Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B 2024

Title

Jesus the Great Shepherd

Outline

Political and religious leaders down the centuries have claimed to be shepherds of their people

Think of Moses, a shepherd, called to shepherd Israel and guide the flock - note that this was not his idea of a fun job. Think of many political leaders, secular or religious, such as Napoleon or Charlemagne or even Hitler who presented themselves as the saviors of Messiah’s of their people.

But all were temporal, all their national or imperial creations crumbled (usually in less than 250 years, and in two of the three I mentioned, in only a few years), and some ruled by force alone.

Jeremiah is in this tradition in Israel

He sees that the national leaders of his time were scattering the sheep rather than caring for the sheep. In fact, the struggles between the Pro-Egypt and Pro-Babylonian parties would lead to the exile of the people.

God promises to raise up good leaders with the focus on a Davidic ruler, a king, who will be both wise and just in his governance. He is the divinely instituted Messiah. He will be so just that he will be called “The Lord our justice.”

Jesus stands as the fulfillment of this hope

He has just received back from their missions the Twelve, his representatives or under-shepherds. He shepherds them, realizing that they need rest, a vacation, a time alone with him. But the people, the hungry scattered sheep, see the boat going, guess its destination, and get there first. Jesus sees the crowd as he gets out of the boat and, rather than sending them away, “his heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.” He does not ask the disciples to help - they can perhaps stretch out on the grass - but he sacrifices his vacation to “feed” the “sheep.” He fulfills the role of the Messianic Shepherd, not by force, but by proclamation, attraction - they willingly follow him for he really cares for them.

Paul takes this to a new level

Not only was Israel scattered and lacking true shepherds but the other nations are “far off” and now both have “become near” not just by the life of Jesus but “by the blood of Christ” - he died for the sheep.

The result of his rule established in his death is his becoming “our peace.” No longer polarization between Jew and Gentile, the other nations. No longer Gentiles becoming Jews or Jews abandoning the faith to become Gentiles. Rather the king’s action was so that “he might create in himself one new person” in place of all human polarizations. A new humanity, at the obvious level a new community bound together by the one Spirit and under the headship of the Father-God, but in Paul it goes deeper than that as we enter into a love-union with Jesus Christ and therefore into a love union with one another and so are “in Christ” or “the body of Christ.” We become, in 2 Peter’s words, “partakers of the divine nature.” This is indeed peace, for enmity between people and among groups of people has been “put to death” through the cross.

Brothers and sisters, this has practical implications for us

The world is divided, for the name devil, diabolos, means scatterer. We have so-called shepherds who divide and scatter the sheep, seeking power themselves rather than caring for the people. Sometimes this is violent as in the Rwanda genocide or the Nazi Holocaust, sometimes only verbally violent. But as Archbishop Fulton Sheen pointed out, we need to know the marks of the devil.

The true shepherd is Jesus who transcends the divisions of the world and brings people together into a new community under his shepherds who are supposed to be like him. He has destroyed that which divides by his death and resurrection into which he calls us to participate, leaving the dead divisions behind. We are called to be really and truly one with our Messiah-King, become new humans, become like him, become saints. It is only there that we will find peace or shalom, wholeness.

Let us seek the one king, using the means he has given us in the Church to become one with him. He is the peace that we seek.