Sermons by Rev. Ken Behnken
7. Good Shepherd Sunday
Four Pictures in a Parable
(Selections from John 10) I am the Gate for the Sheep. All who came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the Gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out and find pasture.
I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
I am the Good Shepherd. I know my sheep and my sheep know me – just as the Father knows me and I know the Father.
My sheep listen to my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one can snatch them out of my hand.
There's a fortunate confluence today of factors that make up our day as we worship the Lord. We are invited to get into the Good News of Jesus as the Good Shepherd on a day when we as a nation are observing Mothers Day and when we as a church are hearing the testimony of faith of this year's class of youth and asking God's continuing blessing for them.
You've heard it said: "God couldn't be everywhere, so he created mothers." As we hear about Jesus' shepherding we do well to take a moment to thank God for the loving shepherding that we experienced in so many ways from our mothers – especially when we were little. And as these three young people stand before us today we can thank God that they have been shepherded by their mothers – and by others who have been a Christian influence in their lives – to the point of their being ready to stand on their own feet, confess their faith, and pledge themselves to Christian discipleship.
Jesus' words provide for us four important pictures in one parable about a Shepherd and his sheep.
First he calls himself the Gate for the Sheep – and immediately warns us against false shepherds, whom he calls "thieves and robbers" because their aim is not to benefit the flock but to benefit themselves at the expense of the flock. There are plenty of these. They obviously include the purveyors of all natural religions of works-righteousness by which they mislead people and bring them under their control – even when they are ready to recognize Jesus as "one of God's prophets". They include leaders in the Christian church who burden Christians with doubt and uncertainty about their salvation by teaching that a Christian's good works contribute to their salvation – instead of teaching clearly with Scripture that "a person is justified by faith, apart from works of the law". A more subtle thief and robber in our society is the emphasis on civic religion – which speaks generally of "God" and focuses on various forms of the Ten Commandments in a religious desire to "teach children right from wrong" and to make our citizens "good people". In the process, however, to accommodate non-Christian religions, civic religion always must make of Jesus just one of many teachers of religion.
In response to such "thieves and robbers" and in response to those who think the thieves and robbers are really not so dangerous, Jesus says clearly and insistently, "The thief comes only to kill and to steal." Then in contrast he says, "I am the Gate for the Sheep. Whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out and find pasture." Let's take care, then, that we are not misled by works-righteous, "good people", religious philosophies. Let's see to it that we are coming in and going out through him who is the Gate for the Sheep.
In the second picture in the parable, as Jesus refers to himself as the Good Shepherd, he defines exactly what it is that makes him the Gate. "I am the Good Shepherd," he says. The Greek text emphasizes this in an interesting way. It uses the article with both "Shepherd" and "Good", so that it literally reads "I am the Shepherd the Good". This makes "Shepherd" and "Good" interchangeable. In effect, this says that Jesus is the one and only Shepherd who is Good, and at the same time that he is the one and only Good (or God) who came to be the Shepherd of God's flock.
Just how did he become that? Jesus explains, "The Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep." The Good News of Jesus always takes us back to the cross, doesn't it?
Again the Greek text adds its clarification and impact. It is not just saying that Jesus laid down his life while protecting the flock from predators. Other shepherds have done that. It is saying that he laid down his life "in the place of his sheep", "on behalf of his sheep". You see, in this flock – which includes you and me – the sheep deserve to die for their disobedience and wanderings. However, the phrase "for the sheep" says that our Good Shepherd took all our sins, our disobedience and wanderings, on himself and accepted their just consequences in our stead. Now, because he laid down his life for us, we don't have to die under God's judgment. Our Good Shepherd atoned for our sins once for all – so by God's grace we get to enter through the Gate and find salvation as God's gift. We get to "come in and go out and find pasture" – a phrase that interpreters suggest means that we may "feel right at home" with Jesus as he leads us day by day as our Shepherd.
Jesus added to our "feeling right at home" with the third picture in his parable. He said, "I am the Good Shepherd. I know my sheep and they know me – just as the Father knows me and I know the Father." How intimately does the Father know Jesus and Jesus know the Father? Well, a little later Jesus was bold to say, "I and the Father are one." In the Creeds we acknowledge that truth, and rejoice that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are the one God of our salvation – our Creator, our Redeemer, our Sanctifier.
It may be disconcerting at times to think that our Lord Jesus knows us – that nothing is hidden from his view, whether it is what we have thought or said or done, what we are thinking of saying or doing, or what we will think and say and do. But our Good Shepherd, who laid down his life for us, said this to us as a source of comfort and assurance. It allows us to say with the Psalmist of old, "The Lord is my Shepherd. I shall not be in want of anything." We may happily "seek first his kingdom and righteousness, trusting that all the things we need in daily living will be given to us as well". We may patiently face whatever difficulties life may bring, knowing that "nothing in all creation will be able to separate us from the love in God in Christ Jesus our Lord". Knowing our Good Shepherd and having him know us in this way, we may be sure that "God did not appoint us to suffer wrath, but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ".
The fourth picture in the parable points to our daily discipleship. Jesus said, "My sheep listen to my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one can snatch them out of my hand."
When we listen to the Good Shepherd, he continually nourishes our faith. Through his Word and the Sacrament he teaches us over and over that he laid down his life for us, and we then know that we are eternally secure in his care. And as we follow him wherever he leads us, we learn from him the Christian life of love and service that glorifies him. And we find that a Christian life blesses us as it serves our neighbor.
Our Christian faith, our being sheep in his flock, is not just a matter of "studying for Confirmation" – our learning theological truths and principles of Christian living. It's a matter of our knowing and being known by the Good Shepherd – comforted and assured by his care, listening to his voice and following him day by day through life, coming in and going out through the Gate, and feeling right at home with him.
The four pictures Jesus drew in his parable have invited you and me once again to get to know him that personally and that intimately.
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