THE SHEEP AND THEIR SHEPHERD

Many of us grew up with this passage from John 10. Many among us grew up with allegorical interpretations of this passage. The shepherd is not really a shepherd. The gatekeeper is really not a gatekeeper. The sheep are really not sheep. The thief and the bandit are not really thieves nor bandits.

Real sheep do know the voice of their shepherd. Sheep do follow their shepherd in and out of the sheepfold. Sheep do run away from those whose voice they do not know. Ask any shepherd.

Life in all its fullness is not inside the sheepfold. Never has been, never will be. No green grass. No fresh springs. All these are outside of it, in the wilderness. This is why the shepherd calls out the sheep by name and leads them out--into the wilderness. This is why the shepherd goes ahead of the sheep and they follow him--into the wilderness and into the quest for life. Life in all its fullness.

Friends, many times we forget that life in all its fullness is found outside the boxes we have created to contain it. Many times the life that really matters is waiting for us out in the wilderness. We just need to heed the voice of the Risen One who is already out there waiting for us.

*art, "The Good Shepherd," Julien Dupre (1851-1910), from the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives.