I warned 8 o’clockers that my sermon might sound like it was different at 10:30am. Essentially, the message will be the same, but I do have the advantage at this service of having the Baptismal liturgy to remind better of some of what Jesus is teaching us today, informally known as Good Shepherd Sunday. No doubt you could see all the references in our readings today, but Jesus’ instruction in John’s Gospel is almost as hard to miss as Psalm 23.
The reading from John takes us back a few weeks into Lent. Immediately preceding this instruction, the last instruction of those in the crowds in John’s Gospel, is the healing of the man born blind from birth. Good, I see nods. Jesus famously heals the man born blind as a testimony to the glory of God and to Jesus’ identity as the Messiah, the six of seven miracles included by John to convince us that Jesus is the Messiah and that by believing in Him we can have life eternal. The leadership throws the healed man out of the Temple, their version of excommunication, because he dares to lecture them about what Jesus has done.
Though this takes place in the very next chapter, we are skipping ahead in time about three months. We do not read the identifying verse in the way our lectionary editors break up this reading, but we learn in verse 22 that this all happens during what we think of as Hanukka or festival of Dedication.
For those of us unaware of that Festival, it is the only festival of the intertestamental period, that time between the Old and New Testaments. In the 160s BC, Israel, like most of the eastern Mediterranean, was under the control of influence of the Greeks. Such had been the case since the time of Alexander the Great. Some of the Jews were synchronists, meaning they wanted to get along with the ruling power, not unlike the Herodians who mostly defended Roman rule in the time of Jesus. The oppressors had completely defiled the Temple in the eyes of many Jews. Idols had been erected in the Temple of God; pigs had been slaughtered; and, in general, those in power sought to convince Israel not to worship their God. That God was silent during this period made it a bit easier than normal for Israel to be led astray.
In the 106s BC, though, there was a Maccabean revolt. In 165BC, led by Judas Maccabeus, the revolt was largely successful and the Temple was rededicated. Hanukkah is the Hebrew word that means dedication. In the course of this rededication, those who were purifying the Temple discovered they had oil only for one day to keep the great Menorah and the Holy of Holies candelabra lit. God keep the oil supplied for eight days, and the Maccabeans were able to convince Israel to add a memorial Festival marking God’s provision and favor at the effort to return to Him. That is the cultural and historical background to the Jesus’ new instruction. It is important to us today, and especially to Kai’s family as they vow in a bit to lead her to a right relationship with God. But we will talk more about that in a minute.
We also need to understand that Jesus is drawing on God’s prophesy in Isaiah 40 and in Ezekiel 34. In the former, God uses the imagery of the shepherd to describe HIs relationship with His people Israel. Shepherds were well known in the ANE, and kings used that cultural knowledge to describe their relationship with their subjects. The kings wanted their people to think they needed the king for protection, for economic growth, and for general social stability. God did want those for His people, and he used that image to describe His relationship to His people. Ezekiel’s prophesy, however, was a woe to those who did not shepherd His people. If you ever take the time to read the chapter, imagine yourself as the object of God’s criticism in that passage! It should make any king or prophet or priest or anyone in Israel want to repent and treat people as instructed by God. All of that is background to Jesus’ instruction.
Jesus points out that that shepherds enter through the gate. Anyone entering by any means other than the gate are thieves and bandits. Whether the flock is family sized or corporate sized, those who own the sheep, or rightfully hired by the owner, enters through gates. They are the shepherds. Jesus goes on to remind those listening that the gatekeeper opens the gate for the shepherd. Then Jesus describes the intimate relationship between the shepherd and the sheep. The shepherd calls the sheep by name and leads them out.
We live in a society that has mostly forgotten our agrarian roots and wisdom. Most of us would be shocked to think that sheep, which we think are stupid animals, would know their owner’s voice. I see nods. I think I have shared at small group gatherings but I remember a great test of this from my time in seminary. There was an article or commentary that was speaking to a recent Israel bombing and taking over of a village in Gaza. A widow approached the pen where all the animals of the Palestinian villagers were being kept. She asked the soldier on duty if she could collect her flock, telling them she had fled for safety during the attack. The soldier had probably heard a similar sob story several times and told the woman there was nothing he could do. The animals collected and herded in the pen were too numerous and mingled. There was no way to find a couple dozen sheep in the midst of such a collection. The woman went on to explain how her husband had died and that the flock was the means of support for the widow and her son.
