III: ‘I am the Good Shepherd’—What that means for Christians
Surrounded by enemies plotting his death and excommunicating his followers from the Synagogue, the Good Shepherd declares his love for his sheep.
Part IV: Why the Good Shepherd told the wolves they had no power over him
He warned them that their apparent victory would be nothing of the kind.
Part V: Effect of ‘The Good Shepherd’ on the different classes of the Jews
He was ‘set for the fall and for the resurrection of many in Israel,’ and this was beginning to take shape.
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Nice. The title shepherd, though it certainly includes the image of literal shepherding, is being used here less in a pastoral sense than in a political one. In the ancient Near East and the Roman world, rulers regularly cast themselves as shepherds of the people. Second Samuel records God’s word to David: “You shall be shepherd of my people Israel; you shall be ruler over Israel.” The Babylonian king Hammurabi, in the prologue to his law code, described himself as “the shepherd, selected by Enlil.” Roman emperors preferred titles such as Pater Patriae—father of the fatherland—and the logic was similar: protector, provider, guardian of the flock.