This Sunday in Easter is oftentimes called “Good Shepherd Sunday”. Therefore, today we sang Psalm 23 and a portion of John 10, along with the Shepherd references in the Old Testament and Epistle readings. John 10 and the 23rd Psalm contain passages that many consider their favorite. Our readings used that beautiful imagery of Jesus and God as the Good Shepherd who searches for and guides the sheep, meaning members of the church, His flock. We often use these texts to comfort ourselves when we are suffering, hurting, near death, and at funerals. Many of you I am sure even have the 23rd Psalm committed to memory. If you do, that is wonderful; if you don’t have it memorized, it might be helpful to do so. Why would it be helpful? Because when the time comes that you will be in need, you may not have access to a Bible. It will then be good to have this psalm with you in your memory to comfort you, to remember that the Lord is your Good Shepherd whom we need especially during difficult times.
Very often we have thought of shepherds during Bible times as these peaceful, caring, good, hard working types. Perhaps at Christmas Eve we might hear in a sermon that shepherds were smelly and were considered by the rest of society as being rather low in social status, but in many ways, it was actually worse. In fact, shepherds actually had a nasty reputation as being untrustworthy. In a Rabbinical list of thieving and cheating occupations, we find “shepherd” to be included. A Jewish Midrash/sermon on Psalm 23, the good shepherd psalm, comments: “No position is so despised as that of shepherd.”
Often, when the hired shepherds (the hirelings) would be sent to sell sheep to interested buyers, they would return to their master and tell them that some of the sheep had died, therefore the sale was less than expected but what they had really done was pocket the extra money. Since the hired shepherds had no real stake in the flock, if a wild predator would come and seize one of the sheep, that hired shepherd would not risk his life to save the sheep from the jaws of death.
These hired hands, these unfaithful traveling shepherds, remind us all too well of the world and its trickery, cruelty, and self-interest. By the way, the word: “Pastor” means “Shepherd”. Perhaps you have been the victim of such wily and worldly unfaithful religious “shepherds” who have seized every opportunity to take advantage of you or who have not been faithful in protecting your spiritual needs, but only look for popularity and prosperity for themselves from the backs of the sheep.
Sadly, this is the state of the world. There are many people, in business, politics, education, or even in “so called religious professions”, in any position of trust, who do not fulfill their obligation to be faithful. Many who are in the position where they are called upon to protect, yet, instead of protecting the weak, take advantage of and abuse the weak, and when trouble comes, they seek only to protect themselves.
But let us be honest here, though we can think of examples of those pastors or people who have taken advantage of us, let us not forget how often have we taken advantage of others. How often have we pushed our advantage over others to get our way? How often have we lapsed in our faithfulness to do our duty as an employee or employer, as a citizen, as a student, as a parent, as a child, as a member of the church: a pastor or as a lay person?
There are all these problems in the world because there is something wrong with each human: an illness, a disease which is the source of all sorrow, all sickness, all betrayal, all selfishness, greed, lust, laziness, gossip, narcissism, abuse, and danger. This condition which all humanity shares is, of course, sin. It is a condition which we have inherited from our fathers and mothers. Sin is a rebellion against God. Yet God is a good shepherd, the best. He is the one who created each and every one of us and each and every person in this world and loves them. Yet all we like sheep have gone astray each one to his or her own way. That selfish way that we have pursued is a way of death, of destruction, of faithlessness and pain. We feel this pain in our weak bodies, in our broken relationships, in our fears and doubts, in our toil and failures, and in the pain we have given to others when we have taken advantage of them and when others have taken advantage of us. It is our adversary, the devil, who takes advantage of this rebellion and the resulted vulnerability to consume whomever he can, to bring them not only death, fear, and misery here on earth, but to an eternal destruction.
