Whose accord?

Today is Good Shepherd Sunday… We hear Psalm 23 and the section from John 10 that Jesus describes Himself as the Good Shepherd…

We know about shepherds, even those of us who have never been around shepherds, or possibly seen a flock of sheep. We hear a lot about shepherds in the Bible and Jesus talks about sheep and shepherds because this was common day knowledge. It was something everyone would have known about…

But that’s not what caught my attention today as I read this. We look at and hear this text every year. We hear that Jesus is the true shepherd because He lays down His life for His flock, and the other flock we do not know that He is bringing with Him. Others are hired hands (i.e. pastors and lay leaders) because we will all run and not lay down our lives. The other flock is people we do not know and probably people we wouldn’t want included if it was up to us. They are not like us, but Jesus is their shepherd and therefore we are part of their flock as much as they are a part of our flock…

But still that doesn’t get what I heard this morning. I was caught by verses 17 and 18 of John 10…

For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes^* it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.’

The Father loves Jesus because He lays down His life in order to take it up again… God loves Him because He is following the plan set forward. But it is not this, it is the next part… The one that talks about whose accord by which all of this is done. Jesus says that no one takes His life from Him, He freely gives it up and dies of His own accord. He alone has the power to lay it down and the power to take it up, as this was commanded by the Father. See this is interesting to me, because we spend a lot of time giving Judas a bad name because he betrayed Jesus.  He delivered Jesus to the enemy by treachery according to Merriam-Webster online. See all of the definitions here.  But is this really what happened? In order for Judas to betray Jesus, did not Judas have to have power over Jesus? We talk about Judas betraying Jesus and we hear this each week in the celebration of the Eucharist, “In the night in which He was betrayed…” I do not think this is the real meaning of what happened here.  Jesus told Judas to go and do what you must at the last supper, which was to go to the high priest and lead them to Jesus. Judas did not have the power, Jesus did. Jesus tells us here in John 10 that He lays down His life of His own accord, Pilot doesn’t take it from Him, Judas doesn’t take it from Him, Jesus has the power. That night in the garden, Judas does not betray Him (one definition for the Greek), Judas hands Him over (another definition of the Greek). Sure you might say this is semantics. But who’s accord is it? Who has the power? Jesus does and He is not betrayed, Judas performs the task of handing Him over so that the plan can be done…

In the night in which He was handed over, our Lord took bread and blessed it and gave it to His disciples and said take and eat this is my body that I lay down for you by my own accord.

Know that Jesus has the power, and allow him to be the power in your life as well.