Sunday
04/22/18 Freeville/Homer Avenue UMC’s
Sermon Title: “I am the good shepherd”
Old Testament
Scripture: Psalm 23
New Testament
Scripture: 1 John 3:16-24
Gospel Lesson:
John 10:11-18
Welcome once again on this the 4th Sunday of Easter.
Four Sundays after Jesus rises to new life, and through Him, we are offered new
life.
In the Christian New Testament, as many of us know, we have
four gospels. These of course are the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
In these gospels we have the story of Jesus Christ, what He said, what He did,
the claims that He made, the healings, the love, and the power of God. To put
it another way, the words of Jesus Christ are the words that are contained in
the gospels. There are other scriptures that quote Jesus, but the gospels are
where we get the on the ground reality of who, what, how, were, and when, Jesus
was and is.
If one reads the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,
the text says some pretty amazing stuff. We hear the story of Christ, His life,
and everything that He did and claimed. The challenge for us as Christians though,
is to ask what do these gospels and all scripture mean? Are the gospels
reliable? Do we believe that in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John
that Jesus said and did the things that have been recorded of Him? I do. If we
read the gospels with precision and integrity then, we find some very specific
teachings and ideas.
For example, this morning in our gospel of John reading,
Jesus Christ says,
“I am the good
shepherd” (Jn. 10:11a, NRSV).
What did Jesus mean, when He said
this? Further, do we believe that Jesus did in fact say this? I know that I
believe that He did.
In the gospel of John, we have in fact
seven statements of what are referred to as the “I am” statements, made by
Jesus Christ. It is interesting that when Moses asks God His name in Exodus
3:14, via the burning bush, that God replies by saying:
“I am who I am” (Ex. 3:14, NRSV).
So for Jesus to make statements that
are aligning with the statement that God made to Moses, is very interesting to
me. The seven “I am” statements in the gospel of John are:
(http://journeyingtotherealme.blogspot.com/2017/06/john-15-seriesverse-1.html).
I read you these seven “I am” statements,
to give you an idea of what I am talking about this morning. According to the
gospel of John, Jesus made seven “I am” statements. While these seven “I am”
statements can make for a great sermon series, I wanted to just focus on the “I
am” statement that we have this morning from John 10:11-18. In this reading, Jesus
once again says,
“I am the good
shepherd” (Jn. 10:11a, NRSV).
Well, when I began to do research on
this statement and the concept of a “Shepherd” and a “Good Shepherd,” I found
some information that I didn’t expect at all. For example, I Googled “The Good
Shepherd,” and the first thing that came up was a movie called “The Good
Shepherd,” with Matt Damon, Robert De Niro, and Angelina Jolie. Well then I
thought, “Wait a second, I thought that Jesus was the good shepherd!” Then I
thought, “Why would a movie be named “The Good Shepherd?” Were the makers of
the movie trying to trick us into going to the movies?”
Well, it turns out that character that
actor Matt Damon played in this movie, was a man who worked for the Central
Intelligence Agency or the CIA for years. His character was dedicated to his
country, and was willing to die to defend it.
This is interesting to me, because our
gospel of John reading once again begins with Jesus saying:
“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”
(Jn. 10:11-13, NRSV).
A shepherd who
leads sheep or some other animal is charged with protecting and caring for the
sheep, or whatever the animal is. Pastors are often called shepherds, as we are
charged with taking care of the spiritual wellbeing of the people of the church
and the communities that we serve.
Jesus finishes our gospel of John the
reading this morning by saying:
“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” (Jn. 10:14-18, NRSV)
As Jesus is speaking to a group a
Pharisees when He says this, He is saying that the real shepherds walk through
the gate of the sheep, and the sheep hear, see, and recognize there shepherd.
Wolves and thieves break in, climb over the wall, and do not sound like the
shepherd.
This is certainly powerful imagery,
but again if Jesus said this “I am” statement, as I believe that He did, there
are powerful claims in this statement. To me, in this scripture, Jesus is
saying that He is the Lord of all persons, or sheep. For again, Jesus says this
morning,
“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” (Jn
10:16b-17, NRSV).
