Knowing the Shepherd

based on John 10:14

Pastor Richard Mau

4^th Sunday of Easter – May 11, 2003

Immanuel Lutheran – Des Plaines, IL

 

Today’s Scripture:

Psalm 23            Acts 4:23-33            1 John 3:1-2    John 10:11-18

 

            This Sunday is Mother’s Day.  We celebrate and give thanks to God for the gifts he gives us in mothers, grandmothers, aunts, and those other women who have provided for us in our lives.  In work-places there are women who serve as “mother figures” to the younger employees as they are available for guidance, listening and counsel in given situations. 

 

            An interesting phenomena about a mother is that her child always knows her voice, her touch, her recipes whether from the cookbook or from carry-out.  A child knows whether Mom fixed the lunch or someone else.  There is that learned “instinct” who Mom is.  You know her.  Grandmothers have “the cookie” recipe no one can replicate, especially not “Chips A-Hoy!”

 

            Sometimes mom’s feel like shepherds, herding the flock of their family to be on time for this, to gather them together for that, etc.  Sometimes mom’s look at their families as a shepherd looks at his sheep, like a bunch of the most ignorant and helpless of animals that one could imagine.  But that family knows mom’s voice.  One pitch is compassion.  Another tone is inviting.  A waver in the voice indicates fear and concern.  Then there is an “edge” to that voice that means business, we better straighten up our act really fast.  We know those tones.

 

One thousand years before Christ, David wrote that THE Lord is my shepherd.  David was very specific about one and only one Lord.  The entire Psalm focuses on what this shepherd does for his flock, does for the individual sheep.  The Lord makes me know that he loves me and takes care of me very specifically.  He delivers me to pleasant places, more than fills all of my needs, and lets me dwell not in the pen but in his house forever.

 

One thousand years later, Jesus, David’s Lord, our Lord, the Lord of all, comes.  And in today’s passage he declares that he is the shepherd David writes about.  There is one word that Jesus repeats three times about himself.  He is the good shepherd.  He knows his sheep, and his sheep know him.

 

Jesus says, “I am.”  Jesus is.  God is.  No other person is.  Jesus is God.  God is Jesus.  God is good.  Jesus is good.  God is perfect in his goodness.  We use the word holy because nothing else is perfect in that goodness.  God is holy.  Jesus is holy.  Jesus is the one and only good shepherd.  There is no other that is good, who wants eternal life for his sheep.  That is who Jesus is, God, and the good shepherd.  And what Jesus does is what no other shepherd does, he gives himself completely by laying down his life for his sheep.  Note that he does not do it for himself, a prize or reward that someone is going to give him.  He does it completely for the sheep.  That is how we know who our good shepherd is, the one who gave himself up for us.  The one who did not fight to save his life, but willingly went to the cross on your behalf.  Christ died for all, that you might have eternal life with him.  We have just celebrated that as the Passion of our Lord in his suffering and death on Good Friday.  We have just celebrated that his suffering and death were accepted by God in the resurrection on Easter Sunday, and continue celebrating that resurrection today.

 

Jesus warns us about false shepherds who allow the flock to be attacked and scattered by the wolves of this world.  Satan is that false shepherd who does not care for your eternal life.  But Jesus knows his sheep, and his sheep know him.  Jesus does not abandon and scatter, but he gathers and leads his flock. 

 

He leads his flock in truth, the truth of his word, God’s word that was given to him to give to his flock.  When you know God’s word, you know Jesus.  The true Christian church on earth is the communion of all saints, of all believers in Jesus.  How do you and I know when we are in the presence of this true Christian church? 

 

We know we are there by the “marks” of the church.  We know the church by the profession of faith in the accepted Creeds which are drawn from God’s word.  We know the church by the preaching and teaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ as revealed to us in God’s word, the Bible.  We know the true church by the faithful and true administration of the two sacraments Jesus gave us, baptism and the Lord’s Supper.  We know Jesus by his word, and his word in these ways.  We know when preachers and teachers are true to Jesus’ word and when they take off on their own tangents, serving themselves.  As John writes to us in his first letter, “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.  [1 John 4:1-3]

 

            Jesus tells us that we are not the only part of his flock.  He gathers people of every nation and race through his word and by the power of the Holy Spirit to believe in him, and gathers that one flock as the true Christian church on earth.  At baptism God adopts us as his children, brothers and sisters in Christ and heirs of his kingdom with Christ.  When we partake of his body and blood in the sacrament of the altar, we are joined with him and with all others who believe in his name as one body.  And when our last hour comes, he will gather each member of his flock to be with him eternally in heaven.  There is no other way to the Father except through the Son.  There is no other way to forgiveness of sins and eternal life except through Jesus.  There is no other way except by knowing Jesus and trusting in him as sheep do the good shepherd, following his voice alone.

 

            What a comfort it is for a child in distress or fear to hear the voice of his mother.  He knows that voice and that she will care for him.  What a comfort it is for us, as sheep in distress over our sinfulness, to hear the words of the good shepherd calling to follow him as he delivers us from this world of shadows to his glorious light, the light of holiness that brings us to eternity with him. 

 

            The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.  I know my sheep and my sheep know me.  They too will listen to my voice and there will be one flock.  My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.  No one can snatch them out of my hand.  And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.  Amen.

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