The Third Sunday after Easter - Misicordias Domini - April 18, 2010

The Church Season of Easter,
Easter 3, One Year Series
Our Savior Lutheran Church, Midland, MI (April 18, 2010)

“The Good Shepherd”

Readings: 
        Psalm 23   
        Ezekiel 34:11-16   
        1 Peter 2:21-25
        John 10:11-16

Sermon Form:    Deductive

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Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen

The text for today’s message will be from the Gospel lesson as recorded in the 10th chapter of St. John, especially the following verses:

John 10:11-16 (ESV)

11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13 He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.

Alleluia, Christ is Risen!  He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

The 11th and 14th verses of our lesson from St. John today, reads in our text as “I am the Good Shepherd”, but in the original text with word order being just a tad different Jesus says, “I am the Shepherd, the Good one.”  Not much of a difference some would say, just a trifling a nuance, it has the same sense, meaning and outcome.  “I am the Shepherd, the good one.”  And so it is also obvious that Jesus didn’t say, I am the “Great Shepherd.”  Nope, Jesus said, just a good one.  And if you think about all that Christ did, and all that He taught, He would have been quite able to accurately say that He was a “Great Shepherd.”  But He didn’t.  Although once an angry crowd ask Jesus if He was, “greater than our father Abraham, who died?”(Jn. 8:53) Jesus responded, “if I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing.”(Jn. 8:54)  And another time He said, “No servant is greater than His master.”(Jn. 15:20  Maybe He didn’t call Himself the “Great Shepherd” because it would have meant that He would have had to interact a little differently with people He met and with the people who would gather around Him.  Maybe He wasn’t about puffing Himself up, rather He was about His Father’s business, the business of caring for His sheep.

So for instance, think about those people who we would label as the great leaders of our world today, from business to politics, from religion to science, from charities to industries, sometimes these people do lead by example.  But along with along that there are others who are called to lead by example but they aren’t really great or good leader’s at all.  But one thing is for sure in our world today, it is all too common these for leaders of any organization to spend countless hours going to seminars or reading books on how to lead people, how to “Win Friends and influence People.”  Because, that’s how the people of the world say you get to be a Great leader.  By getting in touch with your peers, your constituency, you co-worker’s, to learn to know what they want, to get in touch with their inner feelings, so that all may advance some sort of business or cause in uniform way.  The business word would be, with synergy.  Meaning the force and action of all working together is greater than the sum of the parts.  Not mathematical at all, but a great banner to fly when rallying troops for the greater good, whatever that may be.

But Christ the Shepherd, the good one, does not lead by tapping into the latest polling data, nor by speaking in the newest business language.  Nor does He cozy up to the current powers to be, or the latest worldly fads.  He does not look to advance some sugar coated pie agenda to impress the crowds or to improve earnings for shareholders.  No, Jesus does not ask the people what they want, instead He gives them what need.  Jesus is the Shepherd, the Good one, because He seeks only to tell the truth, because He knows it is only the truth which will “make you free.”(Jn. 8:32) 

Jesus tells us truthfully what a “Good Shepherd” is.  The qualifications for a “Good Shepherd” Jesus says, is that “He lays down His life for His sheep.”(v. 11)  Now the word “life” in that last sentence is the way we most often hear this scripture read.  But as many of you know, that word there for “Life” has a much deeper meaning than what we are first inclined to think.  It can mean “soul” or inner being, or it can even mean breath.  Jesus breathed on His disciples and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”(Jn 20:23) and as the Good Shepherd He gave up His breath, for on the cross He, “uttered a loud cry, He breathed His last.”  Not many Great leaders we know of have done that, but the Shepherd, the Good one did just that for us.

And in worldly terms have you ever heard of a management theory or strategy which states it is in the best interest of being a Good Manager to make sure every single last employee must achieve ultimate success.  And that in doing so every last resource, right to the last drop, must be expended to make sure that happens?  Nope. in the business world the big numbers drive the words which make up the Corporate goals and mission statements that are printed on the corporate banner head.  The shareholders must be pleased and appeased.  And when the big numbers don’t pan out, the Good Manager may do whatever it takes, maybe abandon the program, maybe abandon some people, and if the going gets rough maybe even abandon the ship.  Because a really Good Manager can find a way, to live to fight another day.

Ironically that lands us back in the Greek again, in verse 13, “The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.”  The word for “Hired hand” here is μισθωτός, meaning wage earner.  And when learning the Greek words, one way to remember words is by assimilation, in this case μισθωός we would learn by saying, “Miss those Wages.” 

And when there is nothing coming in, when we miss those wages, then the business adage is it is time to look out for number one.  The hireling runs, forget the sheep,  how do I help me first?  Certainly, not the way of a great shepherd or good shepherd, but it is the way of post-modern, or should I say Post Adamic man to seek that which seems good for oneself, while casting away that which God calls good.  And then when we find ourselves in conflict, like Adam we point to the woman to blame her, and the woman points to the snake to blame it.  Ironically when success is at hand we puff our chests and say how Good we are.  Yet when our eyes are opened and when we are faced with the sin of our own failure, like Adam and Eve we don’t have the courage to point at ourselves and we quickly find the nerve to point to others for our failures.

Repent, for salvation is not found by looking out for ourselves, nor is it found by looking inwardly for a better way to be good.  We cannot fool Christ, by our outward appearance.  Jesus knows us down to the bone, He sees past our sheepish public persona, through the wool we used to dressed up in to cover our sin, and He sees us, He sees us right down to the dry bones that we are.  And though Jesus should, He does not leave us, nor does He ever forsake us. 

Christ’s disciples, His own flock scattered when they were confronted by the evil forces of the world, and yet Jesus didn’t run away from them.  We are Christ’s people and when we are confronted by the things of this world, by depression, by physical and mental anguish, we too would run from Christ to find some respite in this world.  Yet as we would turn from the Good shepherd, He does not turn from us.  Jesus does not walk away from us in times of trouble.  In fact in the face of death He did not run, instead He merely walks.  He walks to the cross and He lays down His life for His sheep.  Christ did give his all for everyone,  Christ gave up His last breath for you, He gave up His body and blood for you.  Not the wisest option that a worldly person would have chosen.  But the most compassionate thing that the Good Shepherd could do and that is humbling, “Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”(Phil. 2:8)  Christ did not say to hell with you, no instead He gave up His life, He descended into Hell, and on the third day He rose again, just for you.

The sheep know the voice of the Shepherd, the Good one because they hear His voice each time the scriptures are read.  The sheep know the Shepherd because they feast on His true body and His true blood.  The sheep know the Shepherd because He is with them in their baptism.  The Good Shepherd does not change His banner nor His mission statement because a breeze has turned the weather sock nor does He follow the latest fad to make Himself more like His fellow men.  For, “12 These men are blemishes....shepherds who feed only themselves.”(Jude 12)

Yes, Jesus Christ is the Shepherd, He is the Only Good one for He feeds everyone else by forgiveness.  Jesus lays down His life so that all that would wound you His sheep, may be healed by the promise of everlasting life.  He will never leave you, you will not be shaken, lost, shattered, or scattered by the forces of this world, rather Jesus the Shepherd the Good one, lays down His life that you will live with Him forever and ever.  Amen.

Alleluia, Christ is Risen!  He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

The Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God
and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
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