25 For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the
Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
- 1 Peter 2:25, The New International Version, (Grand Rapids, MI:
Zondervan Publishing House) 1984.
Dear Friends in Christ,
Within the homes of many believers is an artist’s portrait of Jesus, but within every believer’s mind is a veritable collage of pictures of our Savior.
Depending upon the time of the year or where we personally may be at spiritually, we’ll find hanging on the walls of our consciousness a picture of Jesus as the newborn babe of Bethlehem resting in the arms of His mother... or the suffering Savior dying on the cross... or the victorious Lord standing triumphantly outside the empty tomb... or the ascending Christ returning to heaven where He awaits us.
But of all the meaningful pictures of Jesus that come to mind, certainly one of the most endearing and comforting is that of Jesus as the Good Shepherd. Take a walk through any store that handles Christian gifts and art and we are sure to find any number of them that revolve around this theme. Take a look at what many Lutheran Churches choose for the name of their congregations, and again we’ll find that a goodly number invoke some form of imagery of Jesus as the Good Shepherd. Ask any Christian what their favorite chapter of the Bible is and there at the top of the list will be Psalm 23.
Why? What makes this particular picture of Jesus so popular and powerful, so consoling and comforting? That’s what we’d like to take up on this specially designated Sunday as we consider
JESUS, THE GOOD SHEPHERD
“For you were like
sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of
your souls.” The highlighted term,
of course, is Shepherd. Jesus is our
Good Shepherd. And the first point we
wish to make is that He reads us. Let me explain what I mean by this...
Maybe you’ve heard someone say of someone else (usually a husband or wife after years of marriage) that they can “read that person like a book.” We know exactly what they’re talking about. What they mean is that they have such a familiarity and knowledge and intimacy with the other person that, to quote another phrase, they can say of them: “I know you better than you know yourself.”
As it applies to a people, no matter how well they know each other, this, of course, is an exaggeration. But as it applies to the Good Shepherd and us, His sheep, it is not. Our Good Shepherd can read us like a book. Our Good Shepherd does know us better than we know ourselves. Think of what this means for us...
He knows when we are troubled or scared or disillusioned or weary. He knows our needs, our fears and our insecurities. We might want to put up a different front before other people, but the Good Shepherd knows what really is going on in our lives. And, like a Good Shepherd, He cares about us...
And so He invites us to come to Him for solutions. When we are weary, He says come to me for rest. When we are scared, He says “fear not, little flock, for I’ll never leave you or forsake you.” When we are insecure, he reminds us that we are loved with an everlasting love. When we are disillusioned, He tells us to view life from the perspective of the eternity that is ours and not get mired down in the temporal.
But most importantly, He just loves us. Away from all the posturing and facades we sometimes construct for the benefit of others, in our heart of hearts we know what we are – weak and frail and sinful. Yet He loves us. And we know the extent of that love... Keeping with the Shepherd imagery, let me see if I can illustrate this with a personal experience.
If you have ever been in a sheep barn in the dead of winter in that part of the country we simply call “the prairie,” you would find it quite likely to be a rather memorable experience. What becomes instantaneously clear (even before you get in the door) is this truth: Sheep stink. There’s just no polite way of saying it. Shearing comes in the spring, but before that these animals have accumulated a year’s worth of wool that is dirty and matted and not very pleasant because of the mud and other stuff they’ve been rolling around in. If you’ve been there, you know what I mean. After shearing and washing it’s a different story. And herein lays the analogy...
As sinful creatures, we are by nature just like those sheep. Keying off a phrase used a number of times in the Bible, we can accurately describe our sin as being a stench in the nostrils of God. On our own we do not offer up a pleasing aroma to God. Just the opposite.
The good news of the Gospel is that our Good Shepherd has
changed all this for us. In the verse
that comes right after our Gospel lesson for today stopped, Jesus makes this
proclamation: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the
sheep.” And that is what Jesus
did. All the accumulated filth and sin
that clings to us like dirty, matted wool has been sheared off by the cross of
Or as we sing in the Lenten hymn: “What
punishment so strange is suffered yonder!