But, our Lord is indeed a good shepherd, a shepherd: faithful, loving, caring, and self-sacrificing. Jesus the Christ is the fulfillment of Psalm 23. Jesus said that He is the good shepherd, but Jesus did not claim this as a means to take advantage, but because He is. It is to our advantage that He is the Faithful and Good Shepherd. He took this job, this responsibility of loving care seriously, yes, all the way to the cross.
The Good Shepherd, the Word of God made flesh, came down from heaven and used His sinless incarnate body as the tool of salvation. Jesus, the Son of God, humbled Himself to be born among the sheep, to become as a sheep, Himself. To seek and to save His sheep by being the perfect sheep that the sheep could not be. He came to be the Good Shepherd who actually lays down His life so that the sheep who loved to roam and rebel would be redeemed and rescued from the wild beasts of the devil, the world, and their own flesh. He became sin for His sheep, He took the punishment for sin so the sheep would not have to receive an eternal punishment for their sin. Jesus the Good Shepherd laid down His life, destroying the choke hold of sin upon the sheep. Jesus contended with Satan in His crucifixion and by it defeated the devil’s power to accuse people of their sin. At the same time that He did this in His death, He also destroyed the final enemy which is death itself. Death could not defeat the perfect sacrifice which took away the power of death which that disease of sin. Therefore, Jesus was raised triumphant over death. The Good Shepherd has redeemed His sheep!
The image of the Good Shepherd is powerful. He overcomes the enemies which would destroy us, having sought us, and then gathers us into the sheepfold of the Church. There we behold Him crucified upon the cross, we hear His Voice by His Word and in His powerful absolution and see Him feed us in His body and blood given for us for the forgiveness of sin. His heroic actions for us testify by His Spirit that we sheep can trust Him: A truly loving and Faithful Shepherd. Yes, He will rebuke and exhort us when we do wrong, but for our good. He will forgive, He will pick the nettles out of our wool, bind up the wounds that we incurred by our own wanderings, forgive us, and then heal us, and make us right. Not just right, but righteous and holy in thought, word, and deed by His Holy Spirit. In the green pastures of His Word and sacrament He nurses you, me, and all His sheep back to health. He whispers assurances to us: that in Him and His cross, the devil and death cannot harm us any longer. In the daily battles that we have against sins, accusations, and our temptations He says, “stay by me, this is my battle, I am the answer for you.”
In the midst of suffering, we are tempted to ask, “Why has this happened?” Know that it is because of our sin. Instead of asking, “Where are you, God?” See Him sharing your suffering at the hands of the world, the devil, the flesh. Behold Him coming to you triumphant over your sin in His Word and Sacrament. He has won for you your final deliverance. Find comfort in His promise: ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you’ (Hebrews 13:5 and Deut. 31:6).
From Holy Baptism where we were first washed as His little lambs He leads us forth to the place of eternal rest in heaven. We follow Him who is the “Good Shepherd”, “the Great Pastor”, “the Faithful Overseer and Bishop” of our souls: He who has laid down His life for His sheep and took it up again so that you and I can have forgiveness of sins, and victory over sin, death, and the devil.
Jesus Christ makes all the hopes and promises of the beloved 23rd psalm come true throughout our lives. He shall always provide for us so that we have no true want. He allows us to be restored and refreshed in the green pastures and still waters given in this Divine Service of His Word and in His Holy Supper as we receive forgiveness of sins, life and salvation from His hand. When you are tempted to hear and listen to voices of unfaithful shepherds and the world, resist them. Listen faithfully and learn the voice of the One who has defeated your enemies and given you the victory so that you fear no evil even in the valley of death.
As He prepares a table for His sheep here, He anoints us with joy and mercy and heals us of our sin as we drink the overflowing cup of blessing in Jesus’ blood for the forgiveness of sins. We see that truly God’s mercy and goodness shall follow us as we dwell in the house of the Lord now on earth and forever in eternity. All this through Faith in our Faithful Good Shepherd Jesus Christ, Christ is Risen….Alleluia! Amen.
Pastor Aaron Kangas