Jesus is saying that He is our leader, our shepherd, and that
we must follow him and listen for his voice. Even further, he says he will lay
his life down for us the sheep, and then take it back up. Jesus says in John
15:13:
“No one has greater love than this,
to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (Jn. 15:13,
NRSV).
Jesus tells us to follow Him, to allow ourselves to be
shepherded by Him, and that he will not deceive us. He will even die to save
us.
Some of us might have attended our Active Shooter Training
that we had the Freeville UMC this passed Tuesday night. In this training, a
teacher that came said that she would lay her life down to protect her students,
and then I said I would do the same to protect the people of the church. If a
pastor is a shepherd, and if we take it seriously, then we are modeling, and
living exactly what Jesus taught this morning when He said:
“I am the good
shepherd” (Jn. 10:11a, NRSV).
Jesus could have made the seven statements
in the gospel of John without using the words “I am,” but I think the reality
of his divinity, of Him being the fullness of God and man, came through in the
making of these statements.
Jesus then can be portrayed like a
shepherd that leads us, loves us, and cares for us. Jesus tells us that He
seeks out the lost sheep, and that he as our shepherd that will lead us to the
ways of love, hope, peace, and eternal life.
This is very similar to reading that
we have for this morning from Psalm 23 that says:
“The Lord is my
shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green
pastures; he
leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul. He
leads me in right paths for his name’s sake” (Ps. 23:1-3).
Psalm
23 is speaking of God the Father, yet this morning in the gospel of John, Jesus
Christ, God’s son, God in the flesh, is using very similar language.
Since
pastors and priests are called shepherds sometimes, we are called to teach,
live, and do exactly what Jesus says this morning. This reality extends to all of
us though. You are all shepherds. You might shepherd your children, your pets,
your family, people that work for you, your students if you’re a teacher, or
others. How many of you have people in your life, by a show of hands that you
would lay your life to defend and protect? Well, then you are a “Good
Shepherd”.
This reality rings true in our reading from
this morning from 1 John that says:
“We know love by this,
that he laid down his life for us—and we ought to lay down our lives for one
another. How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and
sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help?”
(1
Jn. 3:16-17, NRSV).
Shepherds are willing to sacrifice,
willing to defend, and willing to lay their lives down for those they love.
So I believe this morning that Jesus
is telling us that He is the full embodiment of God, the great “I am,” that is
going to die for us, be raised to new life, and they He will live in us if we
let him. We are then to go forth into the world telling people about this great
shepherd named Jesus Christ, and then with the power of the Holy Spirit we are
called to transform the world. When we love each other, shepherd each other, we
are drawing closer to Christ, and better living out exactly what Jesus was
saying this morning, when He said:
“I am the good
shepherd” (Jn. 10:11a, NRSV).
There’s short story called the “Star Fish” that I think explains ever
further. This story goes like this:
“A man was walking along a beach upon which thousands of
starfish had been washed up. Left on the sand by the receding tide the starfish
were certain to die as the sun dried them out. The man also saw a boy picking
up starfish and flinging them back into the sea. Planning to teach the boy a
little lesson in common sense, the man walked up to the boy and said, “I have
been watching what you are doing, son. You have a good heart, and I know you
mean well, but do you realize how many beaches there are around here and how
many starfish are dying on every beach every day? Surely such an industrious
and kind hearted boy such as yourself could find something better to do with
your time. Do you really think that what you are doing is going to make a
difference?” The boy looked up at the man, and then he looked down at a
starfish by his feet. He picked up the starfish, and as he gently tossed it
back into the ocean, he said, “It makes a difference to that one.” (http://storiesforpreaching.com/category/sermonillustrations/servanthood/)
My friends, my brothers and sisters,
Jesus is the good shepherd, and we are His sheep, or as the story just said,
his starfish. May we shepherd and love each other, the way that Jesus has and
continues to do for us. Amen.
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