Today’s Scripture

Psalm 23         Jeremiah 23:1-6          Ephesians 2:13-22      Mark 6:30-34

 

            The secretaries in the school office placed this sign on the principal’s door: 

Those who are so proud of keeping an orderly desk will never know the thrill of finding something they thought thy had lost forever.

 

            How many of you have found that true in the clutter of your lives?  There is so much going on you lose sight of the direction you are to be going?  This comes up and that pops up and another wrinkle or bump in the road takes your concentration off of what you really set out to do.  How great does it feel when you peel off the layers and find the true gems in life?

 

            v. 34  When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd.  So he began teaching them many things.

 

            In today’s Scripture readings is God’s message restoring to each one the “thrill of finding something they thought they had lost forever.”  Psalm 23 is undoubtedly the best known of all Psalms.  And why not?  When lives are a mess; when our souls are parched in need of waters that we will thirst no more; when the evil of death looms around you; when there is no peace in your life whatsoever; you have the one and only shepherd who leads you where there is resolution to the escapades of this life and peace that you cannot find on this earth.  The Lord is that shepherd.

 

            God sent Jeremiah to: prophesy doom against Jerusalem and Judah; speak the oracles against the nations; prophesy salvation for Israel and Judah; and the passion story of Jeremiah.  The verses today speak tell God’s plan of salvation for his people.  He begins proclaiming woe to the disrupting shepherds.  Woe is a nasty wish on anyone.  It means great sorrow, grief and misery.  Woe is a cause of sorrow, affliction and trouble.  Satan and his agents who work to disrupt the flock of believers will suffer eternal sorrow, affliction and trouble in Hell.  Jesus speaks to us about this saying, "Things that cause people to sin are bound to come, but woe to that person through whom they come.  It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin, [Luke 17:1-2].

 

            Jeremiah’s next words are God’s promise to bring his people back, to give you faithful shepherds, and the great Messianic promise of, “The Lord, our righteousness, [v. 6]. 

 

            Paul tells us that the foundation of our faith is the prophets and the apostles, those God chose to bring his word to all people.  Key messages in this passage are:

• Although once separate, believers are brought near by the blood of Christ
• Jesus is our peace as his work is to reconcile sinners back to God and to preach that peace to all both far and near
• The body of the church is built on the foundation of the prophets and apostles with Christ as the chief cornerstone.  Without Jesus as the cornerstone, all of  what is written is without direction and bringing things together.

 

            In the Gospel, Jesus has taken the disciples to a place of rest after their going out into the villages to preach repentance and the kingdom being near.  In these verses the disciples are now called “apostles,” the ones Jesus sends out.  Instead of escaping the crowds of people, they run ahead along the shore to the place where Jesus and the disciples are going.  There are five thousand men with their families in this crowd. 

 

            Jesus sees them as sheep without a shepherd.  In their spiritual lives they are leaderless.  They are hungry.  They are thirsty.  They are homeless.  They have also just received word of John the Baptist’s execution by Herod.  In their grieving, there is only one great prophet left in their land, Jesus. 

 

            Jesus sees not just the mass of people, but sees the individual hearts and souls too.  Each one has a desk piled high and has lost the true treasure.  Jesus had compassion on them.  Jesus has compassion on you.  Jesus has compassion on the countless souls who pass by this church every day, those who live in this neighborhood and community, those who live outside the peace knowing that Jesus has done all there is to reconcile them to God.  Jesus sees through the mess on our desks, through the complications of our busy schedules and interludes in our lives, and brings the one thing that gathers God’s people back together. 

 

            Jesus brings us fulfillment of the law.  Not one of us can keep God’s commands.  Jesus did that for us.  God does not want any one of you to die the death of his rejection.  Jesus did that for you on Calvary.  Not one of all who have and will ever live on this earth is able to bring themselves back to life from the grave.  Jesus conquered death in his resurrection.  In baptism you received that resurrection.  In the bread and wine are the body and blood that won eternal life in heaven for you and is given to you.  That body and blood is present no where else except in this bread and in the wine as Jesus testifies.  There is no other substitute as Jesus is your substitute.  You and I cannot make ourselves or anyone else righteous before God.  Jesus has already done that.

 

Jesus is:

·        Our shepherd

·        The cornerstone of our faith.

·        The one to go to at all times in good and in distress

·        “The Lord, our righteousness [Jeremiah. 23:6].

 

In Jesus’ undying love.  Amen.