Third
Sunday of Easter
April
10,
2016
John
10:14-15
Dying
Makes the Shepherd Good
In
the name of the Father and of the ☩
Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen!
Shepherding
isn't just for sheep; it's for people, too. And there are lots of
people who want to shepherd you. Parents
want to lead you to how you should live. Politicians
want to lead you to vote for them. Pastors
want to lead you to join their church.
And
if the parent, candidate, or pastor is charming and possibly funny,
you are more likely to follow them. Thus, shepherds who make you feel
good are usually shepherds with lots of sheep. On the contrary,
shepherds who tell the truth usually have smaller flocks, because
telling the truth can often lead to bad feelings.
What
kind of shepherd is Jesus? He makes you feel good; He also tells the
truth. But what sets Him apart from all other shepherds isn't how He
makes you feel or that He tells the truth. He's exceptional because
He died.
Jesus
explained:
14“I
am the good shepherd; I know My sheep and My sheep know Me—15just
as the Father knows Me and I know the Father—and I lay down My life
for the sheep. (John 15:14-15 NIV
1984)
There
are lots of shepherds out there. Some have good intentions; others
don't. Most of these wouldn't be willing to die for you. But some
might. There are people who are alive right now because someone laid
down their life to save them. But those survivors still will die.
With these sacrifices of these noble shepherds, death has only been
postponed.
Jesus
is the Good Shepherd because He laid down His life and Death wasn't
postponed; it was
defeated. Jesus' death is the basis for Him to kill and drown us in
Holy Baptism. He killed you and raised you back to life. Death and
resurrection through His death and resurrection.
We
are told not to judge. Many of have bought that lie, hook, line, and
sinker. Others of us tend to be too harsh in our
judgments. But whether you consciously think that judging yourself or
others is good or bad, we are all do it. Our culture of consumerism
demands it. When you buy stuff, what are you doing? Judging
things. (We accommodate to our culture much more than we'd like to
admit.)
Our
consumer mind-set isn't limited to things. We judge people: parents,
teachers, politicians, and pastors, and everyone else. We tend to
judge these people based on how they make us feel, just like how we
choose a toothpaste or a television.
I
hope we can agree that parenting without boundaries is harmful to the
best interests of children. I hope we can agree that policitians who
say whatever the crowd in front of them wants them to say is harmful
to good government. And I hope we can agree that pastors who preach
the good news of sins forgiven by Christ without
the terrible truth of our sinfulness is harmful to Christians.
Christ
laid down His life for you not because nobody's perfect and we all
make mistakes. He had to laid down His life, not because we are
passive victims, but because it is our fault. We are actively
sinning sheep, rapidly trying to make excuses for ourselves and
steadfastly blaming others for our sins.
We
often picture the Good Shepherd with a sheep across His shoulders.
This is good, but don't let this picture distract you from how He is
shepherding you today. In His mercy, Christ takes the blame for our
sin upon Himself. The Good Shepherd who filled up the wooden cross
with His body, who emptied the tomb with His resurrection, and now
today shepherds you by filling up the cup of communion with His
blood. He shepherds you by placing His body upon this altar and
placing Himself into your mouth for the forgiveness of your sin.
This
is our Good Shepherd. He died, He rose. And so have you.
God
made Him who had no sin to be sin for us,
so
that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. Alleluia! Amen!
2
Corinthians 5:21
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