Sermon April 21, 2013: Fourth Sunday of Easter, Good Shepherd Sunday
(James W.)
Let us pray.
May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts
be acceptable in your sight, Oh Lord, our strength and our Redeemer.
As I was reading over the lectionary readings to settle on
what I would preach today, I thought that I made a clever connection. I thought to myself “Aha! The theme running through these readings is
‘shepherd’!” And so, I told my wife about my discovery. She replied “Well,
yes, of course it’s Good Shepherd Sunday.”
I guess I wasn’t so clever after all, but I do have the theme for
today’s sermon.
On Maundy Thursday, we looked at how Jesus was our Passover Lamb,
the Lamb of God. Now we hear that He is
our shepherd. Which is it? Lamb or shepherd? The passage from Revelation that we read
today says “For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their
shepherd.” Jesus is both lamb and
shepherd. As you might have guessed,
sheep were a very important commercial asset in the ancient times. They lend themselves as ways to illustrate
God. So yes, in some ways Jesus is the
Lamb of God, but in other ways, He is our shepherd. If you want to learn more about Jesus as
Lamb, you can read my Maundy Thursday sermon.
You can ask me for a copy or go online to read it. Today, we’ll talk about Jesus as shepherd.
It was fairly common for kings in the ancient Middle East to
refer to themselves as being the shepherd of their people. In those days, kings tended to view
themselves as divine, and so the metaphor of Jesus, who is our God and Lord, as
shepherd is not necessarily unique or groundbreaking. The readings today tell us about what it means
for us that Jesus is our shepherd. And
it’s very comforting to hear.
In the reading from John’s Gospel, we hear Jesus talking
about his role as shepherd in response to a question from the religious leaders
of the day. The religious leaders asked
him “How long will you keep us in suspense?
If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.” These leaders didn’t have honest intentions
and Jesus knew it. So he replied to
them that he had already given them the answer, but they wouldn’t listen. But listen to what he says next. Jesus tells them “you do not believe because
you are not my sheep. My sheep listen
to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.”
What does Jesus mean?
Jesus suggests here that you need to be one of his flock
before you can believe in him. I think
that what is meant here is that coming to fully trust and believe in Jesus as
your lord and savior is a process. Some
people have immediate conversions, but they still need to take time to listen
and learn about Jesus before they can fully trust and follow him. One of my favorite movies is The Bourne Identity. Jason Bourne is a highly trained spy who
suffered amnesia after a traumatic experience.
One of the things that helps Jason discover who he is is his power of
observation. He sees and notices things
that other don’t – such as who looks suspicious and is out of place, where the
entrances and exits are, what could be used as a weapon, and the like. The same is true of Sherlock Holmes, another
favorite character of mine. He notices
clues that others don’t. Both Jason
Bourne and Sherlock Holmes notice things that ordinary people miss because they
are looking to notice these sorts of things, while other aren’t even looking.
And so it is with Jesus’ flock. If we are part of Jesus’ flock, that means
that we are looking to hear Jesus’ voice.
We want to hear what he has to say.
And if we are looking to hear Jesus, we will hear him. Jesus is calling us to him. By contrast, if we don’t want to hear Jesus,
we probably won’t, though sometimes Jesus can be pretty insistent that we do
listen, as St. Paul found out when Jesus appeared to him on the way to Damascus. But mostly, if we don’t want to listen to
Jesus, we won’t hear him.
But if we are Jesus’ sheep and
listen to his voice, he is our shepherd.
Today’s readings help us understand what wonderful news this is for
us. In John’s Gospel, Jesus declares “I
give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them
out of my hand. My Father, who has given
them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.” Jesus is telling us that he is our
protector. This was one of the key tasks
of a shepherd. Just before he slew
Goliath, David spoke about some of his adventures as a shepherd. David said “Your servant has been keeping his
father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the
flock, I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it
turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. Your servant has killed both the lion and the
bear.” David, as shepherd, did battle
with lion and bear to keep his sheep safe.
In today’s well known Psalm, we
hear the Psalmist declare “Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I
will fear no evil, for you are with me.”
God doesn’t tell us that we won’t walk through dark valleys. We certainly will. Nor is Jesus saying that we will never die or
suffer physical injury or disease.
Instead, what we are told is that if we are sheep of Jesus’ flock, we
need fear no evil, nor do we need to fear that we will ever be snatched out of
the hand of our Lord and Savior. We will
die physically and we may encounter sickness, injury and mortal danger, but our
souls will never be in danger if we have Jesus as our shepherd. Jesus will always be with us and looking out
for us. There is no force greater than
God and if He is for us, than none can threaten us.
The job of a shepherd is more
than just a protector however. He must
also lead his sheep to pasture and rest.
The first three verses of Psalm 23 speak to this. We hear that God will provide for our needs. “The Lord is my shepherd, I lack
nothing. He makes me lie down in green
pastures.” He will also give us
peace. “He leads me beside quiet waters.” And He will renew us. “He refreshes my soul.” Sheep are animals that follow, and so a
shepherd must lead the sheep. And we
read this also in Psalm 23. “He guides
me along the right paths for his name’s sake.”
And in the passage from Revelation, we read “For the Lamb at the center
of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living
water.”
Remember that we should expect to
walk through dark valleys in our lives, and we should expect that we will be
confronted with evil, and that we should expect that evil will sting. But what we do know is that our Good
Shepherd, Jesus is guiding us through this – through the hard times, through
the dark valleys, through destruction, and through death. God’s ultimate destination for us is eternal
life after the final destruction of sin and death. This is what the passage from Revelation is
looking forward to. We are told about
that time “Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat down on them, nor any
scorching heat. For the Lamb at the
center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of
living water. And God will wipe away
every tear from their eyes.”
Jesus is leading and we need to
follow. And this is something worth
pondering. How often are we angry at God
when we encounter evil or difficulties that have come upon us when we have
decided to follow our own paths? How
often do we act as if we don’t need to follow God, yet still expect God to come
and save us? Well, the good news is that
God will come to save us even when we stray.
The last duty of the shepherd is to preserve all the
sheep. In the passage from John’s
Gospel, Jesus says of those who believe in him that “no one will snatch them
out of my hand.” Also, in Matthew’s
Gospel, Jesus tells a parable. He says “What
do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will
he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that
wandered off? And if he finds it, truly
I tell you, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that
did not wander off. In the same way
your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should
perish.”
And so let us give thanks that Jesus is our Good
Shepherd. He calls us and speaks to
us. He protects us from evil. We never need to fear for our souls, no
matter how much darkness, death and destruction surrounds us today. We know that no matter who we are, no matter
how insignificant we might feel, no matter how irredeemable we might think we
are, Jesus will come to seek after each one of us individually. Each one of us. Each one of you. If you are the only one lost, He will come
looking. He seeks to lead us in the
paths of righteousness, and bring us to a place of plenty, peace and
renewal.
What a great God we have!
Alleluia!
Let us pray:
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