Children’s Address
Well we usually call this time ‘Time with the children’ But do you notice what the title is on the slide today? – Time with the Shepherd! Today is the 4th Sunday of Easter and it is usually referred to as ‘Good Shepherd Sunday’ because the theme of the bible readings is on God as shepherd of his people. Psalm 23 begins by saying “The Lord is my Shepherd” and in today’s Gospel reading Jesus says he is this Shepherd.
Now, there is one animal mentioned more times than any other in the bible. Just have a think about what animal that might be. OK. Now it’s time for some audience participation, ok. When I count to three I want you to all make the noise of the animal you think is mentioned more times in the bible than any other. OK? 1,2,3
The bible often talks about us, God’s people, as a flock of sheep—and, you see, that’s obviously true because you all just made the sound of a sheep! Now what do sheep need?
Sheep need guiding and protecting. Sheep often wander and get lost and place themselves in danger. The job of the shepherd is to guide them to safety. Jesus said that a good shepherd would even lay down his life for the sheep, and that’s exactly what Jesus did, dying on the Cross to give us new and lasting life! We can trust him to provide for us and to protect us. He:
- Rescues, saves
- Cares for
- Protects
And he leads us and guides us. He does that as he teaches us through the bible. That is why every Sunday is really time with Jesus the Good Shepherd.
I have a picture in my office of Jesus as a shepherd, surrounded by many sheep, like the one on the screen. Seeing as we are the sheep, which one would you most like to be? The small lamb that Jesus holds. I say to myself, “That’s me. I’m the weakest in the flock but God carries me. There is nothing I should worry about.”
God knows what you face in your lives, and he’s right there with you—whether you’re sick, tired, having huge problems, or afraid. God knows you by name, he loves you and cares for you, and leads you—and even carries you—every day until the day we will finally be with him in heaven.
Prayer – Taking faith home bulletin insert
SERMON
A father and his young son once visited a huge cathedral. As the two were walking down the aisle the boy pointed to the cross on the altar and said: “Dad, what’s that big plus sign up there for?” One writer saw this as a marvellous illustration: we can often think that the Christian faith subtracts something from our lives—but the Christian faith is the big plus sign that adds the best there is to our lives[1].
God adding life is a core theme of John’s Gospel and is at the heart of John’s presentation of who Jesus is. Jesus is the Giver of life, and he is equated with life itself. Through his interactions with others Jesus proclaims that he is the Giver of living water (4:14), the bread of life (6:35), the resurrection and the life (11:25), the way, the truth, and the life (14:6). He alone is the ultimate necessity of humankind. In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus says: I have come in order that they may have life, and have it abundantly.
Jesus shows this by drawing illustrations from Israel’s agriculture. He says that he is the door for the sheep. The more basic sheepfolds of the day consisted of a simple rounded wall of piled stones. Instead of having a gate or door, the wall simply had a gap, and the shepherd would guard the flock by sitting in the gap to complete the circle thereby enclosing the flock. Anyone, or anything, wanting to enter the pen would have to go through the shepherd. The shepherd effectively functioned as the door. Any predators such as wolves would be met by the shepherd first, and if they wanted to get into the sheepfold, it would have to be over the shepherd’s dead body.
Jesus gives this illustration just after he has given sight—and faith—to the man born blind, which you might remember as one of the readings from the season of Lent. The Pharisees were convinced that this man’s blindness was due to the sin of his parents, and that he was unrighteous and undeserving of God’s blessing and favour. In a sense they were right that he wasn’t deserving of God’s favour, because nobody is—and that is something they hadn’t realised. They thought a person could earn God’s blessing if they were good enough; if they performed well enough in moral and spiritual life. They thought whoever measured up to God would be blessed by him more—that if you keep God’s law, then God will give you life. On the other hand, they condemned those who didn’t measure up, shunning them, throwing them out of the religious community, just as they had done with the man born blind after he confessed faith in Jesus—because they believed that is how God would want them to treat them.
Jesus uses this illustration to teach the Pharisees—and all who would trust in their own efforts that it is only over his dead body that one enters the sheepfold of the Kingdom of Heaven. In the verse straight after today’s text, Jesus says: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11). Entry into the Kingdom of heaven isn’t by human achievement, outward religious performance or any kind of effort on our part. We can try to sweep our sins under the carpet, but not out of God’s sight. We can try to cover over our unrighteousness with a pious exterior, but God knows the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. We can try to take away our guilt by giving generously to charities, but we can never pay off our debt before God. It is only the holy and precious blood of Jesus that washes away our sin, and faith in him alone by which anyone is reckoned by God to be righteous.
The highest point of the Jewish calendar was the Passover; God’s rescue of his ancient people from slavery in Egypt through the Red Sea. God told them to sacrifice a lamb, and paint its blood over their doorframes. It was sign to them that God would do as he promised and pass over them in judgement. When the Israelites opened their doors to leave their homes in land of Egypt for the homeland God promised them, they walked underneath blood-smeared doorposts, symbolizing that the way out of Egypt was only through the means of atonement God-provided.
