Scripture readings for April 26, 2026, Fourth Sunday of Easter
Acts 2:14a, 36-41 Ps 23: 1-3a, 3b4, 5, 6 1 Pt 2:20b-25 Jn 10:1-10
We know this comparison so well.
How many times have we heard Jesus described as “The Good Shepherd”? here it is again in the scriptures for this fourth Sunday of Easter (commonly called “Good Shepherd Sunday”).
The image is familiar, poignant, tender; it asks us to think differently about our relationship with the Lord. He is one who guides, prods, leads, protects, with the attention and patience of a shepherd tending his flock, with a firm but gentle hand.
As the psalmist put it so famously — and we hear it again this week he guides us through both dark valleys and verdant pastures. We want for nothing.
Countless artists have depicted Jesus the shepherd caring for his flock, and churches around the world have been named for this indelible image. It’s iconic and inspiring. But are we missing something?
We pay so much attention to the figure of the shepherd in this Gospel, we might overlook another important detail.
Look closely. Or maybe, more accurately, listen closely: The lesson in this passage is about more than herding livestock. It’s not just about the one we see and choose to follow. It’s also about listening.
Hearing the shepherd’s voice. Recognizing it. Knowing it. Acting on it.
Jesus mentions it no less than three times. “The sheep hear his voice,” Jesus says, “as the shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them out…the sheep follow him, because they recognize his voice. They will not follow a stranger; they will run away from him, because they do not recognize the voice of strangers.”
It places a question before all of us. In the ordinary routine of daily life, faced with challenges, choices and decisions to make, are we paying attention? Are we listening? What voice are we hearing? What (or who) is calling us in any direction? What call are we answering? When it matters, do we recognize the call of Christ?
In these first weeks after Easter, we need to remember the unmistakable voice of Jesus and what he had to say to his apostles when he first appeared to them after the Resurrection. His first word to them was “peace.”
Significantly, it was the first word that Robert Prevost spoke when he appeared on the balcony last year and greeted the world as Pope Leo XIV.
When we recognize the voice of Jesus, it means that we do more than just realize who it belongs to; it’s about more than tone or timbre or volume and, after all, how many of us have actually heard Jesus speak?
When we think about recognizing the voice of Christ, recognizing the shepherd guiding our way, it means to understand him, to trust him, to respond to him and to go where he wants us to go.
The voice of Jesus the Good Shepherd leads us in a way of compassion, mercy and hope. It is the way of fulfilling God’s plan for our lives — and as Jesus says so famously in John’s Gospel, he himself is “the way, the truth and the life.” Christ remains the ultimate GPS.
He guides us in the direction of repentance and renewal. In this season when we celebrate the Resurrection, the voice of Jesus heralds hope.
When we hear the voice of Jesus, it is not a voice of fear or hostility; it is not a call to bitterness or rash judgement or dismissiveness or disdain. Turn down the volume on the chattering voices you hear on social media, cable television and YouTube. You won’t hear Jesus there.
Jesus wants us to go in a different direction. Are we listening?
Deacon Greg Kandra is an award-winning author and journalist, and creator of the blog “The Deacon’s Bench.”
