Sermon for Misericordias Domini, the Third Sunday of Easter

Sometimes the common description of Jesus as our Good Shepherd is more sentimental than it needs to be. Maybe this is because outside of rural communities we are more familiar with animals as beloved pets than anything else, and so when we think of Jesus as our shepherd, we see him doting on us as a beloved dog or cat. Certainly Jesus does speak of caring for the sheep, seeking and saving the lost so that he would leave 99 behind to find the one which is lost. That is not the main point of what Jesus is speaking about when he says “I am the good shepherd.”