The Good Shepherd’s shepherding, past and present

Sermon for Easter 2

1 Peter 2:21-25  +  John 10:11-16

St. John’s Gospel includes many pictures to help us understand the Lord Jesus better. He is the Word of God, who was with God in the beginning and who was God. He is the Bread from heaven, the Light of the world, the Door of the sheep, the Resurrection and the Life, the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He is the Vine, and we the branches. It’s the Apostle John who also records the words of John the Baptist, identifying Jesus as the “Lamb of God” who takes away the sin of the world. But, how is He like a lamb? We learned that on Good Friday as He died on the cross and became the sacrificial lamb, the substitutionary sacrifice for the sins of the world.

But in another sense, Jesus is not like a lamb at all, because when a lamb is slaughtered, it has no say in the matter. A lamb doesn’t choose to be slaughtered. It doesn’t lay down its life for anyone. Its life is taken from it by others. It’s an involuntary victim. Not so with Jesus. In today’s Gospel, Jesus pictures believers in Him as sheep and Himself as Shepherd. I am the good Shepherd, He famously says. He is the good shepherd who voluntarily laid down His life for the sheep, and who also took up His life again in order to keep caring for His sheep for all eternity.

I am the good shepherd, says the Lord. The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. He calls Himself good in contrast with the bad. The bad shepherd, the “hireling” as he’s called in our Gospel, is not the owner of the sheep. He doesn’t care about the sheep. He’s a hired hand who’s only out there in the field tending the sheep because it’s a way to make money. He stays with the sheep as long as it’s convenient for him, as long as it’s not too much trouble. But if danger comes, he’s looking out for himself. He sees the wolf coming and abandons the sheep and flees. And the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. The hireling flees, because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep.

Who is the hireling? He’s every shepherd or “pastor” who looks out for his own best interests ahead of the safety and security of the flock entrusted to his care. And there have been many, many of those over the millennia. But Jesus is not like them. The sheep are His. They belong to Him. And He does care about them.

Who is the wolf? He is the devil. And he has power over people because of sin, power to accuse them before God, power to hold their guilt over them, power to drag them to hell. And no one could be free from his power, because no one is without sin. No one is righteous, no, not one, the Psalm says. And as Isaiah wrote, we all like sheep have gone astray. We have turned, each one, to his own way.

When did we last hear those words? We heard them on Good Friday. Why? Because, as Isaiah’s prophecy continues, the LORD has laid on Him—on Christ, our good Shepherd—the iniquity of us all. Now tie those words to Jesus’ words: The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. Willingly. Intentionally. Voluntarily. In fact, He came to earth in the first place for the very purpose of confronting the wolf and laying down His life so that the sheep might be saved. He laid down His life in every way, by living His life, not for Himself, but for us, and by giving His life on the cross for us. The Son of God took on our flesh and lived among us as both God and Man. He devoted His life to serving us by preaching the truth, the truth about us as sinners and about Him as the One who freely forgives sins to all who trust in Him. He laid down His life as the atoning price for our sins, and not only for ours, but for the sins of the world. You should picture your Good Shepherd bleeding and dying on the cross. That’s what it meant to see the wolf coming and to stand His ground for the sake of the sheep, so that He might be attacked and killed in their place. The good Shepherd laid down His life for the sheep.

Of course, you should also picture Christ, your Good Shepherd, risen from the dead, perfectly healed and alive again on Easter Sunday—healed, though He kept the marks of His crucifixion, the nail prints in His hands and the spear print in His side, as He showed them to Thomas in last Sunday’s Gospel. Those are the scars of the Shepherd from His battle with the wolf, and even as He wants you always to remember His resurrection from the dead, so He wants you always to remember His crucifixion, so that you never look at sin lightly, or take for granted the price that was willingly paid for your redemption: the holy, precious blood of your Shepherd.

Jesus’ life on earth, and His innocent death, and His glorious resurrection are His great shepherding acts in the past. But He isn’t done shepherding His sheep. He has more shepherding to do. As you know, it was never Jesus’ plan to stay on earth in visible form and to shepherd His flock, from Jerusalem or from some other place. Imagine how sad that would be! A Shepherd who lived on the other side of the world from where you are, who had only so much time to spend with each one of His sheep. No, the Lord had a different plan for this New Testament era, with a different form of shepherding in mind.

Jesus says in our Gospel, I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will hear my voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd. But that “bringing” into the one flock didn’t happen, or at least, was far from being finished during Jesus’ life on earth. This is the bringing the Good Shepherd does through the shepherds whom He has been sending into the world since Easter Sunday and whom He will continue to send until all the sheep are found who are to be found, until the whole flock is gathered into the One Holy Catholic—that is, Christian—and Apostolic Church.

So it is Jesus who sends the shepherds, which is the meaning of the word “pastor.” Jesus said to Peter, “Feed My lambs. Shepherd My sheep.” And as Paul writes to the Ephesians, Christ Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry. That means that every pastor of God’s Church is placed exactly where the Good Shepherd wants him, in every time and in every place, so that Christ might preach to men through the humble service of men, so that He might gather His sheep, minister to His sheep, forgive the sins of His sheep, and preserve them in His flock through that very same preaching and through the administration of the holy Sacraments.

So, too, it is Jesus who brings the sheep, who went looking for each and every one of you, who brought you into contact with His Church and with His Gospel, who brought you—or will bring you—to Baptism and to faith. I know My sheep, He says, and am known by My own. He knew you from before the foundations of the world were laid, and He knows you still. Even if no one else on earth truly knows you, He knows you—who you are, what you need, what you’ve done, and what you will do. And He also knows all who will believe in Him as His Spirit calls them through the Gospel, even if they don’t yet know Him. There is still time to know Him! The invitation still goes out, to everyone!

And now, as St. Peter wrote in today’s Epistle, the Lord calls you to do good to others and for others, just as your Good Shepherd did, and to be willing to suffer for doing good, just as your Good Shepherd was. That means living as the light and salt of the earth. That means taking this Christian faith seriously, living a life that stands out in the world, that stands out in goodness and kindness and generosity, that shines with truthfulness in all things, that honors God’s Word above all things. You will suffer in this world if you live like that. But then, you’ll just be walking in the footsteps of your Good Shepherd, following behind Him wherever He goes, first to shame and then to glory.

May the voice of the Good Shepherd ring in your ears today and every day. You know Him. Now follow Him. He will make you to lie down in green pastures. He will lead you beside still waters. He will restore your soul. He will be with you as you walk, even through the valley of the shadow of death. And He will follow you with His goodness and with His mercy all the days of your life, and you will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Amen.