“The Good Shepherd”
Original sermon given April 21, 2024, written and delivered by Pastor Jeffrey Leininger at First Saint Paul’s Lutheran Church.
Watch the sermon live.
“The Good Shepherd”
John 10.11-18
John 10.11-18
In the name of the Living God and the risen Christ. Amen.
It is Good Shepherd Sunday—one of my favorites. This festival always occurs on the fourth Sunday of Easter, and you’ll hear some of the nicest hymns with the most gentle, beautiful images of Jesus, our loving Shepherd. There’s this memory which is more like a feeling from when I was young: It’s warm outside (finally); there’s a warm Jesus, lovingly carrying sheep; he’s wandering in pastures; he’s sitting beside cool waters; he’s calling the sheep, maybe even he’s singing to them. Idyllic, warm, and personal.
I don’t want to spoil these pasture images because they are important. We all need to know of the gentle Jesus who enfolds us to himself in quiet care and concern. But I do want offer, perhaps, a more realistic view of sheep and shepherds which, I hope, will help us understand the gospel at a more profound level. There is more to Good Shepherd Sunday than just serene images of pastures.
To be honest, very few of us really know anything about sheep. This is so different than ancient Israel, where they were common and familiar—an important part of the economy and the literal lifeblood of nearly every family. About allwe know about them is that they’re cute. (Lambing season was one of our favorite times when Rachel and I lived in England. These cute little furry guys would sort of bounce around before they even learned to run. Very cute!)
My purpose this morning is not here to make you a sheep expert, but I do hope we can get a bit beyond the “It’s cute little sheep Sunday” at church. There are two characteristics of sheep which anyone who works will tell you. I’m going to ask you to memorize these two characteristics of sheep this morning: dumb and dirty. Everyone got it? (It’s even got alliteration, which means it must be true!)
Dumb: sheep are about on the bottom of the domesticated animal intelligence list. They’re the ones at the farm-animal graduation at Old MacDonald’s university—you know, when all the rest of the animal graduates get their honors—Summa Cum Laude, Magna Cum Laude, Cum Laude, honors cords, etc.—the sheep are like, “Whelp, I guess we’re the rest.” This is, in fact, why they need shepherds—not just because they wander in pastures, but because they wander in pastures and do stupid things. They get stuck in fences, they stand in the middle of roads, they walk up to wolves and say, “Hey, what’s up!” Of course, most farm animals will do things like this. Sheep, however, will do the same dumb things over, and over, and over again. Sound familiar?
Sheep are dumb. Sheep are also dirty. If you don’t believe me, try this experiment: take a walk in a pasture for about an hour, then check the bottom of your shoes. Get what I mean? Also, that nice white, cute, fluffy wool you have in mind— sorry, sheep’s wool is rather disgusting before it’s processed. It collects stuff, it gets muddy, and it smells.
Sheep are “dumb and dirty,” which is why the Bible uses them as an illustration for us and for our sin. People are also dumb and dirty, especially in comparison with the Almighty, All-Wise, Holy and Righteous God. Because of the condition of sin which affects us all, we wander away from God, even though He is the one we really need to help us. We run right into danger just because it seems interesting or appealing for the moment. We get ourselves in the worst of predicaments for the stupidest of reasons. And then we do the exact same thing all over again.
And we stink (we are both dumb and dirty). I know this isn’t a very popular concept, but the scriptures often speak about the moral condition of humans after the fall into sin rather like an aroma which rises up to the nostrils of God. Good deeds and good character are sweet smelling to the Lord; sin, on the other hand, stinks. This is a difficult word, and it’s hard for us to accept in this society because the world tells us that sin is amusing or simply a poor choice, or something in our lives which needs to be tweaked slightly or adjusted or “worked on”—like you might tinker around under the hood of a car. But we know it’s much worse than that. The apostle Paul writes concerning sinful humanity: “Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things.” (Phil 3.19)
The reality is, apart from Christ our savior, God’s attitude towards our sin is rather like your attitude to what you find on the bottom of your shoe after walking through the pasture. God is displeased with sin, the scriptures clearly tell us. It reaches His nostrils, and He turns away from it. The power of sin in our lives is such that we don’t need a tune-up, we need a whole new engine; we need to be cleansed; we need to be washed clean from both the condition and effects of sin in our lives.
Sorry to break the idyllic image, fellow dumb and dirty sheep, but we are not cute little sweet-smelling white things bouncing around a pleasant pasture—at least not apart from Christ our savior, we’re not.
The second major misconception on Good Shepherd Sunday has to do with the Good Shepherd himself. Again, we like to think of the shepherd’s job as pretty sweet: a life of ease, sitting in the grass, writing poetry, maybe composing a love song on a harp. But at the center of the New Testament image from John 10 is the idea of sacrifice: Jesus said the Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is the guy who runs away when danger arises. It is the hired hand who is more likely to be sleeping somewhere or off playing the harp. The Good Shepherd, on the other hand, is working: he’s concerned, he’s warding off danger, he’s searching for lost sheep, he’s directing the flock, and he’s even laying down his life. Literally, the Good Shepherd would lay down at night and spread himself out in front of the gate to the sheep pen while sleeping.
Jesus is the Good Shepherd because even though his sheep are both dumb and dirty, he still defends them. He still searches for them. He still guards the gate for them. He still lays down his life for them. Even though they don’t deserve it and aren’t that cute in the end and will probably do the same stupid stuff tomorrow, he remains their Shepherd. That’s why he’s called “good”. He remains your shepherd too, even when you’ve strayed from him.
The Good Shepherd entered the stench of this fallen world in the incarnation, when he took on human flesh and blood. The Good Shepherd’s search for sinners went all the way to the cross, all the way into the depths of the worst of humanity to retrieve us and to bring us back to himself. The good shepherd even took upon himself the stench of our sins, when he became sin for us on the cross and received the full consequences upon himself and in himself. The Good Shepherd gives us his own perfect righteousness as a gift—a covering over us, to make us perfect and clean in the sight of God. And the Good Shepherd not only laid down his life on the cross but took it up again in the Resurrection. We have a living, loving, Good Shepherd. Alive today, never to die again, never to be defeated, never to leave us, ever vigilant for us, never to be off somewhere, but active and working in our lives.
The Good Shepherd is the Shepherd of the gospel: he lays down his life in sacrifice for dumb and dirty sheep; he takes it up again in the resurrection, living for them forever.
This is your Good Shepherd.
Come soon Good Shepherd. Amen.