“I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” John 10:11
My most boring job was working at an insurance company as a college student. My main task? Filing. Now imagine if I had told my supervisor, “I just want you to know, I’m willing to die for these files.” She would have called a psychiatrist — or at least security.
There is something absurd in Jesus’ words in today’s Gospel: “I am the good shepherd… I lay down my life for the sheep.” (John 10:11) It sounds noble, until you think about it. No one dies for sheep. Not a hired hand. Not even a good shepherd. Sheep are important, sure, but not worth a human life.
And yet, Jesus insists: I will die for them. The crowd understandably responds: “He is out of his mind.”
C.S. Lewis once said that Jesus does not leave us the option of calling him merely a good teacher. If someone speaks like him, he is either lying, crazy, or telling the truth. John’s Gospel won’t let us stay sentimental. Jesus means it. He reveals a love that surpasses logic — a love that measures worth not by strength or success, but by the willingness to suffer unto death.
The Good Shepherd’s madness is mercy. His cross makes no earthly sense and yet it makes divine sense. He lays down his life not for kings or saints but for sheep — for the ordinary, the unworthy, for you and me.
Think of someone who may feel unworthy of love. Do something simple and generous for them, not because they deserve it, but because Jesus did the same for you.
— Father John Muir
©LPi
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