Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Fourth Sunday of Easter

I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep. But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep. I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own. As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd. Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father. (John 10:11–18)

For the sake of His flock the shepherd was sacrificed as though He were a sheep. He did not refuse death. He did not destroy His executioners as He had the power to do, for His passion was not forced on Him. He laid down His life for His sheep of His own free will. “I have the power to lay it down,” He said, “and I have the power to take it up again.” By His passion He made atonement for our evil passions, by His death he cured our death, by His tomb He robbed the tomb, by the nails that pierced His flesh He destroyed the foundations of hell.

Death held sway until Christ died. The grave was bitter, our prison was indestructible, until the Shepherd went down and brought to His sheep confined there the good news of their release. His appearance among them gave them a pledge of their resurrection and called them to a new life beyond the grave. “The good Shepherd lays down His life for His sheep” and so seeks to win their love.

Basil of Seleucia, Homily 26.2

The Devil, too, while he aimed at man, made an attempt on God. While he grows furious at the guilty one, he runs up against his Judge. While he inflicts pain, he incurs torture. While he is issuing a sentence, he receives one. And death, which lives by feeding upon mortals, dies while it is devouring the Life. Death, which swallows guilty men, gets swallowed while it is gulping down the Author of innocence. Death, accustomed to destroy all, perishes itself while it tries to destroy the salvation of all.

Therefore, by giving a pattern like this, the Shepherd went before His sheep; He did not run away from them. He did not surrender the sheep to the wolves, but He consigned the wolves to the sheep. For He enabled His sheep to pick out their robbers in such a way that the sheep, although slain, should live; although mangled, should rise again and, colored by their own blood, should gleam in royal purple, and shine with snow-white fleece.

In this way, when the good Shepherd laid down His life for His sheep, He did not lose it. In this way He held His sheep; He did not abandon them. Indeed, He did not forsake them, but invited them. He called and led them through fields full of death, and a road of death, to life-giving pastures.

Peter Chrysologus, Selected Sermons 40