A Shepherd to Lead You through a Dangerous World
1[Jesus
said:] “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the
door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. 2But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. 3To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls
his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4When
he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him,
for they know his voice. 5A stranger they
will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of
strangers.” 6This figure of speech Jesus used with them, but
they did not understand what He was saying to them.
Grace to you and peace
from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!
I suppose, you could make
the case that in a perfect world, there would be no need for shepherds. The
sheep could just blissfully roam the gentle hills eating luscious grass and
drinking from cool, clear spring-fed streams. But in our world, there are many
dangers to sheep. Predators like coyotes and wolves. Parasites like lung worms,
wire worms, liver flukes, coccidia, lice, ticks, and mites. Diseases like listeriosis,
brucellosis, leptospirosis, tetanus, foot and mouth disease, rabies, ringworm,
pregnancy toxemia, enterotoxemia, and bloat.
And sheep don’t exactly
help themselves. Ewes don’t always claim their lambs. Lambs don’t always figure
out how to suckle. Sheep get lost and in trouble easily. They’re not the
smartest creatures in the animal kingdom. You’ll never hear someone say, “as clever
as a sheep.” For that matter, you’re not going to hear, “as fierce as a ewe” or “as mighty
as a lamb,” either. Sheep don’t generally strike fear in the hearts of their
enemies. They have few defenses against predators. They’re not built for speed
or endurance. Their teeth are made for munching grass, not tearing flesh. Their
soft skins are covered with wool not with scales, armor, shell, or thick hide. No,
it’s not easy being a sheep; it’s a dangerous world.
A shepherd’s life can
be extremely hard. The shepherds have said it a thousand times. It’s the last thing
a man should devote his life to. You spend the whole summer wandering about in
the suffocating heat of the sun, climbing like goats along the rock walls that
burn when anyone touches them, and sleeping like dogs between the stones as hyenas
laugh their wicked laugh or the coyotes call to one another in the moonlit
night. You never let go of your sling and club, and always look with suspicion
at anything that lives or moves around you. There’s always reason to be
concerned as an animal disappears behind a stone wall in any of the winding
ravines. And then the long winter nights, freezing in the cold and waiting hour
after hour for the first bleak streak of dawn to peak through the hills. No, it’s
not easy being a shepherd; it’s a dangerous world.[i]
In a place and time
where everyone has at least a rudimentary understanding of sheep and shepherds,
Jesus tells a parable, actually a couple of extended metaphors, to explain His
work of salvation using the figure of the care and nurture of these wooly ovine
creatures.
Jesus refers to a
sheepfold, to one of the Middle Eastern pens for holding sheep, usually overnight.
This is a yard with a high stone wall to keep out wild animals as well as other
intruders. There is a gate or door that is guarded by a watchman. Obviously,
anyone who tries to enter the sheepfold in any other way than the door is up to
no good. He is not really a shepherd, but either a thief whose intention is to
steal quietly, or a robber, who will not hesitate to use violence to accomplish
his purposes.
A true shepherd needs no
such schemes. He comes to the gate of the pen openly, and the guard will open the
door for him, because he knows the shepherd and his intentions. And when the
heavy gate is unbarred, the shepherd needs only call to the sheep and they’ll
respond at once. He has names for each one of the sheep entrusted to him, and
they can distinguish his call from the others. If there are several flocks in
the corral overnight, the sheep will only respond to the voice of their own
shepherd. And when all the sheep that belong to his own flock have come out of
the sheepfold, they will follow the voice of the shepherd as he leads the way. But
the sheep fear and flee from a stranger, since his voice is not known to them.
They have not learned to trust him as they do their own shepherd.
As Jesus speaks, we
might expect His audience to understand at least some of His figurative
language. But the Pharisees, who had just boasted, “We see,” fail to completely
comprehend, because they’ve already rejected Jesus. The presentation is clear
enough, but it takes the eyes of faith to see the inner reality of its meaning
and to make the proper application.
