4th Sunday of Easter – The Good Shepherd Sunday
Acts 2:14,36-41
Psalm 22(23)
1 Peter 2:20-25
John 10:14
John 10:1-10
Whom are you following?
In the age of social media, this question has become even more relevant. Many influencers compete for followers. They showcase themselves, presenting their best side. They want to draw everyone’s attention to themselves. Artificial intelligence often steps in to help when reality isn’t perfect enough. Those who follow them want to be like them: beautiful, successful, stylish, cool, politically on the correct side, and so on.
There are also religious influencers on social media. Many Christian ones, too. Catholic ones as well. Some who stage themselves as Catholic, and some who actually are.
Whom are you following?
It will not come as a surprise if, as a preacher on Good Shepherd Sunday, I now say that it is only our Lord Jesus Christ himself whom we should follow.
But how, then, can there be true Christian influencers? How should a Christian influencer behave?
He must acknowledge that there is a greater Shepherd than he himself can be. Indeed, that there is in fact only one Shepherd, and that he himself is merely a sheep following this one and only Shepherd. A genuine Christian influencer directs attention away from himself and towards Jesus. He is not interested in having followers of his own. He wants everyone to follow Jesus.
This is what the Apostle Peter did in his first sermon on the Day of Pentecost in Jerusalem. He spoke only of Jesus. He told his listeners that Jesus was Lord and Messiah. And that everyone should repent and be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ. The result of his sermon after just one day: three thousand new followers for Jesus.
St. Peter is the prototype of the Christian influencer. From his sermon and his letter, we can see what a Christian influencer ought to be like. Let’s take a closer look!
The various influencers on social media often promote something. A particular product, or a political conviction, for example. What does Peter have to offer? “Save yourselves from this crooked generation!” he says. It is about nothing less than salvation from sin and death. By repentance and baptism in the name of Jesus Christ. It is an offer that applies to all people. Adults and children, locals and strangers. And “everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself!”
There he is again, the true Shepherd. It is the Lord who will call them. Not Peter. Peter writes in his letter: “You were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.” This Shepherd and Overseer is, of course, not Peter himself, but Christ. To come to Christ means to return home, sometimes after a long odyssey. Christ leads us home.
In the Gospel we heard how Jesus calls himself the ‘shepherd of the sheep’. Where does this shepherd lead his sheep? To the pasture of eternal life. Jesus says: ‘I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.’
Eternal life, life in abundance, the return to the homeland we had lost through sin: An offer that is only available through Jesus Christ. You can’t get it anywhere else. Peter simply conveys this offer, in the name of Jesus. Whoever follows Peter is actually following Jesus. Whoever listens to Peter’s sermon hears the voice of Jesus, the voice of the Good Shepherd.
The various influencers on social media try to increase their number of followers by delivering exactly what people like and what they want to hear and see. They must constantly flatter their audience. Peter does not do that.
He writes in his letter: “If when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. For to this you have been called.” Who wants to hear this? Why do people not run away from such messages? Simply because they are actually hearing Christ himself speaking through Peter. The sheep of the Good Shepherd know his voice, and they trust him, even when things get difficult. The Good Shepherd leads the way himself. He lays down his life for his sheep. And in doing so, he gives the strength to endure unjust suffering. “Because Christ also suffered for you”, writes Peter. “Christ is leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.”
A Christian influencer should follow the example of Christ. The following verses from Peter’s letter could be read as direct guidance for this: “No deceit was found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.” All too often we find the opposite of this on social media today.
The various influencers on social media are all interested in having lots of followers. But they know very few of them personally. Often, they are not particularly interested in who follows them. Only the number matters.
Admittedly, even Peter probably did not know personally all the three thousand who were newly converted on the Day of Pentecost. Yet Peter still managed to address each and every one of those on a very personal level: when they heard his sermon, “it cut to the heart”. How did he manage that? Well, it was the Day of Pentecost. Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit. And so, all who heard Peter preach did not merely hear everything in their respective native language. More than that: they heard it as a deeply personal, individual call from the Good Shepherd, Christ. The Good Shepherd “calls his own sheep by name”. He knows them and they know him. This is unique to Christ, and no influencer can do this: Having very many followers and yet calling every single one of them personally. By name.