The Shepherd dies for sheep that loved to wander...”
Our Good Shepherd reads us like a book. He knows our needs – personally and spiritually – and He provides for every one of them. And that brings us comfort...
Our Good Shepherd also feeds us. Part of a shepherd’s responsibility is to make sure that the flock has an adequate supply of food so they can grow and become stronger and prosper and produce. So he finds pasture for them. Our’s does the same.
The pasture our Good Shepherd provides is that rich banquet we call His Word. This is where the flock of God grazes and feeds and finds strength. The Gospel message in Word and Sacrament is food for our souls...
Not too long ago someone sent us an e-mail story that was
making its way through the internet.
Maybe you’ve heard it, but I think its worth sharing because it pertains
to what we’re talking about. The title
is: “Why go to church?”
A Church goer wrote a letter to the
editor of a newspaper and complained that it made no sense to go to church
every Sunday. "I've gone for 30 years now," he wrote, "and in
that time I have heard something like 3,000 sermons. But for the life of me, I
can't remember a single one of them. So, I think I'm wasting my time and the
pastors are wasting theirs by giving sermons at all."
This started a real controversy in the "Letters to the Editor" column,
much to the delight of the editor. It went on for weeks until someone wrote
this clincher: “I've been married for 30 years now. In that time my wife has cooked some 32,000
meals. But for the life of me, I cannot recall the entire menu for a single
one of those meals. But I do know this: They all nourished me and gave me the
strength I needed to do my work. If my wife had not given me these meals, I
would be physically dead today. Likewise, if I had not gone to church for nourishment,
I would be spiritually dead today!"
The writer makes a good point, doesn’t he? There is a direct correlation between our spiritual health, strength and vitality and the amount of time we spend with our Good Shepherd. If we find ourselves feeling spiritually weak or lethargic, there’s probably a reason. And the reason is most likely that we’re not eating healthy. There is a big difference between periodic snacking in the Scriptures and a sustained, consistent and disciplined grazing in the green pastures of the Word... where our Good Shepherd richly and daily feeds us.
Our Good Shepherd reads us and He feeds us. He also leads us.
I don’t have to tell you that there is a lot of uncertainty in life. Things can and do change quickly, and sometimes we may not always understand why. But this we do know: Our Good Shepherd is in the lead. And that brings us great consolation.
It is important for us to understand that having our Good Shepherd in the lead does not necessarily translate into ease of life. In fact, sometimes just the opposite happens. Staying with the shepherd-sheep imagery, there are times when the shepherd must lead his flock over steep hills and difficult valleys and treacherous terrain – all for the ultimate benefit of the sheep and in order to get them to where they need to be.
So we have those times in our lives. Difficult times. Hard times. Seemingly uncertain times. Most of us learned early on that being a lamb of God does not make us immune from tragedy or illness or pain or loss. Take our first Scripture lesson for example. Stephen was a faithful follower of Christ. He was a devout member of God’s flock. But his allegiance to Christ led to his death.
So what happened? Did the Good Shepherd blow it? Was He unfaithful to His task?
No. The conclusion we draw is that what happened was simply part of the Good Shepherd’s earthly plan for this particular sheep.
The definitive place of peace and rest is, of course, in heaven. That is where our Shepherd knows we need to be. There we will “dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” There we will enjoy “the marriage supper of the Lamb.” There we will worship “the Lamb at the center of the throne.” There we experience no more mourning or crying or pain – because the Lamb of God will wipe away every tear from our eyes.
That is what is at the end of our Good Shepherd’s lead. So of this we are confident: wherever and in whatever paths he may lead our lives now, we know it is in conformity with that big picture.
So we follow on. Guided by Christ. Firm in His Word. Secure in His promise. And always safe in His lead...
Let’s return to our original thought. There are many images and pictures of Christ that come to our minds. But of them all, there is perhaps none as comforting as the Good Shepherd. Because this means that each of us, no matter how old we are, can say: “I am Jesus little lamb.”
So as we go through life, we could really do no better than to hang in a prominent place on the wall of our consciousness a picture of Jesus, the Good Shepherd. Amen.