“Easter faith for the church in the world today”
Not that long ago we celebrated the salvation that Jesus accomplished for the world, and for us. We looked back to Jesus riding into Jerusalem, we listened to what took place in the Upper Room and in the Garden of Gethsemane, with sorrow and horror we saw how Jesus was so brutally treated, suffered and died, and was buried.
We heard that when the women went to the tomb, they were greeted by an angel, and saw the stone rolled away from the entrance. Jesus met them, standing before them in the flesh; in his resurrected body, the feet of which they clasped as they worshipped him. We heard that Jesus appeared to his frightened disciples, who had bunkered down behind locked doors for fear of the authorities. He came to them in the flesh—resurrected flesh, with wounds they could see and touch. Thomas wasn’t with them then, so Jesus came back a week later to show himself to Thomas in the same way. We heard how Jesus walked with two of the disciples on the road to Emmaus, teaching them the scriptures and revealing himself in the breaking of the bread at their table. As these events unfolded during the first Holy Week in history, we saw how Jesus was with his people. Yet if this was all the Christian faith was—looking back to what happened in history—that is all it would be—just history; just things Jesus did for the people with him at the time.
What Jesus did in the past means a new future for those who believe. The Apostle Paul taught us every time we eat the bread and drink the cup we proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. We confessed in the Creed that Jesus will come again to judge the living and the dead, and that there will be a resurrection of the body…not just our own bodies but the body of Christ, his church—when our salvation will be completely obtained and what we have hoped for we shall finally see.
In today’s Gospel reading we are shown what Easter means for our life today. Jesus says: “I am the Good Shepherd.” Not “I was” or “I will be” but “I am.” The image of Jesus as shepherd is one of the most well-known and cherished in Scripture, emphasising God’s care, guidance, and nurture of his people—not just for those in the pages of Scripture but for we who read and hear them.
Jesus uses the image of sheep gathered into a sheep pen, with Jesus himself as the gate. A sheep pen in Israel was typically made out of rocks piled high in a square or circular shape with a gap as the entrance. Thorny branches were put around the top of the piled rocks to prevent predators from coming over the top into the pen.
Sheep do not gain entrance to the sheep pen by climbing the walls, or jumping over the top. To get into the sheep pen, they must go through the gate. Jesus is saying that the only way to enter God’s family, the church, is through him. There is no other entrance. We can’t climb in another way. It is only by faith in Jesus, who sacrificed himself by laying down his life for his sheep.
When Jesus says he is the gate, he is saying that he is also the protector and defender of his people. At night the shepherd would sit in the doorway with his back leaning against one side to be the gate himself, keeping out the wolves and other predators, protecting his sheep in the pen.
The sheep would know their shepherd by his voice. Shepherds in Jesus’ day often had an individual call for each of their sheep. The sheep knew their shepherd and recognised the call he gave his own, much like pet dogs in the family home. As they listened to the voice of the true shepherd, they would be protected from thieves and robbers as he called them out, to be fed before being called back to the sheepfold in the evening.
Sheep in Jesus’ day did not graze in lush fields we often see. Sheep grazed in wild, stony desert, and in ragged mountain cliffs that descended to the Jordan Valley, with ravines that became bone dry under harsh sun. The ridges were sparsely dotted with small, malnourished bushes and clumps of grass. Thieves and bands of robbers were there also, and wild animals, presenting a constant threat to the sheep who are meek, defenceless creatures, especially if they wander off alone.
The landscape behind today’s text—wild surrounds with lurking thieves and wild animals—is a picture of the hostile world and unseen spiritual forces that overshadow the church and seek to snatch God’s people away. The world is a dangerous place, and even more dangerous for Christians because the world rejects Christ. Jesus told the disciples: “If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you” (John 15:19). In some places it is a matter of life and death to confess allegiance to Jesus. It’s what Paul spoke about to the Roman Christians too, using the same sheep and shepherd imagery: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” (Romans 8:36). Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 6:12). Peter said: “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8).
There are the voices of the world calling us to follow them and their ideologies, promising life in things that only lead us away from Jesus and therefore to death. The voices of the world tell us that unless we follow the ways of the world, and have the things that the world treasures, that we will be lacking. That we don’t have enough, and that we aren’t enough, and that we always need something more. So the world allures us with its teachings and trinkets, promising things that bring happiness and blessing but which only result in spiritual barrenness and emptiness, leaving us hungering and thirsting for more. The world, the devil, and the sinful flesh insist we go it alone; being the captain of our soul, blaze our own path and take control, be proud and strong, certainly not humble ourselves under the authority of another, and serve and bless. Today’s reading paints a picture of the dangers facing the church. We can’t face these dangers without a Good Shepherd to follow.
Psalm 23 is the well-known and much-loved Psalm about the Lord as our Shepherd. But it would look very different if we were to go it alone and take out all the references to Jesus and what he does for his people. This is what Psalm 23 would look like if we were to remove the Shepherd from our lives:
1 my … I shall be in want.
