“I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me.” Every year During this stage of the season of Easter we listen to words from the gospel of John as Jesus describes how he is the one true Good Shepherd of Israel. In recent weeks I have been emphasizing how the resurrection of Jesus changes our lives.
In our Collect prayer we prayed, Almighty God, merciful Father, since you have wakened from death the Shepherd of Your Sheep… The Good Shepherd who lays down his life for His Sheep is himself raised up. Were Christ not raised from the dead he would not be powerful enough to shepherd and protect us. It would be foolish for us to ask for protection from a man who is in the grave. Our lives are changed as we look to our resurrected Lord Jesus to be our Good Shepherd. The God who lives and has the power to give us life.
My son Isaac had his first little league baseball game yesterday. One of the players on the other team was big and strong for his age, and he threw the ball fast as a pitcher for the first inning. That is a little scary to be seven years old and face a pitcher who throws like he is 9 or 10 years old.
It reminded me of my freshmen year in High School when a stocky teammate of mine named Jason ______ was a linebacker. His name even sounded scary. When he was going to make a tackle, he hit hard. I wished he was not on our team during the first few weeks of practices as we scrimmaged against each other. But then I realized it is good if he is on my team, someone you can count on to scare the players on the other side. You want people on your side who have shown that they can accomplish a lot in practice.
The time to play little league sports comes and goes, and then there is instead the game of life to focus on. Who do you put your trust in? Who do you want on your team? Who can really save you when your life is in the balance?
The imagery of the shepherd is found throughout the scripture. Already in Genesis chapter 4 Abel was a shepherd, a keeper of sheep. The LORD had regard for Abel’s sacrifice of the firstborn of his flocks. Cain rose up against his brother in envy and killed him. The sheep lost their shepherd and the Lord heard the cries of Abel’s blood from the ground. Death could not silence Abel.
King David tended sheep when he was a boy on Jesse’s farm. As a shepherd he saw that although he cared for sheep and was like God to them- he was not the one who made life safe and pleasant for the sheep- he saw it was all in the Lord’s hands.
We know from the scriptures that David experienced the very poetic scenes used in Psalm 23, the green pastures and still waters of the pastoral life caring for sheep. The experience of oil running down his head as the prophet Samuel anointed David as king. And the experience of persecution and danger as foes sought his life.
As David was inspired by the Holy Spirit to write Psalm 23, he put into words the meaning of a Shepherd in terms of God’s care for his people. In the first three verses David refers to the LORD in the third person, describing what YHWH does for him and all of His people.
But then as David reflects on the valley of the shadow of death He switches to the second person, “I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” David is no longer just talking about what God does for him, he is talking to the God who is near to Him and with him.
We can look at Jesus in the same way, the Savior who is with us in the time of difficulty. The Lord who we can call to in our greatest time of need- the Shepherd who has overcome death.
In our Introit the words of Jesus surround the words of Psalm 23- Jesus is the shepherd who lays down His life for His sheep. Jesus is David’s greater son who was anointed with oil as the Messiah. Jesus is the true Shepherd who seeks after all the lost sheep. Who seeks even the sheep who are not of his fold- a reference to the Gentiles who are brought into God’s family through His unending love.
Christians all over the world pray Psalm 23. It is the most popular Psalm. Sometimes even 3 and 4 year old children may memorize this Psalm. But often people may miss that this is a Psalm that is fulfilled in Christ. Jesus is the Shepherd who the Psalm speaks to and clings to.
Earlier this week I was filling in for Religion class in my family and the appointed lesson covered how David was called to play the harp for King Saul to relieve his tortured Spirit. The harp or lyre was played by David and then King Saul would have relief from his personal torment. But it was not the music alone that helped King Saul, but the faith of David and the message of God’s Word that accompanied this music, the Psalms David would sing.
Hearing God’s Word makes everything better for us. Singing Hymns of Faith makes everything better. If only it were simpler for us to have an Evening Worship service during the middle of the week to hear God’s Word and sing hymns of faith- how much easier would our weeks be.
Hearing God’s Word, being reminded of the gift of life in Christ we have in Holy Baptism- these are the still waters the Lord leads us to comfort in. The paths of righteousness we are led on come from hearing Jesus’ forgiveness and undying love to us.
How different is the fruit that listening to the theater of our current world brings! We live in a time where Cultural Marxism is fast becoming one of the most prominent world views of our nation. The messages we are hearing all of the time on the news is that our country is built to oppress the weak, that there is a systemic racism that explains everything about our daily life, and that the only salvation so to speak is to tear down the system.
The goal of all of this rhetoric is to pit one citizen against another and create not unity, but division. From the Christian perspective the evil in this is that cultural Marxism requires people to reject the teaching of scripture that all people are created by God, that we are one human family- what I also learned in public school when I was a child- that there is one human race. Now the message we hear in society is that we are different races and one race will always subject the other.
Would that people who live in such torment to want to see in everything cause for division, could hear God’s Word as balm to their troubled spirits! Would that people would hear the message of the gospel of John that Jesus did not come to exploit us or divide us, or to advance racism- but instead to lay down his life for us on the cross.
And by that cross he gathers us all together, Just as the Father knows me and I know the Father, and I lay down my life for my the sheep. 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 and one shepherd.
Jesus alone can gather us all together as divided as our hearts are with sin. And the amazing this is that as we listen to His voice we become one body so that there is one voice and one Shepherd over us all.
We are not going to get very far talking about explosive issues with people in this day and age. But talking about how Jesus unites us in love is a different thing. There we have the promise that God’s Word does not return without result. Regardless of the persecution we face, we know there is great profit to confess the words of our First reading today from Acts chapter 4 12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
In an uncertain time in this post lock down world we live in, who can you put your trust in? Who can shepherd you through uncertain times. Who can stand by you even when all else is falling apart around you? Who do you want to be your Shepherd at the hour of death? Lord to whom shall we go, you have the words of eternal life. Amen.