The Good Shepard Reflections
Rev. Mark Porizky
05/07/06
John 10:11-18
“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. I have other sheep that do not
belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice.
So there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me,
because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from
me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have
power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.”
The
image of a shepherd is an important one in the Bible, which is only natural,
for the roots of the Bible go back to a wandering people. Sheep are portable,
an important feature for nomads who follow the call of God. Abraham and his
children were all shepherds. Recall that moment when God tested that Abraham’s faith,
calling him to sacrifice his son, Isaac. At the last moment God substituted a
ram.
Sheep
figured prominently in the exodus story. The blood of a lamb, provided by some
shepherd, was dabbed upon the doorposts of the children of
Thus,
when Jesus spoke of shepherds, he was touching upon a key feature of the
ongoing story of God’s people. In this day and age, we may have a hard time
associating with this image. After all, how many of us have any contact with an
actual shepherd? The meat you pick up from the frozen food section and the
sweater we get from the store shelf is about as close as we come. If anything,
we have a somewhat romanticized view of shepherds, based in part upon our
reading of the Bible, especially texts like the 23rd Psalm.
In
Jesus’ day, shepherds were not all that highly thought of. Since they spent so
much time out in the wilderness, leading their flocks from place to place, they
were considered a bit dirty in the eyes of most people. It was a job few really
wanted, often tossed onto the youngest child who couldn’t toss it on anyone
else. Remember David who went onto become King. Our first picture of him in the
Bible is out in the hills somewhere taking care of the family’s flock. He was the
youngest son, you know. Nobody expected him to amount to much. His father,
Jesse, was quite surprised when Samuel asked for him on that secret journey to
Shepherds
were furthermore thought of as untrustworthy characters. The oral law of
It’s
no wonder that there was a shortage of shepherds - that is, the ones who
actually owned and managed their own flocks, shepherds who were invested
personally in the business. Regardless, sheep were an important part of their
economy. Meat, milk, wool - all were
vital to the survival of a people who no longer wandered from place to place as
their ancestors had. Since there were few shepherds anymore by trade, well, somebody
had to do the work. Most often it ended up in the hands of what was called a “hireling,”
someone paid to take care of the animals, who had no personal investment in
their well-being.
With
all this in mind, it does seem strange, doesn’t it, for Jesus to call himself
"the good shepherd." Then again, Jesus often did that, connecting
himself up with questionable characters like, for instance, Samaritans,
prostitutes, tax collectors. After paying my taxes a few weeks ago, I’m not
sure I could’ve stomached hearing something like "I am the good tax
collector." The folks who first heard him speak of good shepherding
would’ve had similar problems, though it would’ve been a mixed picture.
This mixed picture is in evidence today. Few people, then or now, aspired to be
shepherds. But many people, then and
now, found great comfort in the beloved words of the 23rd Psalm can
bring in times of trouble and danger.
With few exceptions, the 23rd Psalm remains the most
requested Scripture I am asked to read at funerals.
Even
ministers often refer to the congregation as their “flock” because Jesus told
Peter to “feed my lambs” and “tend my sheep.” People who raise sheep know
that sheep have a strong instinct to stick together, to follow the
leader. If you hold a stick in front of the leader of a flock of sheep,
it will leap up and over the barrier. But if you take the stick away
after that first sheep jumps over it, every single sheep that follows will
imitate the first one. When each sheep gets to that same point on the
path, they will all jump the same way, even though the stick isn’t there.
Stupid
sheep. Not many of you want to be known
as sheep.
But
many leaders would like you to act like sheep!
We think that the flock mentality isn’t such a bad idea. Don’t think
we don’t sometimes wish the group we are leading would act a little more like
sheep? It would be nice to have everyone staying together, all moving in
the same direction, following along without questions. (Pause)
But
Jesus adds a new twist to the image of the Good Shepherd. The new thing
that Jesus adds to this image is that the shepherd lays down his life for his
sheep. Total self-sacrifice.
This
idea of total self-sacrifice is often associated with motherhood, and this
Scripture I have read is one of those most often read on Mother’s Day. Many people associate the good shepherd with
the ideal mother—one who always puts other family members first. But we
can have mixed feelings about the sacrifices that we make, as the following
story illustrates:
A
rescue helicopter lowered a rope to the deck of a sinking ship at sea.
All five passengers, four men and one woman, were able to grab onto the rope
just as the boat sank. But the rope was only strong enough to carry four
people. One person would have to get off, or all of them would die.
At first, they couldn’t decide what to do. Finally the woman gave a
touching speech saying that she would give up her life to save the
others. She would do it because women were used to giving up things for
their husbands and children.
But
as it turned out, the woman didn’t have to die. At the end of her speech
all the men started clapping!
We
need to be careful not to take the idea of self-sacrifice too far. The
ideal of self-sacrificing love is sometimes used to keep women in oppressive
and even physically abusive relationships. Besides Jesus reminds us that
we can’t really love others unless we are also able to love ourselves first. Such
self-love is not intended to be narcissistic, just a healthy sense of who we
are and what we are worth.
Perhaps
another mother image might do., one that isn’t quite so complicated around the
issue of self-sacrifice.
Vicki
Edwards, the mother of two preschoolers, was reminded of this kind of love when
she took her children to the park shortly after it had rained. Even
though there was mud and standing water everywhere she decided the children
could stay to play. After a while she looked at her children and wondered
what it would take to clean them up. She began to think that it might be
easier to have more children than to clean up the ones she had!
And
then she wondered if God ever had the same thoughts. After God created
humankind, they rebelled against their creator. God could have chosen to
turn away from us and start over by creating new people who were less
troublesome, less prone to sin. But instead, God went to a lot of trouble
to clean us up.
It’s
that cleaning up that sticks with me.
Salvation has so many meanings, but one meaning is “to clean up your
life.” To come to Jesus, to commit to
living as a Christian, to follow the Good Shepherd is to strongly desire to
clean up your life.
And
this is what the Good Shepherd does. The
One who laid down his life for the sake of we messy, smelly sheep (no, I don’t
particularly like being called “messy” or “smelly” anymore than you do), the
One who laid down his life for us is also the One who comes to us daily and
cleans us up. The loving shepherd fusses
over the sheep, you and me, in the most loving and tender way.
That’s
the image I hold onto from all these sheep reflections. That’s the one that I hold when I close my
eyes and picture the loving shepherd, the one who lays down his life for the
sheep is also the one who is constantly cleaning them up.
George
Buttrick would be on my "Top Ten" list of 20th-century preachers. In
one of his favorite stories, he tells of coming one day upon a farmer who had
just rescued a lost sheep. When Buttrick asked how the sheep got lost, the
farmer replied, "They just nibble themselves lost." The sheep, the
farmer explained, go from one tuft of grass to another, until at last they've
lost their way.
That's
what happens in life, isn't it? We don’t
start out intending to get lost, to get “all messed up,” but sometimes we
simply lose our way, we’ve nibbled our way far from where we really want to be.
That’s
why we need a Good Shepherd, the only who laid down his life, the one who
cleans us up,
The
one who invites us to the table of the Lord’s Supper today. If you’ve nibbled your way too far from God,
the “nibbles” on this table, the symbolic body and blood of the Good shepherd,
are your way to come back.
Feeling
lost. Come home. Come to the table. The table of the Good Shepherd.
Will
you pray with me now?