A, Good Shepherd Sunday, Easter 4 - John 10:7,9 "Identity Under The Good Shepherd"
Good Shepherd
Sunday is full of rich language of a shepherd faithfully leading his sheep and his
sheep, having heard his voice, willingly following.
In Acts two we
hear the consequences of the Holy Spirit coming at Pentecost, after Peter
preaches a sermon of Law and Gospel that brings three thousand to baptism and
faith. After which, the newly baptised
into Christ, persevere and endure under the Apostles’ teaching, holy
fellowship, breaking of bread (as both, Holy Communion, and as sharing their
earthly gifts), and to prayers.
These were special
times and those who believed, full of the Holy Spirit, lived to praise God for
what the ascended Jesus had done.
We also hear of
the providence our Heavenly Father, likened to a shepherd, in Psalm
twenty-three. King David, the shepherd
made king of Israel, knew that to lead he needed to be led by our Father in
Heaven.
He identified
within himself the need to be cut off from trusting in himself, which was
without trust and fear in God, living to writhe in its own desire for pleasure. Left with himself he was acutely aware of his
weak human spirit. He knew he needed the
Holy Spirit to give him a new spirit.
His experience in life was that of the enemy of the self within,
aligning itself with the external enemy without.
In a strange
irony, the enemies he fought against, were his sinful nature’s greatest allies
within, leading him into worry and doubt, then therefore, misusing his
authority to pleasure himself as his own god.
Therefore, against
this, David claims the Lord as his shepherd.
He has no want. He lacks nothing
in having the Lord as his shepherd. He
does not fear the evil within, nor the evil without, over which he has no
control.
In fact, King
David’s Lord, his Shepherd, makes him lie down in green pastures, beside
peaceful waters! He knows the Shepherd’s
goodness and steadfast love and mercy is constantly hunting him down to bestow
upon him common life together with God. Joyfully
returning him to the house of the Lord repeatedly, then eternally, despite the
dangers David and others, present to himself.
This is a picture of restored paradise. The house of the Lord on earth, even this
church, is an image of the eternal, despite all its shortcomings, and its
eventual destruction, just as the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed.
But Jesus is our
true temple in which we now have access into the Father’s presence. The curtain
has been torn asunder and through his suffering and death we have common
life together with God our Father.
In the Gospel
reading for Good Shepherd Sunday, Jesus tells us, he is the door, through which
one enters into God’s presence. No one
comes to God the Father except through this door. Jesus Christ is the way, the exodus; the
truth, the unhidden reality; the life, the revolving door of faith. Having been brought to Jesus by the Holy
Spirit, one’s sin is uncovered and nailed to the cross. Those who retain this faith, walk in and out
this door on the way of eternal life.
This is the same
goodness and steadfast love to which King David refers in the Twenty-third
psalm. This is the same faithfulness
with which God is pursuing you, so you might share in the common life of peace
and holiness, having been led on the exodus from the self, into the community
of God’s pleasure.
Jesus is the Good
Shepherd as well as the door to salvation.
Many doubt this though and need encouragement as a result of suffering
and the hopelessness that comes from being seduced by the spirit of this age.
God the Father’s
church gathered by the Holy Spirit into Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection,
the family, historical tradition from the democracy of those who’ve died, all
these forms of authority, are looked on with suspicion by society today. This feeds one’s doubt and disbelief!
Unfortunately,
with this suspicion of all authority, the spirit of the age is believed, and
one is encouraged to seek happiness within the self. But once there, seeing the ugly reality of the
unhidden self, the mirage of happiness just seems to move further away.
Like King David,
our inner sinful self, our human spirit, allies itself with the spirit of the
society in which we live, even though we know it’s completely corrupt.
Those in Peter’s
day struggled under persecution and hopelessness of that age as well. He proclaims, “By his wounds you have
been healed. For you were straying like
sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.” (1 Peter 2:24b–25 ESV)
Our Good Shepherd watches
over all who have been baptised, he has underwritten the assurance of our
salvation with his own resurrected life.
The resurrection of Jesus is the hope that surpasses all other hopes
because all other hopes lead to hopelessness!
The essence of
this Good Shepherd comes from God the Father, and from the Father together with
the Son, the shepherding of our souls continues today, as the Holy Spirit is sent
to shepherd those who identify as the Good Shepherd’s sheep.
Jesus, as the Lamb
of God, committed no sin, spoke without hiddenness or trickery, did not abuse
or repay abuse, and bore pain without revenge.
We his sheep know
we need this Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, because of our
sin! Isaiah proclaims the unhidden
truth of Jesus, when he says, “We all like sheep have gone astray; we have
turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of
us all.” (Isaiah 53:6)
Peter picks up
Isaiah’s thought from Scripture, and from his witness adds, “He
himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and
live to righteousness. By his wounds you
have been healed.” (1 Peter 2:24
ESV)
Like King David,
Peter knew by experience that he needed the Good Shepherd to bring him to the door
of salvation. Peter knew his sinfulness
conspired with the sinfulness of all others to put Jesus on the cross. It was Jesus alone who walked the way of the
cross, who bore the unhidden truth of every person’s inner self on the cross,
and lived the life that pleased our heavenly Father, despite the cross.
We now have the
door open to confession, where we can have the deathliness of our sin, daily nailed
to the cross, without costing us eternal death.
This is the true door that is Jesus Christ.
We steal and
plunder God of his goodness by seeking to enter God’s kingdom through any other
works, either good or evil. But those
who enter by the door that is Jesus Christ, have done so by the Good Shepherd. He leads with the word of his rod, this is the
Law, and his saving staff, which is the Gospel.
Therefore, having
been unhidden by his word of Law, are cleansed in his blood, through the work
of the Holy Spirit who gives us the holy identity as God’s own Son.
This cleansing is
good news for those who believe it and receive it. This is the Gospel of salvation for those who
identify under the Sonship and subordination of Jesus Christ!
Jesus says to you,
“Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and
will go in and out and find pasture.” (John 10:7,9 ESV)
Let us pray: Triune God you are three Shepherds, but one loving God. Because you lead us, because you became one of us, and because you gather us, surely goodness and mercy will follow us all the days of our life, because you dwell here within the temple of our body, your body, so we might live with you forever in the paradise of your pleasures, your eternal body. Amen.
