Fourth Sunday of Easter Acts 4:8-12; Psalm 118; 1 John 3:1-2; John 10:11-18 The image of God as shepherd is central to the Bible, found in Ezekiel as a rebuke against leaders who did not care for the flock, as comfort and protection in Psalm 23, and as the rich symbol of Jesus’ role as humble servant leader who lays down his life to save us. Shepherds were the first witnesses to the birth of Jesus, a striking pastoral reminder that the Good News came first to the poorest of the poor, shepherds being the least of essential workers, malodorous vagabonds tending flocks under the stars in the grassy highlands, shunned and mistrusted in the villages. Jesus began his life of downward mobility in their company and ended it as a nuisance to power, crucified between thieves after his final Passover lesson to his disciples as a foot-washing slave.