Second Sunday after Easter
Good Shepherd Sunday
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Last modified: (Sat Apr 9 22:55:18 2005)
Ezekiel 34:11--16
For thus says the Lord GOD: ``Indeed I Myself will search for My
sheep and seek them out.
As a shepherd seeks out his flock on the
day he is among his scattered sheep, so will I seek out My sheep and
deliver them from all the places where they were scattered on a
cloudy and dark day.
And I will bring them out from the peoples and
gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own
land; I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, in the valleys
and in all the inhabited places of the country.
I will feed them in
good pasture, and their fold shall be on the high mountains of
Israel. There they shall lie down in a good fold and feed in rich
pasture on the mountains of Israel.
I will feed My flock, and I
will make them lie down,'' says the Lord GOD.
``I will seek what was lost
and bring back what was driven away,
bind up the broken
and strengthen what was sick;
but I will destroy the fat and the strong,
and feed them in judgment.''
The Lord is My Shepherd
Animals can be quite different from each other. Dogs are usually happy
creatures, eager to please. Cats usually couldn't care less what you
think about them. Horses sometimes seem like the equal of their
masters. Goats want to eat everything. But I don't know much about
sheep except what I've heard.
Our usual idea about sheep is that they are harmless, white, fuzzy
things. But is that really what God's people are like? Would you
like to be called harmless? He calls us sheep, and himself our
shepherd. Again, I only know what I've been told: shepherds guard the
flock from wolves and other predators, and they keep their sheep from
wandering off where they can get picked off more easily. Shepherds move
the flock to the places where they will find the water and food that
they need.
But from what Ezekiel says, I don't get a very complimentary picture of
sheep. It sounds like they not only need to be protected from
predators, but even from themselves! Is that the way we are? Or do we
always do what's best? When I consider myself honestly, I can see that
what I think is best is not always best. I'm pretty sure we'd all
realize the same thing, if we were being honest. So I'm glad that a
flock like ours has a shepherd like Jesus. He does know what's
best, all the time. He can save us from our predators, and He also can
save us from ourselves.
Our theme today is, ``The Lord is my Shepherd.'' He brings us together
from abroad. He feeds us upon the mountains of Israel.
He brings us together from abroad
The image at the beginning of our text is a scattered flock of sheep.
They're all over the place. High and low, in every direction, running
or hiding. The flock is scattered. God says, ``Indeed I Myself
will search for My sheep and seek them out.'' What does this mean?
The first thing you might think of is the shepherd walking over the face
of the land calling to his sheep, searching behind every tree and bush.
Certainly, that's an accurate picture, and God does find us wherever we
may be.
Understood more literally, God is saying in this sentence,
``Behold, I myself will examine my sheep and investigate
them.'' Why will He do that? Because the kind of sheep God is talking
about can wander into dangerous places without even moving. There are
dangerous places we may sometimes go without moving a muscle. Our minds
and hearts do the wandering, as we hear doctrines that lead us astray
and scatter the flock.
We may find it charming that God compares us to sheep, but it's not
meant to be a compliment. Apparently, sheep are a danger to themselves,
and even to each other. After our text, God also said,
``Behold, I Myself will judge between the fat and the lean
sheep. Because you have pushed with side and shoulder, butted all the
weak ones with your horns, and scattered them abroad, therefore I will
save my flock, and they shall no longer be a prey; and I will judge
between sheep and sheep.''
That's not such a charming image of a sheep, is it? We have treated one
another that way, and like it or not, we have even been a danger to
ourselves. Why don't we love one another as we should? Because at
heart, we wander away from God's love toward us. To put it another way,
we stray from the pure doctrine of God's Word. This is deadly
dangerous. John wrote, ``Whoever transgresses and does not
abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the
doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son.'' And the writer
to the Hebrews warns us, ``Jesus Christ is the same yesterday,
today, and forever. Do not be carried about with various and strange
doctrines.''
The word ``pastor'' is s title for ministers used quite a lot in recent
years, highlighting the similarity of a minister to a shepherd. God
instructed a young pastor, Timothy, in this way: ``Give
attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Do not neglect the
gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the laying
on of the hands of the eldership. Meditate on these things; give
yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all.
Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in
doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you.''
This chapter of Ezekiel begins with God's complaint against the
spiritual shepherds in Israel at the time. They were not doing what
Timothy was instructed to do. God said, ``Woe to the
shepherds of Israel who feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed
the flocks?'' They were not taking heed to the doctrine, but only to
their own bellies.
So in every age, God sets high standards for His shepherds, because He
has set those standards for himself. He is our One Shepherd, and He is
the one who calls out to His wandering sheep. What does His voice sound
like? Well, like Timothy's voice, and like the Apostle Paul's voice,
and like Ezekiel's voice, or like my own. I don't preach and teach my
own doctrine, but the doctrine of Jesus Christ --- the only one with the
power to save.
