The image of the Good Shepherd is a powerful one for most of us. No Psalm is more dearly loved than the Twenty-third. Few stories are more fondly remembered than the one of a shepherd who leaves the ninety-nine to find the one that was lost. Surely this is because such imagery cuts through dry and dusty dogma and sings of relationships, of loving actions.

Martin Luther once said the heart of religion could be found in the personal pronouns. "The Lord is my shepherd."

A little girl once recited, "The Lord is my shepherd. That’s all I want."

Jesus is saying that’s all we need, as well.

In the very last chapter of John, Jesus asks Peter if he loves him. When Peter replies in the affirmative, Jesus tells him to "Tend my sheep."

Nothing more.

Nothing less.

No claims for a world institution. No demands for a systematic theology or denominational strategy. None of it.

Only, "Tend my sheep."

This alone is the mark of the divine. This alone is the way to the kingdom. It is not with words, wisdom or religious wit. It is with love. It is by laying down our lives for others.