The Blind Man and the Shepherd (The Fourth Sunday of Easter)

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Back in February, when it was still possible to travel, I took a trip out to Colorado for my annual continuing education event.  Yes, that is the annual event where the participants spend most of our time skiing! But, we also do still go to class (before the lifts open!)

And this past year, one of the professors we brought in was leading us through some of the readings from John’s Gospel that we’d be reading in church during Lent.  Among those was the story of the man born blind.

As we were getting near the end of that story, the professor pointed out that, while we always stop reading at the end of chapter 9, Jesus keeps talking!  And he keeps talking to the same people – that is, to the Pharisees who have criticized him for healing the man born blind. But we don’t get to what Jesus says until the middle of the Easter season, when we read the “good shepherd” sayings.

Therefore, said this professor, all of this stuff about sheep and shepherds – which we usually read by itself and out of context – should really be read as Jesus’ commentary on what he’s just done in healing the man born blind.

And so for this year’s “Good Shepherd Sunday”, which is always the fourth Sunday of Easter, I began reading the Gospel from the last few verses of the story of the man born blind (which we read back on the fourth Sunday of Lent), and continued it through the end, where the people are still discussing Jesus’ healing of the man born blind.

And I decided to do that because I often read these stories of sheep and shepherds and wonder about the character of sheep; and the motivations of shepherds. And sometimes I get lost in unrealistic Hallmark images of rolling hills, fluffy sheep and peaceful pastoral scenes.  Maybe you have, too.

But what would it mean to read these good shepherd texts as Jesus’ commentary on healing the man born blind?  That is, how is Jesus using the image of the shepherd and the sheep to illustrate what he’s just done?

As I’ve thought about this, when I look at Jesus’ words in this context, they take on new meaning.  In this context, Jesus describing himself (and therefore God) was a “shepherd” means that God, like a shepherd:

• Is willing to get down and dirty with the sheep, and to get his hands dirty.  Literally, Jesus has just healed the man born blind by spitting on the ground, making mud and smearing it in the guy’s eyes.  Jesus literally gets his hands dirty, and shepherds do dirty work … ;  now there’s a tradition in the Old Testament of “shepherd kings” – after all, the greatest king of Israel was David, who started out as a shepherd … (but David got the job of shepherd because he was the youngest son, and so he drew the short straw…!)  And there was this idea of the king, like God, caring for the people like a shepherd; but after a while, people saw kings has aloof, high and mighty people who didn’t get their hands dirty; and this is how people often see God, and why many couldn’t see God acting through Jesus – a guy who was literally messing around in the mud; but Jesus says that God is a like a shepherd who’s willing to get down and dirty to care for the sheep …

• Is more concerned about preserving and giving life to the sheep than with doling out punishment; almost nobody in the story of the man born blind (beginning with the disciples) thinks this is the case – everybody wants to know who sinned and how a “sinner” could be healed – because they envisioned God as One who dishes out punishment to sinners; and if Jesus undoes this supposed “punishment”, how can that be from God?  Shepherds, however, preserve the lives of the sheep; And Jesus says that he’s come so that the sheep may “have life and have it abundantly”, which is precisely what he gives to the man born blind …

• Can sometimes only be appreciated and even “seen” by those who know they’re in trouble; sheep who are threatened can appreciate a shepherd who helps them; those who are blissfully clueless probably aren’t even aware that the shepherd is around.  And that’s what happens in the story of the blind man – everybody who isn’t in trouble has an academic debate about who God is and how God might act.  The irony is that it’s only the man born blind who, in the end, literally “sees” who Jesus really is.  And even at the end of today’s reading, lots of folks continue to think Jesus is a nut, and nobody should listen to him.  It’s only those who begin to recognize that someone beyond hope and help has been healed who can at least consider that God is present in Jesus …

And when you read Jesus’ words in this way, then it’s clear that Jesus isn’t offering abstract ideas about himself or God.  He isn’t calling us to imagine ourselves in an idyllic fantasy world of peaceful pastures.  And isn’t asking us to romanticize sheep or shepherds.

Instead, Jesus is promising actual, real help to real people who actually need it.  And Jesus’ words to us today mean that Jesus is also:

• Present in the down and dirty mess of our world and of our lives; many of us have been thinking about what we’ll do “when this is all over”; but Jesus never waits for “this to be all over” to be fully and intimately involved in our lives.  Jesus, as the good shepherd, promises that he’s with us and helping us through the mess that we’re in right here and right now, just as he showed up and messed around in the mud to help the man born blind …

• Concerned with giving us life right here and right now, not just sometime in the future; lots of Christians, when asked what it means to be a believer in Jesus, sometimes respond with something like, “someday, when I die, I’ll go to heaven and be with Jesus.”  And while that’s true, that’s only a tiny piece of the story.  Jesus says he’s present to give hope and life to us now, each day.  That’s what a shepherd does; that what Jesus did for the blind man (he didn’t just tell him that someday his life would be good in heaven); and that’s what Jesus is about doing in our lives, too – working through each one of us to give us strength and hope to meet each new day …

• Working to open our eyes, so that we can see light even in the midst of the current darkness – after all, that’s when we need the light!  Lots of folks in Jesus’ day (even sometimes the disciples) couldn’t see the light.  And so Jesus calls us still today to be particularly on the lookout for signs of light in our world – the ways in which Jesus is working through people who risk their lives for others; or take time to reach out to lonely neighbors; or who find new connections in ways they hadn’t imagined before …

Jesus words about sheep and shepherds aren’t theoretical or philosophical. They’re actual words of promise for us right now.  Jesus promises us that he’s always going to be present in the down and dirty messes we find ourselves in.  Jesus promises that he’s actively working to give us new life right now.  And Jesus promises that God’s light is always breaking into whatever darkness we find ourselves in.

Amen.