Is the Lord My Shepherd?
The Lord is my shepherd—or
so I say. But is He really? Is the Lord my Shepherd? Am I His sheep?
I say that I shall not
want… not want anything beyond what my selfish heart desires, that is. I often
covet that which He has not seen fit to give me, even though He promises to
give me all that I need to support this body and life, and freely gives me all the
gifts that I need for eternal life, including faith and forgiveness, grace and
peace, His Word and Sacraments.
The Shepherd makes me
lie down in green pastures, but look, the grass is greener on the other side of
the fence! He leads me beside still waters, knowing well that His sheep cannot
safely drink from swift streams, but I see still more exciting places where I’d
love to drink my fill. Besides, I’ve never been a very good follower,
preferring to do things my own way.
But the Shepherd
restores my soul, squelching the wanderlust within me that moves me to live
life the way I see fit. He leads me in paths of righteousness when I want to
run in the open fields of the world—eating where and what I want to eat, associating
with whom I choose to associate, doing whatever I want to do, serving my own
appetites, living like the beast I am. Or, just as dangerous, those times when
I try to walk the path of my own righteousness, my own good works, my own
attempts at self-justification, rather than trusting in the perfect
righteousness of Christ that alone justifies me and opens for me the way to
eternal life.
The Good Shepherd leads
me for His name’s sake, but I want to make a name for myself. I want others to
like me and respect me, to look up to me. I want others to envy me, to speak
ill of me if they wish, but secretly to covet who I am and what I’ve done. I
want to get my own 15 minutes of fame, my time in the sun, and I’m willing to
go to great lengths to make it happen.
Oh, I must tell you: I
find the Shepherd’s rod restrictive and His staff stifling to my animalistic
heart! Come valleys of the shadow of death, come storm and wind, hail and rain,
I shall fear no evil, for I know the lay of the land, I can take care of
myself, and I’m not sheepish about telling you.
So I, so you, so we
sheep, boast in the psalms we sing from our untamed ovine hearts. We do not
really want a Good Shepherd but a hireling, one who does not own us, who has no
personal stake in us, but who answers to our whims. We want our precious freedoms—freedom
to walk in unrighteous paths if the end justifies the means; freedom to pull
the wool over men’s eyes, twisting every story to paint ourselves in the best
light, lying when we ought to confess, telling tales of others’ sins to make
our own wool seem that much whiter in our own eyes.
Repent. For you are
sheep going astray. Return to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls. For the
freedoms you crave are slaveries in disguise, chains that hell’s butchers cast
around your neck to pull you under the slaughterhouse blade. The strange pastures
you long for lead only to wandering, wilderness, and wolf, to darkness, death,
and destruction.
The Lord is your Good Shepherd.
And all He wants is you. You who so often turn your back on the fold and its shepherd?
Yes, you. You who have cursed His staff, ignored His call, and gone your own
way? Yes, you. You who have been more like a wolf than a sheep, angrily tearing
away at those around you? Yes, the Good Shepherd wants only you.
So much does He want you
and me, He became one of us. For us, who are but dust, He who is God of God
came down, was beaten down Himself, and beat down Satan under our feet. For us,
who are sheep that love to wander, the Lamb of God is bound to the altar of the
cross in order to bind us to Himself. For us, whose mouths are open far too
often, He opened not His mouth like a Lamb that is led to the slaughter. Now we
listen to His voice.
The Lord is with us.
The Good Shepherd does not send His sheep into places He will not go Himself;
He leads us and is with us always. The hired hand sees the wolf coming, leaves
the sheep at its mercy, and flees. He lets the wolf snatch them and scatter
them, because he cares nothing for the sheep.
Our Good Shepherd goes right
after the wolf, attacks him, and rescues us from his jaws. When the lion of
hell rises up against Him, our Shepherd seizes him by his beard and strikes him
and kills him. No, more than that. He rescues you, but not as the shepherd
David did with club or sling and smooth stone. The Good Shepherd lays down His
life for you that He may take it up again. He lays down His body between you
and the satanic wolf, between you and the lion of hell, and He gives Himself
over to be devoured. The beast of Hades licks up the blood of the slain
Shepherd, chews His flesh, and gulps Him down.
But that which the
beast wolfs down cannot be digested in the tomb of the stomach. And when He who
lays down His life takes it back again, that tomb cannot contain Him. The Good
Shepherd vacates the stomach that had entombed Him for three days, leaving
behind Him a predator that you, O little flock, need fear no more.
Shall you fear the wolf
of hell with his burst belly, his broken teeth, and his howls of his own
defeat? Shall you fear what mere mortals think of you when God Himself calls
you His child, His friend, His beloved? Shall you fear that your rebellious
ways have separated you from God when He makes you bone of His bone and flesh
of His flesh? Have no fear, little flock, for He who is known by the Father
knows you, calls you by name, and has made you His own.
And, as St. Paul
reminds us:
If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not
spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him
graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect?
It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who
died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed
is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall
tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger,
or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day
long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we
are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am sure that neither
death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come,
nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be
able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans
8:31–39).
The earth is full of
the goodness of the Lord, for by the humiliation of His Son, God raises up our
fallen world. The Good Shepherd raises you up from the pit into which you have
fallen. He places you upon His shoulders and rejoices to carry you home. He
washes you in cleansing waters, binds up that which was broken, and heals all
your wounds. He prepares a Table before you and anoints your head with oil, and
His chalice continually runs over—over your lips, over your sins, quenching
your thirst while making you yearn for more. All this He does for you, solely
out of His boundless goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in
you, but for the sake Jesus’ holy, innocent bitter sufferings and death.
Is the Lord my
Shepherd? He most certainly is! He is your Shepherd, too. And because He is the
Good Shepherd, you are His good sheep. Baptized into Christ’s death and
resurrection, covered with His righteousness, He gives His life for you and
makes your life His own and His life your own. He becomes what you are, in
order to make you what He is—holy, righteous, and blessed.
Surely goodness and
mercy shall follow you, shall precede you, shall be on your right and on your
left, above you and below you, all the days of your life, and you shall dwell
in the fold of the Lord forever. Safe in the flock of His Church, you have
forgiveness, salvation, and eternal life. Indeed, for Jesus’ sake, you are
forgiven for all your sins.
In the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Unless
otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, English
Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of
Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
This
sermon is an adaptation of a sermon by Chad L. Bird, published in his book, Christ Alone: Meditations and Sermons.
Comments