Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, amen.
Given that we are still in the season of Easter, today’s lessons seem to be a bit of a departure from the theme of that season, don’t they? For the last two weeks we have heard about the resurrection of our Lord from the dead. And in the coming two weeks we will hear some of Jesus’ eschatological prophecies, particularly concerning His going away and coming back, but this week we have the parable of the Good Shepherd. Have you ever wondered just why that is the case? Well as some have argued, and this is a position with which I wholeheartedly agree, the image of the Shepherd is one of the best descriptions of our Lord and His relationship to His people.
Consider the role of the shepherd in the life of the sheep. I know that might be a bit hard for us in our modern, urbanized society these days, but anyone who has ever raised sheep on a farm will tell you that it is a full-time, tough, and dirty job. A shepherd has to be a provider, a protector, and a leader of their sheep. The shepherd is responsible for making sure that the sheep don’t eat too much, or too little; they are the only line of defense against the enemies that would seek to destroy the sheep; and the shepherd is also responsible for leading and guiding the sheep to the places where they can have all of their needs met and taken care of in abundance.
Over the years, there are a few interesting tidbits that I have picked up about sheep in my studies. The first is this; sheep will not naturally move themselves on to new pastures when the land on which they have been placed is overgrazed. They will literally starve to death before they move to find new places to feed, and I mean what better image is there for a stubborn Lutheran who doesn’t want to change than that? The second thing that I learned about sheep came from a shepherdess in my previous congregation. She told me that she had to give her sheep special shots to make them feel full so that they didn’t overeat because, fun fact, sheep will continue to eat until their stomachs literally explode. Finally, the shepherd is responsible for the defense of the sheep because they have two things working against them; the first is that their eyesight is incredibly poor, and the second is that they are herbivores, meaning that they have very dull teeth which are only suitable for eating plants and grass and have absolutely no defensive capabilities whatsoever.
Provision, defense, and guidance. All characteristics of the shepherd, and all incredibly accurate descriptions of the things that the Lord does for you and me as His sheep, don’t you think? The Scriptures, in many places, talk about how the Lord provides for His people; the most famous of which is Psalm 23. Therein David says at the very outset, “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want”, and goes on to describe the great and abundant things that the Lord provides for His sheep; verdant pastures for food and still waters for sustenance, all of which are wonderful blessings for any sheep to have. Yet what is the attitude of the sheep to these blessing? I think Psalm 23 serves as a wonderful Lutheran sermon because it shows us both the Law and the Gospel in six short verses, and it is in verse four of that wonderful psalm that we see the disposition of the sheep. You know the verse well, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death…” And the more I study this psalm, the longer I serve in the ministry, and the older I get in this life and world, the more I see the beauty of what David wrote so long ago. You see the disposition of the sheep, even though they have everything they could possibly want or need, is to go out in search of more and better. Consider the first three verses that precede this one. Green pastures? Got it! Quiet waters? Absolutely! Restoration of the soul? As only the Good Shepherd can provide! Paths of righteousness? That is the only place that He will lead His sheep! Why then, and more importantly how, did the sheep end up in the valley of the shadow of death? That is not where the Good Shepherd would ever lead them! That is the furthest thing from the green pastures, quiet waters, and paths of righteousness!
Did you ever stop and wonder why there is such a disparity between verses one through three and verse four? I am convinced that David, and all of us wayward sheep that we are, ends up in this Valley of the Shadow of Death because of his own disposition toward sin. Because that is the only place where the devil, the world, and our sinful flesh will lead us! When we look at the things that our Good Shepherd has given us and think that they are boring, lackluster, and all too commonplace, we will inevitably go out in search of the things that bring us excitement, are pleasing to the eye, and fulfill our need to be the center of attention. The new, shiny things will oftentimes grab our attention and lure us away from the blessings to which the Good Shepherd has brought us, all the while leading us only down the path of shadows that leads to death itself.
