Who are you living for these days? I’m not asking what you are living for, but who.

Now before you answer let me just say that your spouse, children, grandchildren, best friends, and Jesus don’t count. It’s not because they are wrong answers. It’s because most of the time they are too obvious, safe, and easy. They are or should be givens in each of our lives. It’s the others I want to know about. 

I’m asking about the difficult circumstances, when you have to take a stand, when a decision needs to be made, when there is disagreement, or when there is a cost to pay and consequences to bear. I’m asking us to look deep within ourselves at who we are, how we are living, the values we hold and express, what love means and looks like, and how or even if Jesus is influencing any of that. 

Who are you living for when it comes to the homeless in our city park, the migrants at the Texas border, the issue of gun violence? Who are you living for following the Robb School shooting and the grief, divisions, and brokenness that continue in Uvalde? Who are you living for when you cast your vote in our upcoming school board election and the political elections this fall? 

You might be wondering what any of this has to do with Easter, resurrection, and today’s gospel about the Good Shepherd (John 10:11-18). It’s a good question and one I’ve asked myself. 

Every year on this day, the Fourth Sunday of Easter, we hear a gospel about the good shepherd. For years I’ve felt a disconnect between Easter and today’s gospel. 

Four times in today’s gospel Jesus talks about laying down his life for others. And yet, it’s only been three weeks since the women found the tomb empty. It’s only been three weeks since we first proclaimed, “Alleluia. Christ is risen.” Why this talk about laying down life? 

We’re celebrating that Jesus is risen and alive and he’s talking about laying down his life. That doesn’t make sense. The two don’t seem to go together. 

But what if they do? What if the new life, the resurrected life, the Easter life, looks like laying down life for another? What if, in today’s gospel, Jesus is telling us who he is living for?

If we’re going to follow Jesus it’s a question we too must answer. How we answer that question tells us something about ourselves and the focus of our lives. We are either good shepherds or hired hands. We are either living for others or for ourselves. 

The shepherd leads and guides. The shepherd revives. The shepherd protects. The shepherd companions. The shepherd nourishes and feeds. The shepherd sets a table of welcome and hospitality in the difficult places of life. The good shepherd focuses on the sheep. (Psalm 23)

The hired hand, however, punches a clock and shows up to receive his wages. When the shift is over she is gone. Sheep are a means to an end, not the hired hand’s ultimate concern. The hired hand makes no commitment except to himself or herself. And if things get too difficult, too scary, too risky, too “wolfy” the hired hand runs away.

The hired hand trades time for wages. She transacts business. He cares nothing about the sheep. The good shepherd, however, lives and dies for love. She lays down her life for her sheep. 

Today’s epistle reminds us that laying down life is what love looks. “[Jesus] laid down his life for us — and we ought to lay down our lives for one another.” (1 John 3:16). 

For Jesus, love isn’t simply a feeling. It’s a choice about how we live and how we live is a choice we make every day. It’s a choice driven by our recognition of, compassion for, and willingness to do something about the life and needs of another, the injustices we see, and the future we want for those who come after us – whether they are our family, members of this parish, our neighbors and fellow citizens, strangers, or on the other side of our border. 

Love is an action, not just a state of being. Love is about the truth we do, not just the words we say. Love is God’s way of dying and taking up life again. 

Authentic love cannot exist apart from the lover laying down her or his life for the beloved. And that’s about more than the lover’s physical death. It’s about the way we give away parts of ourselves knowing we can never get them back again, hoping they will be forever buried in the life and heart of another, and trusting that somehow something new will be brought to life. Love is the offertory of our lives.

Think about times when you were at your best as a spouse, a parent, a friend, a teacher, a lawyer, a rancher, a counselor, a secretary, a nurse, a sales clerk, a human being. What was going on? You were probably giving away yourself and that’s all you wanted to do – to just pour yourself into the life of the other for the benefit and well-being of the other. You were laying down your life.

The opportunities for a laying down life kind of love are everywhere. You don’t have to go far. They are the family and friends we see everyday. They are the people of this parish and of this town. They are the strangers who pass through our lives. They are the anonymous ones talked about and often blamed as problems of poverty, hunger, homelessness, joblessness. The opportunities for a laying down life kind of love are not just circumstances. They are people with lives, hopes, and needs as valid as our own.

We need only be present, open our eyes, listen, and pay attention to know how and where love asks us to lay down our life for another. I wonder where and how you are being asked to lay down your life. What are you seeing? What are you hearing? Who are you loving?

A laying down life kind of love means we will have to change our usual routines. It is no longer business as usual. The life and well being of “the other” now sets our priorities, guides our decisions, and determines our actions. It’s what we see in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. 

Laying down our life is not, however, the end of life. It wasn’t for was Jesus and it’s not for us. It is, rather, the beginning of a new life, a more authentic life, an Easter life – a life that looks more like Jesus’ life. 

So tell me, who are you living for these days? Better yet, show me. Show the world who you are living for. 

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Image Credit: Photo by Pawan Sharma on Unsplash.