29 April
2012
St. Athanasius Lutheran Church
Easter 4
- Good Shepherd Sunday Vienna, VA
“The I Am, The
Good Shepherd”
Text: John 10:11-18 (Acts 4:1-12)
Alleluia!
Christ is risen! [He is risen
indeed! Alleluia!] Alleluia!
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and
from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
I
am the Good Shepherd, Jesus says.
Take
note of the definite article there. THE Good Shepherd.
There is only one. Jesus is not A Good Shepherd - one among many to
choose from. He is the only one. Or as Peter testified to the rulers at
Jerusalem: there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name
under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.
Not that
there aren’t others
to follow - there are. There is a great multitude of people and movements and
gurus in the world, all telling us what is good, what we should do, where we
should go, how we should act, what we should believe, and wanting us to follow.
There are lots of shepherds we could follow. But they are not good
shepherds.
Now that
sounds judgmental. How could I say they’re not good people? Well, I didn’t say that. I do not think that many
of them, or most of them, set out to be nefarious or to do harm, though some
do. Some want only to fleece the sheep and take advantage of them for their own
good. But many, or most, want to be good, I think. It’s just that they don’t know what good is. There is only
one who truly does. Only one who is truly good. For there is
only one God, who knows all.
Remember
the story in the Gospel (Mark 10:17ff) where a rich young man comes up to Jesus and calls Him “Good Teacher.” The young man meant it as flattery, but He has said
something He doesn’t
realize. No one is good except God alone, Jesus replies. Notice that He
doesn’t say
the young man is wrong! Jesus wants Him to see that what He said was true much
more deeply than He realized. For Jesus was, in fact, the Good Teacher, for He
was the Good one, God Himself, in flesh and blood. And then Jesus goes on to be
good to this young man, to be the Good Shepherd to him, which in this case
meant showing him his sinful heart and that he loved his wealth more than God.
The Good Shepherd knew that’s what this rich young man needed, even though to the rich
young man, these words didn’t seem good at all, and he went away - at least for the
moment - filled with sorrow.
And so
it is with you and I. Our Good Shepherd gives what is
good all the time. Even when it may not seem very good to us.
Other shepherds - even well-intentioned ones - do not know what we need like
the Good Shepherd does. He knows when you need care and when you need
discipline. When you need to be carried and when you need to struggle a bit to
get stronger. When you need to rest and when you need to be exercised. When you
need comfort and when you need to be challenged. When you need the rod and when
you need the staff. He knows all these things for He created you. I know
my own, He says. Yes, He knows you better than you know yourself.
And
my own know me, He says. Which means at those times when you think He is giving you
more than you can handle, or you think that it’s just not the right time, or the pasture you’re in right now doesn’t seem green at all - faith knows our
Shepherd and that He is Good, in all His work and all
His ways, all the time.
But it
is at those times when faith is tested, and you are tempted to follow other
shepherds, to things that seem better, or ways that seems easier, and dine in
pastures that seem greener. And sometimes you do. Tasting the delights of sin,
drinking in false teachings, and thinking that this is good; this is the
pleasure and ease your Shepherd should have been giving you all along . . . not
realizing the danger. That these pastures of sin and
false teaching are not good, but deadly.
But even
then your Good Shepherd is good and comes for His wandering sheep. He is the
Shepherd who leaves the ninety-nine sheep in safety to go after the one in
danger (Matt 18:12). He is
the Shepherd promised by the prophets like Jeremiah and Ezekiel who would not
abandon His sheep in need. He is the Shepherd whose care we hear from David in
the 23rd psalm. You may not know how your sin is killing you, the false
teachings deceiving you, and the beast of evil plotting against you - but He
does. He knows the wolf. And so He comes for you, your
Good Shepherd. To rescue you from the danger.
I
am the Good Shepherd, Jesus says. Yes,
Jesus is the Good one, our God, who has come in flesh and blood, to rescue us.
That’s not
just one of the things our Good Shepherd does - it is the thing,
the main thing, and everything else flows from that. For had Jesus not come to
take on the satanic wolf and rescue us from his deadly teeth, everything else
He does for us - all His care and feeding - would be useless. No, even worse:
it would simply be fattening us up for the wolf. And what good would that be?
And so
the Son of God came to stand between us and the wolf. He came in our flesh and
blood, the God-man, to stand between the wolf and us and say: OK, Mr. Wolf.
If you want to devour them, you must devour me first. Jesus would not run
from the wolf, but as we heard during Holy Week, faced his fangs and laid down
His life for His sheep. Willingly. That by
being devoured by sin and death, He would devour them in His resurrection. And
so, as Jesus said, He laid down His life and then took it up again.
Only God has such power over life and death, and Jesus, the truly Good
Shepherd, used that power for you.
And He
lifted you up and rescued you in that victory, His victory, over sin and death when
you were baptized. Before you were dead in your trespasses and sins, but
now you have been raised in His forgiveness and life. To live no longer under
the hungry gaze of the satanic wolf, but now under the loving and caring watch
of the Good Shepherd. To feed on the poison of sin and lies
no longer, but to eat the good food of His Word and truth. And to live
in peace, knowing that your Good Shepherd who went
through death to life again, cannot die again. He has conquered death. And so
He is your Shepherd who will care for you not just now, but forever.
And
truly He does. Though the grass may not seem quite as green as you want it,
though the waters be not as quiet as you hope, though the valley of the shadow
of death look very dark and long and fearsome, the voice of your Good Shepherd
will never mislead you or deceive you, and He will never give you anything less
than good. He cannot. For in all that He gives you, He gives you Himself. All
that He created is good, and so all that He gives is good.
I
am the Good Shepherd, Jesus says.
I
am. That’s the divine name God revealed to Moses at the burning
bush. Jesus, the Good Shepherd, is the unchangable
God. Not the one who was or the one who will be - but the I am; the one who always is,
and is always the same. Unchangable, reliable, consistent. The God of creation, the God who led
His people out of their slavery in Egypt, the God who gave them the land
promised to Abraham and a home, who came in the flesh, who died on the cross,
who rose from the dead, and who is coming again at the end of all things. The I am - the Good
Shepherd - Jesus - one and the same. Caring for you and working for you
all the time.
That’s what Peter confessed in the reading
from Acts. We didn’t do
this, he said; heal a crippled man. It was Jesus, the Good Shepherd, working
and being a Good Shepherd still. And in all the apostles did - forgiving,
healing, caring, preaching, baptizing, giving the Lord’s Supper - it was not them, not
really. But the Good Shepherd, working through them.
And that
is true today, through pastors who teach and preach and baptize and forgive and
give the Lord’s
Supper. All this is not them, not really. But the Good Shepherd, working
through them, for you. And He is using you too, to do good,
in all your vocations. In your families, at school or work,
at home or away. The Good Shepherd, working still. Watering,
protecting, feeding, sheltering, rescuing, and giving peace.
You may
not even realize all that He is doing and providing, all the dangers that don’t come upon you because of His protection and care. But that’s why it’s good to be a sheep under this Good
Shepherd. Because He knows. He is working, and
we are the happy recipients. In sickness and in health, for better or for
worse, even when death - suddenly or slowly - draws near. We change and the
world changes and the threats and temptations change - but the Good Shepherd
does not change. He has given you life, He has
conquered death, He has forgiven your sins, and He has promised you
resurrection to life everlasting.
There’s only one Shepherd who can do all
that. The Good one.
For
Christ is risen! [He is risen
indeed!] Alleluia!
In the Name of the Father and of the (+) Son and of the
Holy Spirit. Amen.
Now the peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.