Patrick Comerford
Easter is a 50-day season, beginning on Easter Day (20 April 2025) and continuing until the Day of Pentecost (8 June 2025), or Whit Sunday. Today is the Fourth Sunday of Easter (Easter IV, 11 May 2025), sometimes known as ‘Good Shepherd Sunday’.
Later this morning I hope to take part in the Parish Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford, when I am reading the second lesson (Revelation 7: 9-17). But, before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:
1, reading today’s Gospel reading;
2, a short reflection;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;
4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.
John 10: 22-30 (NRSVA):
22 At that time the festival of the Dedication took place in Jerusalem. It was winter, 23 and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the portico of Solomon. 24 So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, ‘How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.’ 25 Jesus answered, ‘I have told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name testify to me; 26 but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep. 27 My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 What my Father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father’s hand. 30 The Father and I are one.’
Today’s Reflection:
The Gospel reading this morning (John 10: 22-30) is a portion of the ‘Good Shepherd Discourse’ (John 10: 1-42), in which Jesus twice repeats the fourth or middle of the seven ‘I AM’ sayings in Saint John’s Gospel: ‘I am the Good Shepherd’ (John 10: 11, 14).
The setting for this portion of the ‘Good Shepherd Discourse’ (verses 22-30) is the Portico or Stoa of Solomon in the Temple on the Festival of the Dedication, or Hanukkah. Jesus is walking in the Portico of Solomon or Solomon’s Porch or Colonnade (στοα του Σολομωντος, see also Acts 3: 11; 5: 12), a stoa or colonnade on the east side of the Temple’s Outer Court or Women’s Court, named after King Solomon.
The Feast of the Dedication, sometimes known as the Festival of Lights and known today as Hanukkah, falls between late November and the end of December (this year, it begins on 14 December and ends on 22 December 2025).
The holiday commemorates the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem in the year 164 BCE after its destruction by the Seleucid king Antiochus IV (see I Maccabees 4: 52-59). The festival is observed by lighting the candles of a menorah or candelabrum with nine branches (hanukkiah). One branch is typically placed above or below the others and its candle (shamash) is used to light the other eight candles. Each night, one additional candle is lit by the shamash until all eight candles are lit together on the final night of the festival.
The lights recall the miracle of the one-day supply of oil in the Temple miraculously lasting eight days, first described in the Talmud. According to the Babylonian Talmud (b Shabbat 21B), after the Greek forces of Antiochus IV had been driven from the Temple, the Maccabees discovered that almost all the ritual olive oil had been profaned. They found but a single container still sealed by the High Priest, with enough oil to keep the menorah in the Temple lit for just a single day. They used this, yet it burned for eight days – the time it took to have new oil pressed and made ready.
Josephus says John Hyrcanus was unique in Jewish history as the only man to unite the offices of priest, prophet and king. He reigned from 135 to 104 BCE, and by 124 BCE he had built a new Jerusalem.
Christ’s claims to oneness with God and pre-existence with him (John 8: 58) have aroused some listeners. Some think he is demented but others doubt it, for he heals (verses 20-21). If Jesus really is the Messiah, the people in this reading may have hoped that he too, like John Hyrcanus, would unite the offices of priest, prophet and king, and that he would rescue the people from the foreign tyranny of the Romans, just as God rescued an earlier generation from the evil reign of Antiochus.
In the stoa or portico of Solomon, they now ask whether he is the Messiah (verse 24). How long will he keep them in suspense? (verse 24).
Jesus answers with a rebuke, ‘I have told you, and you do not believe’ (verse 25). Faith is needed to understand the answers he has given – and at this stage they are lacking in faith.
His godly actions or works show who he is. To those who do believe, who are his sheep (verse 27), he gives eternal life (verse 28) and assurance that they will not perish, that they will not be condemned to annihilation at the end-time. He will ensure that they remain his. And once again, he repeats that he and the Father are one.
This Gospel reading also reminds us that we are part of the Communion of Saints: ‘I give them eternal life, and they will never perish’ (John 10: 28). We are not just one part of the Communion of Saints, but part of the whole Communion of Saints, heirs to the full apostolic legacy of the Church.
In today’s reading from the Book of Revelation, we are reminded that the Communion of Saints is drawn from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages. All are gathered together, across time and space, breaking down all the barriers of history and discrimination, to give blessing and glory, wisdom and thanksgiving, and honour and power and might to the Lamb of God (Revelation 7: 9, 12).
In the Gospel reading, we are told that the saints, those who have eternal life, are those who hear Christ’s voice, answer his call, follow him and do his will. He knows them, they know him, and they have the promise of eternal life (John 10: 22-30).
I truly enjoy the way Greeks and other Orthodox Christians emphasise celebrating their name days rather than their birthdays. For when we join the saints in glory before the Lamb on the Throne, the only birthday that will matter will be the day in which we join that wonderful company of saints.
Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!
Today’s Prayers (Sunday 11 May 2025, Easter IV):
‘Health and Hope in the Manyoni District’ provides the theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel). This theme is introduced today with a programme update from Dr Frank Mathew Haji of the Integrated Child Health and End Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV Programme in Tanzania:
The Integrated Child Health and End Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV Programme is making a significant impact on maternal and child health in the Manyoni district, Singida region, Tanzania. Focused on improving health services for women of childbearing age and children under five, the programme particularly targets the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV.
Ruth [name changed for privacy], who contracted HIV in 2018, feared for her future and struggled with her husband as they faced difficulties conceiving. When a mobile clinic from the Anglican Church of Tanzania visited her village, Ruth attended with a friend and received vital medication and counselling. This support not only helped her manage her health but also allowed her and her husband to navigate their challenges together. Today, they are excitedly expecting a healthy baby, thanks to the programme’s interventions.
Ruth’s story illustrates how the programme brings hope and better health to families, ensuring that children are born HIV-free and that communities are empowered with the knowledge and resources they need to thrive.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (Sunday 11 May 2025, Easter IV) invites us to pray reflecting on these words:
‘Bear one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfil the law of Christ’ (Galatians 6: 2).
The Collect:
Almighty God,
whose Son Jesus Christ is the resurrection and the life:
raise us, who trust in him,
from the death of sin to the life of righteousness,
that we may seek those things which are above,
where he reigns with you
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post-Communion Prayer:
Merciful Father,
you gave your Son Jesus Christ to be the good shepherd,
and in his love for us to lay down his life and rise again:
keep us always under his protection,
and give us grace to follow in his steps;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Additional Collect:
Risen Christ,
faithful shepherd of your Father’s sheep:
teach us to hear your voice
and to follow your command,
that all your people may be gathered into one flock,
to the glory of God the Father.
Yesterday’s Reflections
Continued Tomorrow
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
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