The Good Shepherd

The small church Leah and I attend in Crystal River, Florida has a life size carved representation of Jesus holding a lamb. It hangs over the free standing altar. As I sat waiting for the service to begin, I often contemplated on this simple image of the man, Jesus. I could hear the familiar verse in my head, Jesus is the Good Shepherd. I was reminded of Jesus’ words, “I am the One who guides you and protects you. I am the One who feed you and nurtures you. I am the One who carries you when you are weak.”

Jesus does this for all of us. What He tells us is so comforting. We are all able to see His great love in this image of the Good Shepherd who carries a sheep in His arms.

However, we need to realize that when Jesus called Himself the Shepherd, He also called us sheep. Instead of us seeing ourselves as pure and beautiful and wise, WE, like sheep, are compared to stupid beasts. In this image, we are not strong or independent. We wander as we graze. We get separated and lost. Often our wool gets dirty or we carelessly injure ourselves. We are helpless and vulnerable to wolves. Our lack of sense makes us both self-destructive and a danger to our fellow sheep.

Our human nature does not want to admit that we are like stupid, helpless, wandering sheep. Our sinful nature still wants Jesus to be our Shepherd, but only in this way: We want to imagine that Jesus sees what good sheep we are, so He volunteered to be our Shepherd, our Savior. Unfortunately, we are NOT good by nature; we are sinful and unclean sheep.

Yet Christ Jesus is our Shepherd out of His pure grace. He did not decide to be our Shepherd because we deserve Him. He comes to us in love. He nurtures and tenderly cares for us sinners.

The Jewish leaders did not want to hear that Jesus is the Good Shepherd. They knew the words of the 23^rd Psalm: “The Lord is my Shepherd.” When Jesus claimed to be the Good Shepherd, he was claiming to be the Lord God Jehovah. More than that, Jesus was claiming to be the fulfillment of Psalm 23 as well as in all of the Old Testament scripture. Even worse, Jesus said, “I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to My voice and there shall be one flock and one Shepherd.” In these verses, Jesus indicated that not only the Jews, but also the Gentiles are to be His sheep.

We, who are sickly, wandering sheep, are counted as pure because of Christ. We become spotless when we are baptized through Christ alone.

It is certainly true that Jesus is the Good Shepherd who tenderly cares for us. But there remains a question that is overlooked. HOW does Jesus care for us? What does the image of the Good Shepherd really mean?

If we say that Jesus stays with us and provides all that we need, that is true. But it does not do justice to the Good Shepherd. He does far more than see to our daily needs.

The fact that He is the Shepherd means that He experienced our life. He lived among us out in the pastures of life. He became Man. Sharing life with rebellious sheep means to live a lowly, lonely life. A shepherd smells like his sheep. He walked with his sheep through mud, over dusty roads and hills, with no chance to bathe. Christ, our Lord, lived a human life like us in every way, except he lived without sin. He experienced our struggles, frustrations and pain even to the point of suffering an excruciating death.

The greatest test of any shepherd’s skills is facing death. It is easy to be a shepherd when there are no wolves around. A cowardly shepherd runs at the first sign of a wolf. He will not want to risk his life, justifying that surely his life is worth more than his sheep. Are sheep worth dying for?

Christ is not a cowardly shepherd. He is not the hired hand. He is the Good Shepherd. When the wolves came, He stood His ground. When they circled Him and closed in for the kill, He did not abandon his sheep. Today, even though we too are only sheep, Jesus’ love endures to the end of time. So the truest picture of the Good Shepherd is the Crucifix – Christ dying on the Cross- that shows the love of the Good Shepherd for His sheep.

But if a shepherd only died for his sheep, he leaves them abandoned and defenseless. So Christ, our Good Shepherd, not only laid down His life for us, but He took it up again. He died, but He also rose, so that we sheep will not ever be abandoned.

Christ Jesus continues to shepherd His flock today. He leads us beside living waters and feeds us the best food. Through Baptism and through the Lord’s Supper, Christ cares for His sheep. He bathes us in Baptism, and washes us with His cleansing Blood, so that we are absolutely clean. He makes us healthy with a proper diet of Word and Sacrament. As He absolves, proclaims, and preaches His Gospel, He heals our spiritual diseases and binds up our festering wounds.

Who cares for sheep better than our Good Shepherd? Who paid a greater price than He? Who is more loving, generous, and attentive? Who has found greater wolves than Jesus faced: sin, death, and the devil?

All of this is happening here and now. Our worship is Christ shepherding us. Christ is here with His flock tending to our needs, pouring out the benefits of His death and resurrection. Our worship is not us shepherding ourselves – sheep cannot take care of themselves. We may, from time to time, try to tell Him what we need or refuse the things He offers, just as stubborn sheep resist the efforts of their shepherd.

It is true that our worship includes other aspects like singing praises to our Shepherd, offering prayers as well as monetary offerings. Although these things are important, they are only like the bleating of the sheep in comparison to the loving and powerful presence of the Shepherd in communion. To Him belongs all the glory and honor.

Let us never be offended by the image of the Good Shepherd. Everything He has done is for us. Everything He spoke was out of love for us. We, His flock, are most blessed of all creatures under heaven. Let us open our eyes, and ears, and mouths to receive the wonder of His gifts- gifts of death and resurrection, gifts of Word and Sacrament, gifts of grace, forgiveness and eternal life. Our poor sheep-like minds are unable to take in the greatness of our Shepherd’s gifts. Nevertheless, let us fill ourselves with all He has to give. Let us gorge our hungering souls upon His grace.

In the name of that Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ, our Lord and our God, He is Risen! Amen.

Please note: The preceding sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.