For a while now there has been a reality television show called “Undercover Boss” in which the boss of a corporation leaves his desk and executive office and goes out to work among those in his corporation who do the day to day work that makes up the corporation.  The other workers do not know that he is in fact the head of the corporation and their “boss” but eventually he reveals himself to them and generally has a greater appreciation for the day to day challenges of his workers.  Sometimes he is able to reward a particular worker that he has worked with. The boss gains some wisdom and humility by his experience of sharing in the daily lives of his employees.  We are to assume that he never forgets those lessons and is able to make better decisions based upon his experience in the trenches.

God, the creator, the eternal Father, the “Boss”, comes among us to make his dwelling place with us and to share in our daily life experience of suffering, struggle, weakness and vulnerability.  He comes disguised in our human form in the flesh of Jesus of Nazareth, the Eternal Word, the Son, who has been sent and has emptied himself to enter into our poverty.  He comes as a beggar in poverty and emptiness.   He has pity on the crowds as he sees them as sheep without a shepherd, troubled and abandoned.(Mt 9,36f)  He becomes the Good Shepherd (Jn 10,14) who sets out on the highways of human existence to gather the lost sheep of the house of Israel. (Mt 10,6; Mt 15,24)  He lays down his life for the sheep (Jn 10,11) to lead them through the night of darkness and death into the light of a new day in the resurrection.  He returns to the throne to take his place as King but will always be the shepherd-King in the manner of King David, fulfilling the messianic promises of a Davidic Kingdom.  From there he will come again in glory to judge the nations.  He judges with the heart and mind of the shepherd and first separates the sheep from the goats.  The sheep are those who are peaceable,  humble, kind, gentle, compassionate, patient, generous, obedient and faithful and who helped him when he was in his guise as a beggar and pauper.  The goats are those who were stubborn, proud, willful, resistant, fierce, unclean and self-centered, who had no time to stop and care for Jesus when he was a pauper in need.  In the end we are either a sheep or a goat, a disciple or a deserter, a child of God or a slave of the world.  The Good Shepherd knows his sheep and will call them out by name to come and inherit the kingdom that has been prepared for them from the foundation of the world.

In Ezekiel we see how God has promised that he himself will look after and tend his sheep.  He comes to us as a shepherd in Jesus who “finds himself among his scattered sheep.” (Ez 34,12)  He does not judge the sheep for being scattered, for sheep will scatter when it is “cloudy and dark.”  We live in a world and a time that is too often cloudy and dark.  There is great confusion amid the clouds of conflicting teachings, ideas and images of God.  There is darkness in the violence, sexual abuse and evil that is inflicted on the innocent, the culture of death, of the temporary, of the disposable that surrounds us and the denial of God’s presence, relevance and even existence that pervades our time.  Jesus comes as the shepherd-King-judge, not with anger and indignation to destroy but with mercy and compassion to rescue, to pasture and to give rest.  He will seek out the lost, bring back the strayed, bind up the injured and heal the sick.  He leaves his disciples with the admonition and command, “I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do…If you understand this, blessed are you if you do it.” (Jn 13,15.17)  In the final judgment we will be either blessed or cursed.  We are blessed and will inherit the kingdom if we have followed the example of the Good Shepherd in service to the scattered sheep and truly been perfected in love by loving one another as Jesus has loved us.  We are cursed if we have cared only for our own lives and pastured ourselves.

Everything that I am reading on my sabbatical has been speaking about discipleship and our call and responsibility to imitate Jesus the Good Shepherd in seeking out, bringing back, binding up, healing, pasturing and giving rest.  We must not only take care of ourselves but we must look for the lost, the lonely and the abandoned.  If we want to be among the blessed then we must minister to those who are scattered and have left the Church during dark and cloudy times.  Where we find them we will find Jesus waiting for us to bring our light into the darkness, our faith into doubt and new and eternal life to those who have no hope.

“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has similarly been tested in every way, yet without sin.  So let us confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and to find grace for timely help.” (Heb 4,15f)  Through Jesus, who has suffered with us and for us, God knows and understands our weaknesses and our struggles.  “Cast all your worries up him because he cares for you.” (1Pt 5,7)  God is merciful to the merciful and will care for us, his children, as a shepherd cares for his sheep.  He will never forget us in our needs (Is 49,15) and he asks that we never forget one another in times of need as disciples of the Good Shepherd.  Our worship of God is empty if it is not filled with mercy and charity.  God, the “Boss”, is among us, sharing our weaknesses in Jesus, who emptied himself and became a slave, hungry, thirsty, naked, ill and imprisoned.  We have the opportunity to show ourselves as children of a loving Father for, “Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of the least brothers of mine, you did for me.” (Mt 25,40)  When we stand before the judgment seat we may confidently approach the throne of grace because we will recognize the one who sits there who worked with us, side by side, to reveal the Father’s love to the world and to bring new life.  We will know him, no longer as a suffering slave but as a true friend, and together we will enter into the joy of eternal life.