That is the disposition of the sheep, because we are the sheep, and we have confessed this very morning that we are poor, miserable sinners who deserve temporal and eternal punishment. Our sin, and our sinful inclinations, only lead us down one path, and it is not a path that leads to our enrichment and fulfillment. It only leads to our death and destruction. And the right thing for our Lord to do would to be that He leave us to our own devices. At least, if we were the shepherd, isn’t that what we would do? How many times must we go after the same people, tell them the same things, and bring them back again? As many as seven? Seventy-seven? Perhaps a few more?
Thankfully, the Good Shepherd does not do that. He does not leave us to be ravaged by the enemies that seek our destruction and ultimate death but, as our Lord Himself describes, “The Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep”. He defends each of us from the enemies of sin, death, and hell by laying down His own life in our place so that those enemies might no longer have any claim over us. No longer do we belong to this world, for we have been united with the Good Shepherd through the shedding of His blood for the forgiveness of our sins and our washing in that blood! Through His prophet Ezekiel the Lord declares this to His people, “I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep…declares the Lord GOD. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak…” All of this He does through His Word and Sacraments, His very means of grace, given you here on this Lord’s Day. He calls each of us straying and wayward sheep through His Word that is sent out on the lips of His people, calling sinners to repentance that they might find their hope, comfort, and joy in the One who cares for all of their needs in abundance and loves them to the point of death. He binds up those wounded by sin with the healing balm of the Gospel preached to the repentant that they might find their salvation in the blood of the Lamb of God who takes away all of their sin. He gives strength to His sheep for the battles that they will undoubtedly face through His precious and holy Supper, and by reminding each of us time and again that He understands our struggles because He struggled against those very same enemies, and He suffered at the hands of sinners, just as His own sheep have struggled and suffered in this life. So we may have complete confidence as we follow the Good Shepherd because He knows our worries, understands our trials, and has compassion on us in our need.
This Sunday carries the nomenclature of “Misericordias Domini” (mis-er-re-CORD-ee-as DOH-me-nee) which is loosely translated as “the mercies of the Lord”, and it is appropriate for what has come to be known colloquially as “Good Shepherd Sunday”. For the Good Shepherd certainly does have mercy on us, His sheep, and He has it abundantly. David, generations before the institution of the Sacraments of the Church, I believe, shows us that these are the very places from which the mercies of the Lord flow in psalm 23. He writes this toward the end of the Psalm, which I think can be seen as the life of the wayward sheep who have been brought back into the sheepfold of the Good Shepherd; “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies, You anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows”. Where else has your Lord prepared a table for you which is covered with His grace and mercy, than in the presence of the enemies of this world? Here, your dear Lord gives you His very life; body and blood for the forgiveness of all of your sins, and that is a gift that can never be taken away or removed from His Church.
Historically the Sacrament of Holy Baptism also had a chrismation, or the anointing of the head with oil, associated with it. Thus I think we can see here the two sacraments of the Church, foreshadowed by David millennia before their institution, as the impetus for his great comfort and joy. For even though his sin drives him out into the wilderness and the death that comes from that place, still there is hope to be found, and it is found in the blessings that the Lord gives to His sheep, the Church for which He died and rose again! While we may be poor in this life, we who have been baptized into the Lord’s death and resurrection have a cup that overflows with goodness and mercy; the forgiveness of sins that He gives us so generously and graciously, and the life everlasting that He won for us through His suffering and death for each and every one of our sins. Gifts and blessings that are and remain ours for eternity!
As the Good Shepherd your Lord calls you back to this place to bask in those blessing, receive them in abundance, and live them out in your life each and every day. As St. Peter reminds us this morning, “For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.” So, dear sheep, let us rest in the blessings provided us by our Good Shepherd. Let us return to Him who is the Greatest Shepherd of all that we might be fed from His hand and be satisfied! Let us follow Him as His dear, blood-bought sheep, and live in His grace and mercy all of the days of our life that we might dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Amen.