Fifth Sunday of Easter

Jesus: The Way to the Father

                Today’s gospel is part of Jesus’ “farewell discourse”, that is, he is trying to help his disciples come to terms with no longer being present to them physically, as he has always been, but challenges them to realize that what they have witnessed is the Father’s work, since Jesus as the Son shares the essence of the Father; two persons, one life-force. Jesus’ statement “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” refers not to the bodily aspect of personhood, but refers to the works of God. Indeed, Jesus’ resurrected body seems to have been somewhat different since the disciplines on the road to Emmaus didn’t at first recognize him, but only later recognized him “in the breaking of the bread” and later realized as “they asked each other, ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?’"(Luke 24:32) Jesus then is the way to the Father.  This is Jesus’ great revelation, that as the Christ, the works of the Father have been in their midst in the person of the Son.

            What is equally puzzling is the statement by Jesus that his disciples will “do the works I do, and will do greater ones than these.”  What a remarkable statement.  What were the works of Jesus? Healing and resurrection.  But Jesus’ life was more than an extended magic show.  He healed both as sign of God’s presence, but also out of great compassion. The mission of the Church is to extend this healing presence, the work of God, in the body of Christ, the faithful. Anticipating the gift of the Spirit at Pentecost, Jesus’ discourse moves into this gift that he will send to them from the Father.

            At Pentecost, then, the body of Christ, the Church, becomes the dwelling place of God, a new temple for the Good News and the works that will extend beyond the people of Israel to the four corners of the earth, not simply within institutional boundaries, but within those faithful ones who follow Christ as the way to God.

            The Holy Spirit’s presence is among the faithful wherever they be with regard to the institutional and denominational borders Nicodemus, the consummate outsider of Jesus’ time is told by Jesus: "Do not be amazed that I said to you, 'You must be born again.' "The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit."(John 3:8) Time and time again, throughout the Old and New Testaments, God has worked outside the institution to reveal his presence. Why be surprised that the institutional church cannot restrict the movement of the Spirit? We find the birth of the Spirit wherever the faithful are on the way of Christ.

            It is this birth to which Jesus is the midwife. It is this relationship with God through Christ to which every human is called; those who respond in faith are the Church, and where the Church is, you will find the Spirit dwelling and the work of God continuing its healing mission.

Fourth Sunday of Easter

I Am the Good Shepherd

             Being compared to sheep seems rather insulting; it is not a flattering comparison certainly in 21st Century in the U.S It suggests radical dependence due to incompetence. But Jesus is using the analogy not so much to suggest the characteristics of those who follow him, but the relationship between sheep and their shepherd as a relationship between ourselves and Christ.

Sheep recognize faces and voices remarkably well. Some suggest that facial and voice recognition are nearly as advanced as humans and that a herd can remember up to fifty faces for up to two years (Dr Keith Kendrick, neuroscientist, Babraham Research Institute, Cambridge). This relational aspect is key. Christ protects and guides us, but he also asks us as sheep to shepherd one another. The relationship we have with Christ, we are asked to develop with one another. In John 13, Jesus gives his “little children” the commandment:

"Little children, I am with you a little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, now I also say to you, 'Where I am going, you cannot come.' 34"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35"By this, all men will know that you are My disciples if you have love for one another."

Our relationship with Christ is to be broadened to include the trust, and vulnerability of sheep to their shepherd as hallmarks of our relationship with one another, “By this all men will know that you are my disciples”.  The life of the shepherd spent feeding and protecting his sheep is the life of the disciple, guiding and protecting one another.

The key here is, then, to first allow Christ to teach us shepherding skills; this is why he says  “I am the gate”.   Christ is the way because he has walked the pathway before us, led “like a lamb to slaughter” (Isaiah 53), and “perfectly obedient to death, even death on a cross” (Hebrews 5). 

In 1st Peter, the spiritual elder (perhaps Peter) reminds his “flock”

“For to this you have been called because Christ also suffered for you,
leaving you an example that you should follow in his footsteps.”

We can follow the Shepherd, because Christ is the Good Shepherd, leading us to become good shepherds so that the world will come to hear the voice of the One we follow.