Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and
from our Lord Jesus Christ.
Text: (John
10:11-16)
I am the
good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
Prayer: May
the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your
sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
In the first chapter of the book of Revelation, St John
writes: I, John, your brother and
partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are
in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the
testimony of Jesus. I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind
me a loud voice like a trumpet.
John says at the beginning of his revelation that he was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day. What
John tells us about in Revelation was seen by him on a Sunday, the first day of
the week. The Lord’s Day is a special day because it is the day when the Lord rose
from the dead. The Lord’s Day is the day when Jesus appeared to his disciples,
and then it is the day he appeared to Thomas. And the apostles continued also
to gather together on the first day of the week—Sunday. So what John writes has
to do very closely with the Divine Service—he either has heard or preached the
word of God that day and received the Lord’s Supper, or else he would do these
things later on that day. The Holy Spirit was sent to him in a special way that
what he saw was given to him as a special vision, just like one of the Old
Testament prophets, like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel or Daniel. And what does
John see?
He writes: I saw
seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of
man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. The
hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a
flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and
his voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand he held seven
stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the
sun shining in full strength. When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though
dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and
the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I
have the keys of Death and Hades.
Do you understand what John sees? He sees Jesus. He sees Jesus in the flesh, standing in front of him,
in all his majesty, glory and brilliance! Jesus is standing in front of him,
and John, in the Spirit on the Lord’s
Day, sees him.
If there is one thing that people so often forget and miss
in today’s church, it is the fact that Jesus is actually physically present in
his church. When Jesus ascended into heaven, he did not leave the earth behind
in such a way that he’s simply not here anymore. We always gather together as a
church in the presence of our resurrected Lord Jesus.
Many Christians today think that Jesus is stuck up in
heaven, and that we only have the Holy Spirit. It’s true: we do have the Holy Spirit. But we don’t
have the Holy Spirit without Jesus being
here to actually give him to us. Jesus is present in his flesh to breathe the Holy Spirit out through his own breath, and through his own words. John is in the Spirit, and he sees the risen Lord Jesus.
It’s true: Jesus has sat down at the right hand of God, but
the right hand of God is not a geographical location on the other side of the
clouds. God’s right hand is everywhere, and so also, Jesus in his human body can also be everywhere where he promises. So he
says: Wherever two or three are gathered
together in my name, I am in the midst of them. He says: Behold, I am with you always to the end of
the age.
Jesus doesn’t say that the Holy Spirit will be with you always. It’s true – the Holy Spirit will be with you always – but that’s not
what he says here. He says: I am with
you always. This means that Jesus is always invisibly standing in the middle of his church gathered together,
speaking his own words, giving his
own people his own food—his own body
and blood, baptising people himself to make them his own brothers and sisters.
Jesus rules and reigns right down to earth in the middle of his church, and he
is the one who pours out the Holy Spirit upon us right in our midst.
This point can’t be said often enough, because it always
seems that we are forgetting this. Maybe it’s because it’s just too good to
imagine! There are whole churches that don’t
believe this and think that Jesus isn’t
here at all, and that his kingdom will only come about sometime in the
future. Jesus’ kingdom will be revealed before our eyes on the Last Day, but
even now, invisibly, Jesus is walking
along the road with us, just like he was with the disciples going to Emmaus. He
is standing among us just as he did with his disciples behind the locked doors
on Easter evening.
+++
It’s this teaching that is at the heart of our gospel
reading today, where Jesus says: I am
the good shepherd.
Today, many people don’t seem to like this image, at
least, not like they used to in a time gone by. If people go up to a pastor and
say, “How’s your flock going?”, they often mean it to mock the pastor and poke
fun. People don’t like being compared to a cute little lamb in the arms of a
shepherd. People don’t want to be compared to a “dumb sheep” wandering off in
all directions. They don’t want to be thought of as so helpless.
But right at the heart of all this is the fact that people
don’t want to submit themselves to Jesus’ authority. They don’t want to
be obedient to their shepherd.
In fact, people don’t like authority in general. They
don’t respect their politicians, the police, their school-teachers, their
bosses at work, children don’t respect their parents. In fact, I’ve heard of
some stories where parishioners have gone up to a pastor and said, “We’ll get
you out of this parish in a couple of years”, or even a man who said to his
pastor on his installation, “I’ve got my eye on you!” This is shocking
unchristian behaviour!
And so, it’s no wonder – if people don’t want to submit to
authorities that are visible and
right before their eyes, they probably won’t want to submit to Jesus, who is
our invisible shepherd.
If we could picture the glory and the majesty and the
power and the authority of Jesus just as John saw him in Revelation, we would
also fall down at Jesus’ feet just like John. We sing about this glory every
Sunday when we sing: Glory to God in the
highest and on earth peace! Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts! Heaven and
earth are full of your glory!
But here Jesus speaks to us with all that same authority
and declares himself to us as our king, our Lord, our ruler and our shepherd.
And he says: I am the good shepherd.
