Image via Wikipedia(Note: This is a sermon series focused on misconceptions of Jesus in our culture where Jesus is all around us.  I'm using Jared Wilson's book, Your Jesus is Too Safe as a springboard into the series and will follow along with some of his themes.  For those of you who haven't read Wilson's stuff, I encourage you to at least check out his blog, The Gospel-Driven Church.  And, I've really enjoyed the book.  It's challenged me.)

Text:  Psalm 23 & John 10:7-16
Title:  “Jesus: The Shepherd”

We are getting close to the end of this sermon and worship series on “Our Quest to Find Jesus,” really getting at who Jesus was and is and why what he does for us is paramount to our faith.  You know, as CHRISTIANS, we say that the person and work of CHRIST is central to our faith.  But, really, when it comes down to it, while we may talk about Jesus, maybe even a lot, we don’t get into the various facets of his ministry and his work.   

We’ve covered a lot.  Jesus the Promise.  Jesus the Prophet.  Jesus the Forgiver.  Jesus the Man.  And there’s a lot more.  Today we look at Jesus the Shepherd.

Now, there’s a couple reasons why this is important for us to look at…I mean beyond the fact that Jesus calls himself “the Good Shepherd” and if Jesus calls himself that it must be pretty important.  We’re looking at Jesus the Shepherd because we often don’t understand how Jesus the Shepherd was comparing himself to the shepherds of the day and because it’s a metaphor that can be lost in our culture.  My guess is no one here were shepherds.   Running a sheep farm isn’t the same.

We know that Jesus, at the very outset, places himself among the shepherds.

Jared Wilson, in his book, Your Jesus is Too Small, which is serving as a framework for this series, puts it this way:

One night about two thousand years ago, a few working stiffs were lazing about in a pasture.  They had the overnight shift in the boss’ sheep-watching company.  The reality of sheep-watching is…mundane, I’m guessing.  You’d have to keep your eyes open for wolves or other predators, and to make sure none of your flock wanders off too far, but aside from that, watching over sheep is probably pretty boring—the night watch especially.

The shepherds in the story of Jesus’ birth are just hanging around, watching sheep, when suddenly an angel appears, and “the glory of the Lord” shone all around them.  They were, naturally, terrified, but the angel tells them not to be afraid.  And then, as if to test their obedience, the sky fills up with a host of angels. I don’t know about you, but I think I’d be more than a little scared.  Today these guys would be on the news talking about UFOs and nobody would believe them.  But the angels were heralds of God, filling the skies with the glorious announcement that the long-awaited Messiah had been born. (105-106)

And so it begins. Jesus is born in a manger (or a cave), well, at least among the animals.  And there at his birth are some of the common folk…the “salt of the earth” people. 

That scene, however, is a bit too ideal.  One of the things we need to know is that, beyond being “salt of the earth” type people, shepherds were dirty.  They were ritually unclean.  And, because Jesus later on calls himself “the Good Shepherd”, we know that there were a lot of “bad shepherds” out there.  They were overworked and underpaid.  It was not really their concern if one of the sheep got away.  They were at the bottom of the list of acceptable persons in society.   So the fact that they appear at the manger and that Jesus would run with this metaphor is important.

So Jesus…well, he would be different.  All those things that the ideal shepherd was supposed to do…well, he’d do it…but with people. 

The ideal shepherd isn’t one who comes and punches the clock, going about the work of the day.  The ideal shepherd would be moved with COMPASSION.  The ideal shepherd would feel deeply for the sheep in his…or her…care. 

In Matthew 9, the crowds are gathering around Jesus, he has put in his time.  He’s called disciples.  He’s been questioned by the religious authorities. He’s raised a dead girl.  He healed a woman and two blind men and a demoniac.  Then Matthew 9:35-36 says:

Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

Compassion is not really about being nice.  It’s not about sympathizing.  It’s deep.  The Greek word for compassion points to a yearning from the bowels.  You know those times when you’ve seen someone hurt or distressed or in trouble and you hurt for them…deeply…internally…viscerally?  Well, that’s the way it is with the compassion of our Shepherd, Jesus.  He looks out upon the crowds, the dirty, helpless, folk.  Here he’s not asking what choices they’ve made to get into these predicaments.  He’s aching for them.  He has compassion on them.

I know I can be aloof at times, walking though life with blinders on and not aware of the issues around me.  I know that sometimes, I don’t CARE like I really should.  Not everything breaks through my exterior shell.  And, I know, as of late, I’ve talked about my role in counseling persons in times of crisis and need, particularly through the fire department.   But I’m gonna share it again, at the risk of repeating myself.  See, I can see in myself, that, at those times of tragedy, I think I have most modeled the compassion of Jesus.  It’s not limited to those time.  But as I remember, at those times, I have HURT for those who were hurting.  I loved.  I have felt it.

I have to think of isolated incidents to get at that emotion, or something approaching it.  But I like to think that our Jesus is ever-compassionate.  That emotion, that I think I can pinpoint…is what Jesus has for all of us who are hurting…for all of us who are lost…for all of us who sin against God and against each other…for all of us who are overly satisfied for what our life looks like.  He sees the mess of our life and he has a perfect COMPASSION for us.  He felt that for the crowds.  He feels it for us. 

Isn’t that the ideal SHEPHERD?

