Shepherd or "Smali"
Sermon on Sunday April 26, 2026
There are no traditional parables in John’s gospel, no narratives shared by Jesus of fictional people that are supposed to teach us something. There is no prodigal son or annoyed older brother, no sower who went out to sow, no old woman looking for anything, no shepherd looking for a lost sheep.
In John’s gospel Jesus tends to speak in allegories or metaphors, which are slightly different figure of speech than parables. In the other three gospels, that are sometimes called the synoptic gospels, the disciples had trouble understanding Jesus and his parables, and in John it is the allegories and the metaphors that are met with confusion, and the word What?
Jesus in John’s gospel uses a lot of “I am”-statements in his allegories. And this phrase “I am” which Jesus used frequently according to John, is there to imply Jesus’ divinity. The phrase we translate as “I am” comes from the story of Moses and the burning bush in Exodus, and this is especially clear in John 8:38.
There Jesus says, “I am” without out indicating further what that means. It seems to be a clear reference to the burning bush in Exodus according to nearly all theologians I know and have read. When Moses asks for God’s name in Exodus, God tells Moses to tell the Israelites that “I am has sent me to you.” The name of God is “I am” according to Exodus, and “I am” is who Jesus is in the gospel of John.
Allow me to pray.
Let the words of my mouth
and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you,
O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. Amen.
When texts are chosen for worship reading in mainline churches there are two considerations that need to be held in a tension. The text cannot be too long, and we need to read enough to give some context. Last week this was solved by reading a half a verse in Acts giving us the context, “But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them…” and then we skipped over 22 verses of Peter’s speech, and just heard the conclusion.
That is not an option with my sermon today. You must listen to all of it.
In today’s gospel text, we hear the first part of Jesus speech. We do not get to hear the later part of what Jesus says or the responses from the crowd. And surely this first part has things to teach us. If we allow Jesus to be the gate. If we only listen and follow those that speak to us after being vetted first by Jesus, we are doing a good thing. However, we will be exposed to those that climb the fence. There are people that try to manipulate us, steal from us, harm us for their own benefits, and they do not tend to follow good order.
Jesus as the gate, is there to shelter us when we need to be sheltered, and Jesus as the gate is also there to allow us to go to open pastures, and experience new and exciting things. The gate is there to protect us when needed but is also there to allow us to wander onto new pastures. It is a gate not a wall.
Allegories are seldom perfect or complete and in John 10:11, a verse we did not hear today, Jesus claims that he is not only the gate, but he says, “I am the good shepherd.”
And I am sure it was not only the pharisees that did not understand what he was saying. We have in the same speech Jesus claiming, “I am the gate,” and later “I am the shepherd.” I am quite sure someone in the crowd, shouted at him “pick a lane, which one are you?”
Actually, after Jesus’ speech we learn from John 10, in verse 20, that some in the crowd said: “He is demon-possessed and raving mad. Why listen to him?”
Jesus’ words did not make sense to all who listened then. Do not make sense to all who listen today.
Allegories are not perfect, not even when Jesus shares them, and often they can be quite contextual. Few of us have firsthand experiences with how gates of sheepfolds are meant to work. I am not sure we fully understand the role of shepherds in 1st Century Palestine.
Probably 25 years ago in Iceland, and I have shared this before. A good friend of mine decided to share the allegory of Jesus as the good shepherd at our evening gathering at Summer Camp. He recruited a group of 11–13-year-old boys to help him out do a short play, depicting Jesus as a shepherd.
Few of the boys explained to my friend that they lived on a farm and did not need any explanation what a shepherd does.
They would not need any help to prepare. And then came the evening program. Between 7 and 10 boys on four feet, rushed into the meeting hall, bleating, and behaving all confused. After them came two other boys on four feet barking as dogs, and finally the last boy entered, stood in the middle of the room, shouting at the “dogs,” telling them to round up the sheep, yelling at the dogs not to bite, only stay threatening. And the dogs circled the sheep and kept them in check as “the shepherd” stood by and gave orders were to lead the flock.
After the evening gathering was over, I walked to my friend. It was hard not to laugh, as I said, “I am not sure this is the image of God we should be preaching.”
What we hear is based on what we know, and what we have experienced. Especially when we hear allegories. And that was true in this situation, the boys knew how you gather sheep in the highlands of Iceland. They had been there with their families, they had helped, they had themselves been what in Iceland we call “smalar” or gatherers, rather than shepherds, but for them it was all the same.
The shepherd in John’s gospel is not a gatherer, but the one the sheep follows because they trust his voice. God introduced in the tenth chapter of John is not God that controls us with fear and scarcity, not even with sheep dogs, but God that invites us to follow, offers shelter, trust, and abundance.
I have surely at times been part of a Christian faith, with aggressive sheep dogs keeping everyone in order, I might even have done some barking, to help round the sheep up. And we should be fully aware that there exists both liberal and conservative sheep dogs.
I learned quite a lot from the boys at the camp. I might not myself have understood the difference fully before I saw the boys acting as sheep dogs, understood the difference between the one who leads by walking ahead, making the path which the flock can follow, and the one leading from the back, shouting and forcing the flock forward.
But all allegories aside, unclear messages and confusion, there is a promise in the text today. We “may have life and have it abundantly.” This is not an allegory, that is not a figure of speech, that is not a metaphor. This is a hopeful promise. The life and ministry of Jesus, sometimes confusing, and controversial was meant to offer a meaning and abundance to our lives.
A life described in our lesson from Acts today, a life of abundance, and joy. Life without fear, a life filled with fellowship, learning, wonders, signs, community, breaking of bread, prayer, praise, and glad and generous hearts. Life that creates goodwill of all the people and invites all to partake.
May we strive for such a life. Amen.