"KNOWING THE GOOD SHEPHERD"
Fourth Sunday of Easter
April 22, 2018
Bethel Evangelical Lutheran Church
Glenshaw, Pennsylvania
TEXT:
"I am the Good Shepherd. I know My own and My own know Me, just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father, and I lay down My life for the sheep."
John 10:14, 15 (ESV)
The word "shepherd" doesn't conjure up too many images for most of us because shepherds are not a part of what we experience in our day-to-day life. Even if you go to the midwest (the "heartland," as they call it), you still don't run into the same kind of character that the Bible is referring to when it talks about shepherds. You might find ranchers or cattle handlers, but they would probably be a closer fit for what Jesus calls "a hired hand" (John 10:13), since their interest in their animals is strictly business. They have to earn a living, and animals are their product. When our Lord uses "shepherd" imagery, He's talking about someone who genuinely cares about the welfare of his sheep--even to the point of taking personal risks in order to protect them from harm and danger. To the shepherd, the sheep are more than just livestock; they are his flock--the ones for whom he is responsible--and he takes that responsibility very seriously.
It gives me a feeling of warmth (as well as a feeling of awesome responsibility) when I think that this word is also the title most often used in our circles for the clergy. "Pastor" is the Latin word for shepherd. To use it as we do suggests that the pastor is to be more concerned about the welfare of the flock than he is about his own welfare. It suggests also that the flock is to have such a trust in their shepherd that they willingly follow where he leads. Having served the larger church in a number of capacities through the years, I can attest to the sad fact that we live in a time when so many pastors and congregations have betrayed that relationship, creating an atmosphere where every last detail of what is supposed to be a loving relationship in the Lord ends up being painfully negotiated as if it were merely a business contract. On this "Good Shepherd Sunday" (as it is frequently called) let's put first things first by listening to these warm words of Jesus, our Good Shepherd, reflecting on His knowledge of us and our knowledge of Him.
When we consider the fact that our Good Shepherd knows us, we have to face the fact that He knows everything about us--including all of our sins and shortcomings. We may put on a front for the benefit of other people, but that kind of hypocrisy accomplishes nothing as far as Jesus is concerned. He knows us inside and out. There is no vice, no weakness, no inadequacy, no secret sin hidden deep within us that He isn't familiar with. Remember: He is One with the Creator who formed us in the beginning--the One of whom the psalmist wrote: "O Lord, You have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You discern my thoughts from afar. . . . Where shall I go from Your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from Your presence? . . . For You formed my inward parts; You knitted me together in my mother's womb. . . . My frame was not hidden from You, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth, Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in Your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them" (Psalm 139:1, 2; 7; 13; 15, 16). Whether it makes us feel comfortable or not, He knows us better than we know ourselves--even those things about us that we are afraid to face or acknowledge.
The truly amazing thing is that the Lord sees something more in us than just sin--something that we will never be able to fully understand in this life. He sees us as valuable because we are created in the image of God. He thinks that we are worth something in spite of our sin. For this reason He loves us with an everlasting love--a love that is so strong that it moved Him to become human and enter our world, living life as we must live it, with all of its trials, hardships, and broken dreams--not because it was His lot in life, but because in love He willingly took our sin and its consequences upon Himself. Christianity is often accused of destroying people's self-esteem because it requires that penitents see themselves as "poor miserable sinner[s]" who have "ever offended [God] and justly deserved [His] temporal and eternal punishment" (Lutheran Service Book, page 185). Christianity does require this, but it also offers sinners a God who values them so much that He totally and completely identifies with them, even to the point of suffering the judgment that they deserve because of their sin--all so that they can have forgiveness and life as a free gift of His grace in Christ.
There is no question that the Good Shepherd knows His sheep. But how well do His sheep know Him? He has made Himself known through both His power and His love. His power has been amply demonstrated in His mighty works of creation, redemption, and sanctification. He has created us and all things out of nothing and continues to sustain His creation. He has redeemed us from sin and death by the shedding of His own blood, and His resurrection proves that what He did for us is valid and true. In the water of Baptism He has claimed us as His own and through Word and Sacrament He nourishes us in the faith as day by day His Spirit conforms us to the image of Christ. All of this should give us a sense of reverence and awe--a profound awareness of the fact that He is holy and we are not. I'm afraid that we've lost that in recent years. God is wonderful and loving and caring in His attitude toward us, but He is not our "buddy" or in any way our equal. He is our God.
But this all-powerful God has chosen to use His power not in vengeance but in love. In love He "became flesh and dwelt among us" (John 1:14). In love He "sent His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16). In love He "did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him" (John 3:17). In love He "made Him had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Corinthians 5:21 NIV). In His mercy the Good Shepherd has chosen to reveal His power to us in love, blessing us in more ways than we will ever know or comprehend.
What difference should all of this make to us? It means that we are secure--not in the sense of "once saved, always saved," as some churches erroneously teach--but in the sense that no one or nothing can forcibly destroy our faith. If anyone "loses" his or her faith, it's because he or she has chosen to forsake the Lord in favor of other things--other affections, attractions, or confidences. Our Good Shepherd's power and love are all that we need, for they confirm His promise. We can have unflinching confidence in what He says of us: "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand. I and the Father are One" (John 10:27-30).
Amen.
May the God of peace, who brought again from the dead that great Shepherd of the sheep, our Lord Jesus, by the blood of the everlasting covenant equip you thoroughly for the doing of His will. May He work in you everything which is pleasing to Him, through Jesus Christ, our Lord, to whom be honor and glory forever and ever. He who calls you is faithful, and He will do it. Amen.