The sheepfold is the
Church of God of all times. The sheep are the members of the kingdom of God,
the believers of the Old and New Testaments that put their trust in the promise
of the Messiah. But the men who were to be their shepherds, their leaders, have
from olden times been divided into two classes. There are some to come to the
door openly, that have the call and duty to take care of the souls entrusted to
them, and that carry out their difficult calling with all faithfulness. They
are undershepherds of the great Shepherd, Jesus Christ, and it is His voice
that calls through them. The sheep thus hear the voice of the true pastors (the
word “pastor” having come from the Latin for “shepherd”), and this they
recognize and know perfectly, this they heed gladly. And if they are truly His
sheep, they will pay no attention to those who try to imitate the voice of the
true Shepherd but will fear and flee from them.
In the sheepfold of His
Church, Jesus is the Door. Only through Him and His work of salvation, shall
any man have access to the sheep. Only through Him can the sheep find access to
the fold. Only by faith in Christ is admittance to the fold gained. All real
pastors will preach only of this one Door, of this one Way to heaven—through
faith in Jesus and the redemption through His blood.[ii]
There were those among
the Jewish religious leaders at that time, and had been even before this, who
had assumed for themselves the function of bringing people into communion with
God and into heaven in a different manner, unlike the prophets of old that had
always pointed forward to Jesus only. But all those that claimed to be what
Christ is in truth, that promised to give to men the certainty of salvation through
the keeping of their traditions and works righteousness were thieves and
robbers. They came without Christ’s authority.
Fortunately, the real
sheep, the true people of God among the children of Israel, had given no heed
to their words. For Christ is the Door; through Him if a person enters, and through
no one else, he will be rendered safe. The only way of salvation leads through
Christ. He Himself is that Way, and everyone that knows Jesus as such may enter
into the fold of the Church and go out on the pasture of the Gospel, and always
have fullness and plenty, the mercy and goodness of the Lord.
Note how when Jesus
reveals Himself as the Shepherd, He opens the eyes of His disciples to see how dangerous
their world truly is, how much they need a Shepherd. He calls attention to the
false shepherds and the hired hands, to the thieves and the robbers, not to
mention the wolves which surround them. It is during danger that Jesus chooses
to reveal Himself as our Shepherd, the One who came that we, “may have life and
have it abundantly” (John 10:10).
Into a dangerous world,
where strangers climb into sheepfolds and hired hands run away, the true
Shepherd comes. And the beauty of His coming is that the Shepherd calls to His
sheep and He knows them by name. Even when we do not know a thing about shepherds,
Jesus still calls to us in a voice we recognize. He gathers us together and
leads us in His way. The one thing that saves us is not what we know about
shepherds but that our Shepherd knows us. “He calls His own sheep by name and
leads them out” (John 10:3).
For Jesus, this world
of thieves and false shepherds was not imaginary. It was real. He was betrayed
by a thief, crucified under the rule of false shepherds, and buried in a tomb.
But He rose from the dead to assure us that he is the Door, and the true
Shepherd who leads us to everlasting life.
Right now, we are,
perhaps, more aware than ever that we do not know what lies in store for us. Two
months ago, no one would have imagined our life would be the way it is now. We
prayerfully deliberate and carefully navigate how to move forward. But we have
one thing which will never change. We have a shepherd who knows us by name and who
promises to speak to us in all of life’s situations.
Jesus knows the agony
of suffering. He endured the loneliness of death. So, He knows how to speak to
those who are suffering. He walked the twisted, confusing roads and lived through
the choices that confound. So, He knows how to lead those who have lost their
way. He is present today. He enters this strange landscape with a familiar
voice, with promises that endure. He will not leave you alone. He comes to you,
calls you, and leads you in His way.
What matter today is not how much you know
about shepherds and sheep. What matters is how there is a shepherd who knows
you: Jesus. He has something for you. He speaks to you… now! In the Word that
is read, the hymns that are sung, and the sermon that is preached and pondered,
the Lord your Shepherd speaks. Even when we are not able to gather together in
person, He is assuring you that God has a will and a way in this world. And it
is a good and gracious will and way for all the people of His pasture and the
sheep of His hand. It is the way of Christ, God’s love and righteousness for
you.