2 me … me
3 my soul … me
4 I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear … me … me.
5 me in the presence of my enemies … my head … my cup
6 me all the days of my life … I will dwell
God loves us so much that he doesn’t want us to be left to ourselves, straying in a dangerous world, looking for life in that which cannot give it in any lasting way. So he has given us our Good Shepherd. The focus of today’s Gospel reading is not on what Jesus did in the past, but who he is for you and me in the present. Easter is not merely past events and concepts but abundant life today which is found in and received from our Good Shepherd alone as we follow him in a dangerous world, through the valley of death itself, and to the heavenly home he has prepared for us. That’s not a journey we can make alone, and so Easter faith is trusting ourselves to our risen, living, Good Sheperd each day, seeking to follow him as we listen to his voice in his word.
To follow Jesus by listening to his voice means walking on a safe path in a dangerous world. To listen to his voice is to have certainty as we live in a confused world with all its conflicting opinions and teachings. To listen to his voice is to receive hope and expectation of God’s promises, when looking to the world would only fill us with despair.
Easter faith is not only believing things that happened to Jesus in the past, or that we will rise again at the last day. Easter faith is baptismal faith; where Jesus first called you by name to belong to him, and you were born anew to a living hope, with a living and ever-present Lord who calls you to live your life in his death and resurrection each day. Easter faith is faith for today, and every day, that you have a Good Shepherd to follow, trusting in him each moment, to listen to his voice by which he is present to us, ministers to us, protects us and cares for us. God himself is really present in your life and does know what you are going through, he does care, he does walk with you, he holds you as he journeys with you through the depths of even despair and disaster at times, and even the valley of the shadow of death.
When Jesus first spoke about being the gate and the Good Shepherd for the sheep, he spoke to the Pharisees who were supposed to be the shepherds of Israel, but only led God’s people into danger, because they themselves did not listen to the voice of the Good Shepherd. The Pharisees represent every philosophy and religion of the world; the default human orientation of trying to earn blessing and favour by striving to be right and good. But only Jesus is the gate; only his blood and righteousness prevail for sinners, giving us access to God’s grace and peace with him. He has come to give you abundant life, which is nothing other than sharing his own life with you through his word and sacraments.
As Jesus comes to us through these means, to share his abundant life with you, he will protect you. He will defend you. He will feed you. He will care for you. He will give you rest. As we listen to his voice we have light and safety in darkness and danger. We have promise in the midst of pain. We have a sure path in the midst of many so that we can lie down in rest from carrying our heavy burdens. To listen to the voice of our Good Shepherd is to have peace in the midst of our fears. Like he did with the first disciples, Jesus comes to you to bestow peace on you when he says: “Peace be with you”. It is peace not as the world gives, but peace from the risen Christ for our hurting heart that this world cannot give or take away. Our Good Shepherd leads us to abundant pasture as he nourishes us and nurtures us at the table he prepares for us again today in the presence of our enemies. Like the first disciples, we too gather around the risen Christ, our Good Shepherd, and touch his wounds in his hands and side as we hold bread and wine. We are refreshed with manna from heaven as he gives us his own body, and as we lift up the cup we drink from the streams of divine grace, sharing in his holiness by drinking his holy blood.
This is the foretaste of the victory feast to come; until the day when the foretaste will no longer be the foretaste but the feast itself, with you seated at the table, behind placeholders with your name on it and the names of all the holy people of God, feasting in celebration and singing the victory song with his angels as we dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Amen.
Pastor Tim Ebbs
St Paul’s Lutheran Church, Glenelg
4th Sunday of Easter, 2026
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION
“The focus of today’s Gospel reading is not on what Jesus did in the past, but who he is for you and me in the present”
- How do we gain entrance into the ‘sheepfold’ (the church)? In what ways are we tempted to rely on our efforts and wisdom?
- How is the image of a sheepfold in the midst of a wilderness with robbers and wild animals a picture of the church in today’s world? Why is it good news that we have a Good Shepherd?
- In today’s text, what marks out the true shepherd from the thief? What does Jesus want us to experience in his careful shepherding of us?
- How does viewing Jesus’ Easter appearances (to the women at the tomb, the disciples in the locked room, the disciples on the way to Emmaus) as a reality for your life today give you hope? How might this reality change your thinking about problems you face in the present?
- What do the competing voices in the world say to us today? How is the voice of the Good Shepherd different?
- What are the “stranger voices” you most often hear—and believe—in life (work, family pressure, fear, guilt, politics, money, approval, self-reliance)? How are they voices that steal and destroy true life?
- What do you think “life to the full” means in John’s Gospel? Where are you tempted to define fullness by circumstances rather than by communion with God?
- “The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (v.11). How does Jesus self-sacrifice, care and love for his sheep shape the way you hear Jesus’ voice—especially when you feel unsafe, ashamed, or weary?
- What is one action you can take to follow the voice of our Good Shepherd more closely this week?
