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“I AM the Good Shepherd.”
᛭ INI ᛭
Alleluia! ΙΗϹ Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Christ is the Good Shepherd. Yet, why does He call Himself “good”? Why would anyone call Christ “good”? You know what Christ says. Don’t you? Christ Himself asked the rich young ruler: “Why do you call me “good”? No one is good except One, that is, God.” (Mk 10)
God alone is good. He is good in Himself. But He is also good in what He does. He is goodness in action, but very particular action. This is what the world gets wrong. Our own flesh leads us into the same error. We judge God’s “good” by our standards, rather than judging our standards by His goodness. We sinfully determine was is “good” and what is “evil.” The world decries God’s actions as evil, and proclaims what we want and do “good.” But “woe to those” says the LORD, “who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Is 5)
God’s goodness isn’t revealed just anywhere. And this get’s us to Good Shepherd Sunday. The goodness of God, His very merciful and tender heart, is revealed in one place: in the death of Christ, His Son.
Christ’s death and resurrection prove that He is God, for the true and living God is different from all so-called gods. Every religion has its god or its team of gods that created everything, and that bless the land or crops or cattle or people or nation. But the God who suffers for His people, who promises to suffer and then does it. There is only One God who does that. “Our great and God and Savior ΙΗϹ Christ.” (Tit 2) As the LORD Himself says in Zechariah, “They will look on Me, whom they have pierced” (Zech 12), and He was—“one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out.” (Jn 19) “He was [pierced] for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.” (Is 53)
That Christ was pierced and wounded means not only that He is “good” and “God,” but that He is also Shepherd. He is the greater and better Abel. Abel the first Shepherd murdered by his brother Cain. So also Christ as Good Shepherd is killed at behest of His brothers, and by all mankind—first Jew then Gentile—for He is brother. He is God of God, but also man of man—born of the Virgin Mary. And as the Prophet said: “Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, Against the Man who is My Companion,” Says the LORD of hosts. “Strike the Shepherd, And the sheep will be scattered.” (Zech 13) “Stricken for the sins of [His] people,” (Is 53), indeed, “He is the propitiation for our sins and the sins of the whole world.” (1-Jn 2) Even doing it, as Ezekiel says today, “I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness,” (Ezek 34) for “there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.” (Mt 27)
Even still He shepherds. Christ is the greater Joshua, His name’s sake! Moses spoke to the LORD, saying: “Let the LORD, the God of the spirits of all flesh, set a man over the congregation, who may go out before them and go in before them, who may lead them out and bring them in, that the congregation of the LORD may not be like sheep which have no shepherd.” And the LORD said to Moses: “Take Joshua the son of Nun with you, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay your hand on him.” (Num 27) This is what Christ still does for you: His is “at the right hand of God, [there He] makes intercession for us.” (Rom 8)
So we are not sheep without a shepherd. He has compassion on all the Lost Sheep of the House of Israel, which includes not only Jew but Gentile. As Paul says, “Not all who are Israel are descendants of Israel.” (Rom 10) It is for the Jew first but also for the Gentile. As Christ Himself says today: “I have sheep who are not of this fold, I must call them also.” As Isaiah says: “There shall be a root of Jesse; And He who shall rise to reign over the Gentiles, In Him the Gentiles shall hope.” (Rom 15:12) The witness of the Canaanite woman with the demon-possessed daughter proves that, too. Christ claims her to be part of the lost sheep of the house of Israel. (Mt 15)
And now there is “one flock, one shepherd”—“one holy, Christian, and apostolic Church,” of all peoples and nations. This Christian church is Shepherded by the Christ. As the Lord says a bit later in Ezekiel 34: “I will establish one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them—My servant David. He shall feed them and be their shepherd.” That is God’s “Son ΙΗϹ Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh,” (Rom 1), “who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.” (Rom 9)
What does Christ say of His sheep? “They will listen to My voice.” For “if you remain in My Word, you are truly My disciples and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” (Rom 8) Avoiding the Word is a sign that a sheep is no sheep. They have wandered away from Him who bought them. Discipline your flesh that it may no longer be so for you! Read the Word. Cherish the Word. Feed on it. Even the Supper of His body and blood. For these are the pastures to which Christ shepherds you, to feed you with Himself, to supply is forgiveness to sustain your faith in Him unto life everlasting.
(Conclusion.)
“For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.” (1-Pet 2) “When the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away.” (1-Pet 5) It is the very “crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to all who have loved His appearing.” (2-Tim 4)
Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. (Heb 13) “He who calls you is faithful; He will surely do it.” (1-Thess 5)—even for you “to dwell in His house forever.” (Ps 23)
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