Our Venerable Father and Confessor Michael, Bishop of Synada (826); Venerable Euphrosyne of Polotsk, Hegumena of the Monastery of the Holy Saviour (1173)
Read
Acts 14:20-27; John 9:39-10:9
Christ is risen! Truly, He is risen!
Today’s gospel begins with an ending – verses 39-41 of chapter 9 are the conclusion of the healing of the blind man, read this coming Sunday. But these verses aren’t out of place here: they introduce the good shepherd discourse, in which Jesus continues his conflict with the Pharisees that had begun over his healing of the blind man on the Sabbath. Today, Jesus hints that there is a right and wrong way to enter the sheepfold: there is no way to get into or out of the sheepfold except by the gate, Jesus.
Today we live in an increasingly pluralistic world, and people are used to living side-by-side with non-Christians. Certainly, it is good that in most of the western world, we can share space with people of other religions (and no religion) without tension, and certainly without violence. But pluralism doesn’t solve the problem of salvation, at least as Christians think about it. Christians believe that there are two competing realities underlying all human experience (including for people very different than ourselves): on one hand, all humans share the image of God, but on the other, we are all affected by sin, both our own and the sin of others. And it’s the problem of sin that Jesus comes to solve, by laying down his life for his sheep, in order to restore in all people the image and likeness of God. It’s this message that the Pharisees failed to understand – and it’s this good news of new life in Jesus that our world needs.
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