God also sets high standards for His sheep. None of us has kept them.
We can't. We stray so easily into foreign doctrines. We are distracted
by the alluring ideas of this world. So I thank God that He is our
shepherd. Otherwise we would all surely perish. But He said,
``And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them
from the countries, and will bring them to their own land.'' So Peter
wrote, ``For you were like sheep going astray, but have now
returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.''
Our Good Shepherd gave His life for His sheep. He took our death upon
Himself. It killed Him. He rose again, but death is gone forever.
Though we may yet die, we shall live. So He calls out to us with the
voice of His Word. His Law pierces the heart to make us turn away from
the doctrines of mortal men. The rod of our Shepherd is not present,
but necessary. He turns us back to Himself, to the doctrine from
heaven, of Jesus Christ, of forgiveness and life.
So repent today, lest you perish. Repent, and know that Jesus Christ
died for you, so that in Him you may live forever. Your Shepherd has
brought you back to His own country, a place of safety and
peace. He brings us together from abroad.
He feeds us upon the mountains of Israel
The Lord is my Shepherd. He feeds us upon the mountains of Israel.
What a beautiful image that is: grazing upon the green mountains of
Israel! This is truly God's country, where He brings His sheep from the
foreign places where they should not have strayed. This is the the best
pasture for God's sheep. But where are these mountains? How can we
know them?
Again, the image is sheep with a shepherd, but the reality is believers
and God. Those who believe and trust in Jesus Christ as we find Him in
God's Word are the sheep. That means that our food is Jesus
Christ as we find Him in God's Word. This is the proper fare for God's
sheep.
Jesus offered living water to the samaritan woman at Sychar, saying that
it wells up to eternal life. That living water runs in streams through
the mountains of Israel, a flood that cleanses and gives life at the
same time. We find it in holy Baptism. Jesus told the people at
Capernaum that He is the true manna from heaven, which if one eats of
it, he will live forever. That heavenly manna --- Jesus Christ --- is
the only food we find in the mountains of Israel. We call it the
Gospel. When Jesus celebrated His last Passover on earth, He gave His
disciples His body to eat, and His blood to drink, for the remission of
our sins. Those are the main course upon the mountains of Israel.
So how can we recognize the mountains of Israel? Wherever we find the Word
of God, properly divided so that the Gospel of Jesus is preached in its
purity; wherever we find holy baptism and holy communion taught and
administered to God's people in the way that our Lord instituted, there
we have found the mountains of Israel. We call this place the Church.
Those things are its marks. Where we find the marks, there will surely
be believers present, because God said, ``My Word shall not
return to me void.''
The mountains of Israel, where God pastures His sheep, is the Church.
Some would say that it's the Roman Catholic Church, but it's not. You
might think that I'm saying it's this church, or the Evangelical
Lutheran Synod, or the Lutheran Church as a whole. It's not. It's not
any visible organization on earth. What we call visible churches only
deserve to be called God's churches insofar as they teach the Gospel of
Jesus and administer His sacraments. We can appreciate many good things
that someone like Pope John Paul II did during his life, and we can
mourn when such a person dies. But he and others mix the pure, biblical
doctrine of Jesus Christ with the deadly doctrines of men. That always
makes salvation uncertain, and leads God's sheep away from the mountains
of Israel.
Jesus said, ``My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they
follow Me.'' Do you recognize the voice of your Shepherd? It's the
responsibility of every Christian who hears His voice to join with other
Christians and confess His pure doctrine. He wants us to keep learning
that doctrine so that we may confess it in word and deed more faithfully
and purely. We're not perfect. I never said we are. But as sheep of
our Shepherd, He wants us to follow His voice, and we do.
But ultimately, it's God who works this in us. Ezekiel doesn't show us
a God who demands that we find the way ourselves. His law already
condemned us. But Jesus was perfect in our place. Now, God's promise
to us is pure grace and mercy. He says, ``I will feed them in
good pasture, and their fold shall be on the high mountains of Israel.
There they shall lie down in a good fold and feed in rich pasture on the
mountains of Israel.'' So it was God who brought us here today. It's
God who will bring others, as He works through our words and
actions in the lives of the people we know.
``I will seek what was lost and bring back what was driven away,
bind up the broken and strengthen what was sick.'' Just as Jesus
healed and even raised the dead with the words of His mouth, so God now
heals us through the same word. But now, His word is in my mouth
and in your mouth. So let our Good Shepherd work in your life.
Hear His voice. Believe His doctrine: you are forgiven for Christ's
sake!
The Lord is my Shepherd. He brings us together from abroad. He feeds
us upon the mountains of Israel. Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria!
This document was translated from LATEX by
HEVEA.