And a shepherd cannot rule and guide his flock from a
multi-storey office block. He rules and guides his flock by being with them, by watching out for them, by
spending the night with them and staying awake for them. This is the sort of
shepherd Jesus is for us. There is beautiful prayer to Jesus in Luke 24 where
the disciples say: Stay with us, for it
is toward evening and the day is now far spent.
Even today in the church, Jesus allows us to share his authority with him
through his word and in prayer. When we pray with him, we
rule and govern the world with him. When
we pray together with Jesus, we are like his cabinet ministers, giving him our
opinions and concerns. Jesus says: I
have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made
known to you.
But also, when we speak the word of God, whether it is as
a pastor in the pulpit, or when we sing the word of God together, or read it at
home, or speak about it and chew it over at home with our family or friends,
Jesus promises to be there and to speak his word himself.
As a church today, we want to influence the world and we want to make an impact on our society.
But Jesus doesn’t give us influence over
people. Jesus didn’t give to his disciples influence
over the unclean spirits. He gave them authority
over the spirits.
We try to be friendly and do nice things for people, works
of charity and all sorts, raise money for projects, because we think it will
influence people. But Jesus doesn’t call us to influence the world, he lets us
share in his authority over the world,
and over the unclean spirits. His authority comes with his word, spoken in
preaching, spoken in our prayers, spoken as we comfort and strengthen each
other. Sometimes we simply just
can’t be as friendly and nice as we would like all the time—we are sinners and
we don’t even live up to the standards that we set for ourselves, let alone God’s
standards. But the church’s mission is not to influence people through our own
gifts but to send out God’s call and bring people under the authority of Christ
in holy baptism, out of the kingdom of
darkness and into the kingdom of
light. This has to do with authority: the authority of our good shepherd.
Now, often when we think about authority, or submission to
authority and obedience, we think of military dictators like the Taliban,
Gaddafi, Pol Pot, Stalin or Hitler. We think of people who have misused and
abused their authority. But how does Jesus use his authority?
We read: The good
shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand and not a
shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep
and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is
a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my
own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and
I lay down my life for the sheep.
This is quite strange. Probably, if I were the shepherd,
and a wolf came, and I thought the wolf was too strong for me, I would probably
run away like the hired hand. It doesn’t make any sense to me to be killed for
the sake of a few little sheep!
But Jesus talks in a very different way. He says: I lay down my life for the sheep. Why
would he do this? What’s the use of a shepherd sacrificing his life for the
sheep? What’s the use of the wolf devouring the shepherd instead? Once the wolf
had killed and eaten the shepherd and then became hungry again, wouldn’t he
then go and start eating the lambs? What’s the use of the shepherd laying down
his life?
Jesus didn’t simply die just to show that he loved us. He
loved us to the bitter end and drank the full cup of God’s wrath right down to
the dregs. But what was the point?
The truth is this: Jesus was devoured by the wolf. Jesus was
devoured by Satan, who is a roaring
lion, looking for someone to devour. And what would be a more tasty banquet
than Jesus’ himself?
But the wolf can’t bear to keep him in! The wolf has to
vomit the shepherd back up. In fact, the shepherd tears himself out of the wolf
and reappears in a great and glorious victory! It’s just like Jonah and the
whale. The whale must vomit Jonah back up onto the seashore! And so when Jesus
lays down his life, he gives the old wolf a terrible belly-ache! And once Jesus
has risen from the dead, he has destroyed the wolf. The wolf is no more a
threat to the sheep.
This is why Jesus is a truly good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep.
But in the last verse of our reading, Jesus says: 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, one shepherd.
Jesus brings other sheep into his fold all the time. He
brings Gentiles into the fold together with Jews. He brings in new sheep
together with the old rams and old ewes. He brings them from the kingdom of darkness into his marvellous
light. He brings them under his authority.
And so what? Now, the church comes together to listen to
the voice of Jesus. Jesus says: I must bring them also, and they will
listen to my voice. The church is not simply a community or club of
like-minded people. We don’t just come because
of the faith that we share, but we come together for the sake of our faith and to strengthen it and to renew
it again and again. We come together to listen to the good shepherd’s voice. And when those words of Jesus are
spoken in the church in their truth and purity, that is the way our unity is
maintained, because we will be one flock
with one shepherd.
The early Lutherans used to call the absolution—the
forgiveness of sins spoken to us in the church by the pastor in public or in
private—the living voice of God from heaven. And this is true, it is not the
pastor’s voice—it is the living voice of our good shepherd.
Jesus is the good shepherd who has brought us into his
flock through baptism.
Jesus is the good shepherd who calls us all by name. He
forgives each of us our sins and writes each of our names in the book of life.
Jesus is the good shepherd who leads us to the green
pastures and flowing waters, and feeds us richly and abundantly with his body
and blood in the Lord’s Supper.
Jesus is the good shepherd who is with us, even though we
walk through the valley of the shadow of death. He is the one who comforts us
with his rod and his staff.
Jesus is the good shepherd who has lain down his life for
the sheep. Amen.
Lord Jesus Christ, we thank you that you are our good
shepherd. Lead us and guide us and feed us. Amen.
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