So, we want our Shepherd to have compassion. But that compassion, we pray would move our SHEPHERD to action.  You know, a SHEPHERD who is just biding his time until the shift’s over is not going to put up much of a fight when push comes to shove with a wolf or other predator.  That might have been too much to ask for of the shepherds of Jesus’ day.  But it’s what we’d ask of our ideal Shepherd.  That’s what Jesus is.

Remember the words of the Gospel of John which was read earlier:

‘I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away—and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. (John 10:11-15)

This image of the shepherd laying down his life for the sheep, would have caused a stir with his listeners.  They knew that it was near impossible to find a shepherd that would actually go that extra distance for the sheep.  But it also connected him with the deep-rooted sacrificial theology of Judaism where the sacrifice of a sheep was required to, well, make things right with God.  So, yes, Jesus, unlike the shepherds of his day would step in there to keep the wolves at bay.  But, even more so, he was willing to step in there and offer himself in the sheep’s place at the sacrifice.

You know, I get the healing of people.  I think it’s great and I put my trust on the healing of Jesus.  I get the compassion.  I don’t have enough of it.  We don’t have enough of it in the world.  I get a lot of the preaching and how countercultural, almost counter-intuitive it is.  But the sacrifice of Jesus kinda’ blows my mind.  We can talk about the Shepherd sacrificing himself for the sheep, but here we talk about him becoming the sacrifice.  Our the Son of God, eternal with the Father, looks down from heaven or on high or beyond eternity at our predicament, and he leaves all of that behind to save us…how, I haven’t really wrapped my brain around at the point, yet.  But I have wrapped my brain around the fact that here we have our Shepherd becoming a Sheep.  How many earthly shepherds would be willing to become sheep to save them? 

Wilson writes:

Imagine, if you like, that you and I are so in love with ants, extremely desirous of a relationship with ants, incredibly eager for ants to know us, that the only way we could achieve this connection is to become an ant.  The analogy breaks down, as all analogies do, but to go from the God of the universe, with all powers at his disposal, to a crying, burping, pooping baby in a feeding barn…that’s a sacrifice on part with man becoming an ant.

That’s the kind of shepherd we have.  We have a sacrificial Shepherd. ( 113)

Our shepherd has compassion.  Our shepherd offers himself as the sacrifice.  Our shepherd also SEEKS US.  Remember the parables with lost things in Luke 15?  We have a lost son, a lost coin, and a lost sheep.  And, as the story gets recounted, we hear how our God, would go out of his way to find the thing that’s lost.  The woman with the lost coin turns her house upside down and invites friends over for a party. The Father who lost his son waits, and waits, and waits, and throws a party when he returns.
And the shepherd…well this is what Luke says about that shepherd and the sheep:

And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.  And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’  Just so, I tell you, there will be more join in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance (Luke 15:4-7)

We here in the US, and I think around the world as well, are big on caring for our own.  We take care of our family.  We look out for those who are like us.  We keep our friends close.  If you mess with someone we care about…well, you’ve messed with us now.  But, Jesus, as shepherd, is constantly seeking those who are lost, those who are outside of the inner circle, those who won’t make it unless someone brings them in.

And, that’s us.  We’re the ones who were outside.  We’re the ones who were lost.  And we’re the ones that Jesus sought (and bought) by his sacrifice.

That said.  And that’s good to be said.  That said…we have an example in Christ for what it looks like to seek out those who are lost and in need of rescuing.  In our world…man…that’s a lot of people.  We look at those who are outside the faith, perhaps searching, perhaps grasping at anything that comes along.  We have people in Egypt, just out from under a regime but now entering the uncertain time of forming a governement.  We have people in Algiers, rising up against their government, which has now shut down Facebook as a way to lessen the protests.  We have the poor…in Africa and Asia and in the US and in Alaska.  We have marriages that are faltering, we have children spending their time bullying or being bullied or sitting at home while their parents drink themselves silly or finding places to hang out where they can drown their problems in drugs, themselves.  We have a lot of persons who need found…and it’s unclear whether they even know that they need found or if they’d be happy to be found if you found them in the first place.

So…even in the church…we kind of focus on who we have in front of us.   Who is it that’s in worship.  Who are the new faces we’re happy to be with?  Who are the members or the frequent attendees?  Who are the ones we know…they’ve heard some of our problems…we’ve heard some of theirs…we kind of know each other…kinda’?

Yet, our Shepherd seeks.  He has sought us.  And, we, who follow this Shepherd, must seek others.

Following this kind of shepherd isn’t easy. It’s not quaint.  It’s dirty.  And, as shepherds were among some of the socially outcast of their day, so we, if we follow closely, may find ourselves among the socially outcast of our day. 

I mean, to be moved with compassion and hanging out with the poor, in the hopes of offering the saving word of grace. 

I mean, to love so deeply, that the kid no one wants to sit with is the one by your side, pushing away, perhaps, the other people you’d like to spend your time with.

I mean, to seek the lost so fully that you’re willing to enter into the places that make you feel uncomfortable, hoping to offer a hand that will pull someone out of their lostness and into the foundness that comes from God.

I mean, to sacrifice your place, your money, your reputation, your time, your gifts to offer the message of Christ to the one who must hear it.

Those of us who sing about wanting to be a sheep…we need to realize that being a sheep of this shepherd, means shepherding like him.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.