In today’s text Jesus says that he is the door; and his own precious blood is the way to enter the Kingdom of God. It is only over his dead body that we are here today.
The Passover festival was one aspect of Israel’s life of worship in which animal sacrifice was central. It was through the sacrifice of animals—through their blood—that made atonement for the people on the altar. A living being without blood being pumped around its body dies. The animal was a substitute for the sinner; the means for the wages of sin—death—to be paid for, while the sinner went free. Because the sacrificial system was so integral to the worship life of Israel, keeping flocks was common.
But notice the difference with what Jesus says in today’s text. The sheep in our text are not shepherded to harm or danger. They are not to be slaughtered. They enter the door that they may have life; that they be saved. Jesus says: I have come in order that they may have life, and have it to the full. Jesus is the Lamb of God who was sacrificed, so that by his death we might have life—true life; abundant life; new life; resurrection life.
Yet for Jesus to only lay down his life would in another way present a great dilemma: by his shed blood he would have saved his people, only to be dead, leaving the sheep even more vulnerable to attack.
And so Jesus not only laid down his life, he took it up again—for you. The season of Easter is a particular time that we especially celebrate that Jesus who laid down his life for the world is alive; our living Good Shepherd. Peter puts it beautifully in today’s Epistle reading: Jesus is the shepherd and overseer of your souls. He is the pastor of his church, your pastor; the Good Shepherd of his sheep.
Jesus gives another illustration in today’s Gospel reading—of a doorkeeper opening the door for the shepherd: “But the one who enters through the door is the shepherd of the sheep. The doorkeeper opens the gate and the sheep hear his voice and he summons his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them and his sheep will follow him because they know his voice.”
In ancient Israel, sheep were also herded to sheepfolds that were different from the basic walled enclosure with the open doorway. These sheepfolds were more advanced shelters with a door and door keeper. They were often communal, and shepherds with different flocks would lead their sheep there. The shepherds would be known by the door keeper, who would open the door to them. Each shepherd would call out their sheep by name, and the sheep would recognise the voice of their shepherd, and come out.
Jesus, the Good Shepherd has led his flock to the sheepfold. He is known by the door keeper, his Father in heaven, who opens the door for him. Because you are the sheep who belong to Jesus the Good Shepherd, you are also sheep of the Father who opens the door for you, to dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Jesus is the Shepherd of Psalm 23, whose sheep lack no good thing. At times, though, it can seem as though Jesus our Good Shepherd is far away, and we lack plenty. We know pain and suffering, heartbreak and fear. The trials and tribulations of life but a moment away. There is seldom peace in the world, and many have far greater troubles and needs than us. It seems as though evildoers flourish and fare better than the righteous.
How can we say we shall not be in want?
We need to see with eyes of faith, like the man born blind. Our faith will not take our problems away. Our faith will not mean we will suffer less, and our faith will not necessarily mean that God will bless us more in the ways we might expect him to.
When we look with eyes of faith, we find a very different path, a very different reality to mere human understanding. It is a pathway not shown by the world, but in God’s word, revealing an unseen spiritual reality along which we journey at the same time as we walk in the world we can see. When we look with eyes of faith we see that the spiritual needs, not the physical, are the most important needs we have. This world is not our home and what we prize and work for is not what will help us most. When we look with eyes of faith, we see it is not what is in our homes, our garage, our bank accounts, our wallets, our jewellery boxes that matter—but what is in our hearts.
When we look with eyes of faith, we see that as we live our life on this earth, we must become less and Jesus must become more. When we look with eyes of faith we see that it is not about us being great, for it is the least who are the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
When we look with eyes of faith we see God’s will for us, and on this journey that our Good Shepherd leads us on, our momentary sufferings will pale into insignificance in the light of eternity. When we look with eyes of faith we know that in all things—even the worst—God works for the good of those who love him, and nothing is impossible for him…and nothing can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Look with eyes of faith and see, like the man born blind, that Jesus has come to make you whole, having given you abundant life, fulness of life, eternal life. He does this by sharing his own life with you, pouring out upon us grace upon grace so that we may all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God, as we mature to the full measure of the stature of Christ. He has called you by name to lead you to the quiet waters of his word and rich pasture of his sacraments that you might know him as closely as he knows you and find true rest for your souls. He has redeemed you by his precious blood so that, now reconciled to God, you have a place of permanent residency in his Kingdom. He is your Good Shepherd who will provide everything you need as he goes ahead of you, leading you through every evil—even through the valley of the shadow of death—to his Father’s house, where because of his good work, you will dwell forever. Amen.
[1] adapted from Burgess, David F (comp) 1988 Encyclopedia of sermon illustrations (CPH: ST Louis, p13).