Though you may feel you
are far away from the world of the shepherd, there is no place in this world
where the Shepherd is not close to you. He is close enough that He can speak,
and you can hear Him.[iii]
Dearly beloved in the
Lord, fellow sheep: Jesus leads you by His voice. He first taught you to
recognize His voice at your baptism. Through the Word and blessed Sacrament of
the Altar, He continues to teach you and lead you through this sinful and dangerous
world with His voice. But you must learn to distinguish His voice—the word of
Holy Scripture—from the cacophony of loud and alluring voices of our day. We
live in a dangerous world, and the greatest dangers are not those that could happen
to us in this life, but those that have eternal consequences.
Jesus, the Good
Shepherd, leads you, His sheep, through this dangerous world. His voice calls
you to repentance, to the anointing of your head with the oil of Holy Baptism,
to feed on the lush pastures of His Word and at the table of His life-giving body
and blood spread before you even while Satan, sin, and death surround you.
Notice in Psalm 23 that all the important actions happen by the Shepherd’s
work, not yours. He makes, He leads, He restores, He
leads.
But watch out for there
are plenty of wolves and thieves who would teach you that Holy Baptism is your
work, instead of God’s—something you do to show yourself to be a sheep rather
than the mark the Good Shepherd puts on you to make you His own. As if a sheep
could mark itself! There are those who want to teach you the Lord’s Supper is
not the table of the Good Shepherd’s body and blood, but a symbolic supper by
which we think fondly on what Jesus did for us. As if a sheep could feed
itself! There are those who would turn you inward to your believing, to your
piety, to your feelings, to your works, to yourself, and away from Jesus and
His blood-bought gifts. As if a sheep could shepherd itself! There are those
who tell you that they can give you success, popularity, wealth, and health if
you just do this or that. As if a sheep can turn himself into a sleek and
successful sheep!
“Flee from them and do
not follow them,” Christ says. As Martin Luther wrote, “If you wish, therefore, to be
richly supplied in both body and soul, then above all give careful attention to
the voice of this Shepherd, listen to His words, let Him feed, direct, lead,
protect, and comfort you. That is: hold fast to His Word, hear and learn it
gladly, for then you will be well supplied in both body and soul.”[iv]
And your Good Shepherd
will never abandon you. He will lead you through this dangerous world and into eternal
life, abundant life, in His loving care.
David, who faced death
many times, calls us to pray: “Even though I walk through the valley of the
shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your
staff, they comfort me” (Psalm 23:4).
As He is with you in
life, Jesus is with you in death. He went through it first for you to open the
way to life. Jesus is with you in mourning. He wept at Lazarus’ tomb. Jesus is
your Good Shepherd who comforts you. He sends goodness and mercy to joyfully
nip at your heels. He leads you right into His house today and will keep you
who follow Him in His house forever.
Sheep that are
separated from the flock are easy pickings for the poachers. Christians don’t go
it alone. Experience teaches that people without a congregation tend to believe
in a little bit of everything, and so in truth wind up believing in nothing at
all. Sheep who don’t learn the voice of their Shepherd will soon follow any
voice. Outside the church it’s dangerous; it’s cold and deadly—there’s no
forgiveness, no life there. But in the Lord’s flock, the Lord restores the joy
of salvation to your soul, the Lord brings you back rejoicing, the Lord binds
up your wounds, the Lord guides you in His righteous way, the Lord is with you
and comforts you even under the dark shadows of death.[v]
We may not know what
the future holds, but we do know what is in store for us for eternity. We have
one thing which will never change. We have a Shepherd who knows us by name and
who promises to speak to us in all of life’s situations. Jesus leads you through
this dangerous world, to everlasting life. For His sake, you are forgiven for
all of 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.
[i] Giertz, Bo (2017) With My Own Eyes
(translated by Bror Erickson). P. 15-16. Irvine: New Reformation Publications.
[ii] Kretzmann, Paul E. (1921) Popular
Commentary of the Bible: New Testament, Volume I, p. 466. Saint Louis:
Concordia Publishing House.
[iv] Luther, M. (1999). Luther’s works, vol. 12: Selected Psalms I.
(J. J. Pelikan, H. C. Oswald, & H. T. Lehmann, Eds.) (Vol. 12, p. 157).
Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House.
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