John 10:11-16

One Flock, One Shepherd

Second Sunday of Easter/Misericordias Domini/Good Shepherd Sunday/Quilt Sunday

April 30, 2017

Zion Lutheran Church + Nampa, ID

There’s a children’s song that goes along the lines, “I just wanna be a sheep, babababa”. It’s a cute song, usually one of those sung in Sunday School or VBS.  Just a sheep.  Usually not a compliment. Blindly following someone or something. Not using your brain.  Just going along with the others.  Sheep aren’t the smartest animals. And what’s more, sheep actually have a purpose, and it’s usually not to the benefit of the sheep itself.  Sheep are typically used only for two purposes: wool and meat.

When we think about what a good shepherd is, then, we normally would say that “good” means “competent.”  He’s one who raises the sheep, feeds them, guards them, for his own good. It’s his way of life, the way he puts a roof over his family’s head, food on the table.  So really, now, who in their right mind would want to be a sheep, living under a competent shepherd who will just use you up for his own good?

So when Jesus calls Himself the Good Shepherd, He is taking this goodness to a whole deeper level.  This kind of goodness is foolishness to the world. No competent shepherd, no good rancher, would put his stock out to pasture, love them, pet them, feed them, and let them all die of old age. And even more, dying so that might live, or sending a son to die in their place.  That’s bad business, it doesn’t make sense to the economy of the world, nor to be benefit of the shepherd.

And yet this is just the kind of Shepherd we have as Christians.  One who dies for those who are His, who goes out in search of others to bring into His flock, who does all for the benefit of the sheep.  Jesus says right after our Gospel reading ends, “For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from My Father” (John 10:17-18).

These sheep who belong to Christ are not blind.  They just don’t let their eyes distract them.  It is true, they tend to stick together in a sheepfold. They group together for mutual support and comfort, warmth and companionship, and so that they don’t get lost. They follow the voice of their Shepherd. Where this voice is heard, He calls and gathers sheep to Himself. Where you hear His voice? How does He feed you? Where does He wash away the muck and the mud you’ve rolled around in? How does He lay you upon His shoulders and carry you back to His flock? In the preaching of the Gospel and the Sacraments, you hear the voice of Your Good Shepherd calling and preserving you in the one flock under the one shepherd. 

This, then, is a basic definition of the Church: sheep who listen to the Good Shepherd, believes in Him, and is ruled by Him through the Holy Spirit.  We must be good sheep, made good by the atoning death and resurrection of the Good Shepherd, and grateful followers of Christ. The devil is constantly sowing his seeds among the true flock with the help of false teachers and false saints. Sheep do not attempt to fight the wolf. Nothing you can do, no matter how good it is, can help you stand against the wolf. We can’t outwit him and we can’t out fight him. He’s been around a lot longer than us. The only thing we can do as sheep is to run away and hide behind our Shepherd because that is His purpose and mission.  Apart from the Good Shepherd there is no deliverance or help.

When you are attacked by your sin, by the world, and by the devil, if you try to stand and fight alone you will be devoured. Rather, run to Jesus, to His voice calling for you, to His Word guiding you.  Insist on only eating in the Lord’s pastures. That is to say, live only by His Word and by His Sacraments. It gives us life and directs our path. It teaches us the right way to go to find good living and to stay living!  When you are faced with a moral decision at work, or at school, hide in Jesus’ Word. There He gives you direction for your life, forgiveness for your sins, protection against the wolves.  When you feel like the world is overwhelming you, the pressure is on, the stress is about to break you, hide behind Jesus, for He leads His people to good pastures. Do not conform to the ways of the world, do not be a sheep that follows the voice of the hireling or the howls of the wolf, but one that only listens to the voice of Jesus.

Living in the wild of this world, facing wolves and dangers untold, is hard. But it is even more difficult when Christ Himself from His Church and acts as if He’s forgotten it. He leaves it oppressed under the cross, subjected to the cruelty of the world, while the enemies of Christ and His Church gloat and rail against it. It is at these times that we are driven by the wolves of the world, abandoned by the hirelings looking only to their selfish needs, to recognize our own sin, our own failures, our own need for the Shepherd. Whatever you have not kept, He has kept. Whatever you have sinned, He has paid for with His blood. Whenever you wander off and find yourself alone, He goes in search of you to bring you back into His flock and rescue you from the wolf of hell.

Christ does not let the sheep be slain by the wolf, but He stands against him, gathers us to Himself, and protects us against the devilish hound even when we don’t feel it, don’t see it, don’t understand it.  For the Word and promise of the Good Shepherd declares, “I know My own and My own know Me, just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father…” There is no question here. The true knowledge of Christ is that He knows us and we are known to Him. There is a way of knowing Him with the very fibers of our being, it is the intimate union of our soul with Him. This bond with Christ is brought about by Holy Communion. Here, we make the matter of knowing Him in the most intimate and enduring bond. Through the Sacrament, more than in any other way, are we should feel and know that we are sheep of His pasture. For the life that the Good Shepherd that He laid down, He has taken up again, and He lives and reigns and shepherds His sheep throughout eternity. So yes, I just wanna be a sheep, living under the Good Shepherd. For Christ is risen! He is risen indeed, alleluia!