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Lectionary for April 26, 2026
Fourth Sunday of Easter
Acts 2:42-47; Psalm 23;
1 Peter 2:19-25; John 10:1-10
I’ve been a professor long enough now that I’m starting to hear myself misquoted. I’ve raised up generations of students, and some have listened better than others while some have misspoken in my name. My first thought is, “Is this how professors Goodhart, Frank, Swartz and Seeman feel about me?” We all try our best, hopefully, to honor the legacy of those who invested in teaching us. But when students become teachers in their own right, maybe their hopes and ideals get confused in the transmission. This week, the lectionary texts insist that we return to Jesus’ message and teaching.
In the first 10 verses of John 10, Jesus is not a shepherd. The metaphor changes in verse 11, but we can return to that another time. For this week’s reading, people are often confused about who is who. This is entirely fair, as the disciples didn’t seem to understand the parable either (6). There are sheep in a pen. Then there are the trusted shepherds and scheming thieves, both of whom want to lead the sheep away somewhere. The person who guards the sheep and makes a distinction between shepherd and thief is the doorkeeper (3).
In this parable, Jesus is explicit about his role: “Truly, truly I say to you, I am the door of the sheep” (7). So, then, who are the shepherds? They are the trustworthy servants of God, whom Jesus trusts to guide the sheep by their recognizable words (4). The thieves are those who don’t have the words of Jesus, who come only to kill, steal and destroy (10). To reinforce his point, Jesus insists again that he is the door (9). The sheep are all those who enter into salvation through him and then go back into the pasture.
This won’t come as a shock to many, but it needs to be said: there are those guiding the flock who speak words that Jesus would recognize as his own. But there are those who preach a strange gospel—that is no gospel at all—about power, wealth and conquest. These are the thieves who come to kill, steal and destroy.
The doorkeeper’s voice is recognized in trustworthy shepherds who teach sharing, welcome, sacrificial love, kindness and fellowship with all the people Jesus died to save.
The disciples knew the ways of Jesus. In Acts 2 his followers assembled to study, hang out (fellowship), eat together and pray (42). These four verbs were (and are) central to Christian life. No one considered any property their own, but as soon as a need arose, they sold what they had to cover it (44-45). The Jesus movement looked like people meeting for every meal, as followers from every land and language were added to their number (6-11).
Is this your vision of the church: a community that shares meals with people from every land and language, where members immediately sell their property to help siblings in need? That is the doorkeeper’s vision for the sheep. We can choose to be shepherds or thieves.
The early church was no stranger to persecution. 1 Peter’s difficult lesson is that withstanding injustice with patient endurance finds favor with God. By no means is this letter instructing folks to seek out or perpetuate injustice! But when the situation is unavoidable, until the justice that God longs for prevails, there are some instructions that Jesus modeled. When the Romans humiliated him and mocked him, Jesus didn’t return insults. When he was being physically abused, Jesus did not offer threats (2:23). Both the Hebrew Bible and New Testament insist that we are to chase after justice. And, while we have not yet grasped it, we are not to dehumanize purveyors of injustice. They do that themselves. Instead, we refrain from insulting or threatening those who insult and threaten others
Is that your vision of the church? That is the doorkeeper’s practice for the sheep. We can choose to be shepherds or thieves.
Look, if you don’t already know, it’s difficult to follow Jesus. All our instincts—to gain control and security through accumulating wealth and power, to attack our enemies so that they cannot attack us, to put ourselves first—those need to be put to death in baptism and new birth into God’s kingdom. There are a lot of thieves out there who say you can break into salvation without going through Jesus’ self-sacrificial ways. They are, of course, lying. The doorkeeper’s voice is recognized in trustworthy shepherds who teach sharing, welcome, sacrificial love, kindness and fellowship with all the people Jesus died to save.