The soldier showed her some sympathy, but there was nothing he could do. There was no way she could prove she owned the sheep. The woman sheepishly (I know, bad father joke) asked if she could prove the sheep were hers, would the soldier let her take them home. The soldier gave her the modern equivalent of a “sure, lady, if you can prove it.” The lady gestured at her son. He took out a little flute-like instrument and began to play. All of a sudden a head went up and then another and another. Before the son had finished the song, her flock had responded to the melody. The soldier opened the gate for her and allowed her and her son to lead the flock back home.
These types of stories have been tested again and again on youtube. If you get bored some day and want to plumb the depth of Jesus’ teaching on sheep and shepherd, search and watch them. She respond to the music or voice or however they have been taught the identity of the shepherd, and most avoid or ignore those who are not doing it right.
Jesus’ audience does not understand the teaching. Verse six tells us it is an example of a type of speech, rather than a parable. The crowd needs clarification. So Jesus spends the next set of verses describing His identity and the function of the Good Shepherd in the verses we do not include today. Jesus identifies Himself as the gate. One does not get to the sheep, nor does one lead the sheep out into the pastures, without first going through the gate. We hear Jesus teach us that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, that no one comes to the Father except through Him, and other such teachings so often that we likely miss how this would have sounded in the ears of His audience 2000 years ago. But the gate separates; the gate protects; the gate frees. The gate describes Jesus’ work, right? When we pause for a second and think, it makes sense.
There are other parts to His instruction in the next several verses that speak to His identity that we miss or forget. For example, the Good Shepherd leads His flock from the front. The Good Shepherd is not sitting in the back pointing where the flock needs to go. The Good Shepherd leads them safely, always keeping an eye out for good water, good pasture, and predators. The Good Shepherd keeps the flock out of the briars, from falling in crevices, and from stumbling into the lair of a predator.
Perhaps most importantly to us, the Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep and always goes looking for the lost sheep! The Good Shepherd does not count the cost of defending the sheep from a predator and say to Himself, “the wolf can have that sheep so I can get the rest of the flock to safety”. The Good Shepherd uses His crook, His sling, whatever is available to protect the sheep from the bear or the wolf or whatever predator. More amazingly, the Good Shepherd searches for the stubborn sheep that has left the safety and security of the flock to pursue its own desires, its own perceived needs, and returns the sheep with celebration and cheer.
Ultimately in this section, Jesus will instruct His audience and us that the Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. For us, 2000 years later, the image is clear. Jesus literally lays down His life that we might be restored to right relationship with our Father in Heaven. By virtue of His Death and His Resurrection, you and I are assured of our Father’s love of each of us, of His care for us, and of His promise that we who call upon Him will one glorious day be united with Him and all who claim Him as Lord for eternity. Because we know ourselves, our sins and need, we know our Father’s love for us in the Good Shepherd’s willingness to die for us.
Which brings me back to our liturgy today. In a few moments, baby Kai’s family will present her to be baptized. Because she is an infant, her parents and Godparents will answer for her. They will promise to raise her to know the depth of God’s love for her, to remember the need to attune herself to God through study and prayer, and, when she sins, to repent and return to God. Notice the liturgy does not say “if.” It says when. Such was the Good Shepherd’s love for Kai that He willed Himself to hang on that Cross 2000 years ago in Jerusalem that she might have hope and abundant life 2000 years later. It is a remarkable promise, a promise that can be made only by One with power over death and a love that transcends time and space.
On this day when we remember the Festival of Dedication, her loved ones will promise to dedicate themselves to teaching her these truths. We as the witnesses to all these things will commit to doing what we can to support her and them in this work. In a real way, this is a Hanukkah moment for all of us, a moment of re-dedication. We remind ourselves intentionally of God’s promises to us as that water is poured over her head, we remind ourselves of the love that He bore for us, and we reaffirm and rededicate our lives to Him again. With the family we celebrate the grace of God at work in Kai and in ourselves. Then we come to the altar to be nourished by His Body and Blood, remembering His Death, re-proclaiming His Resurrection, and head back out into that world to do the work He has given us to do until our deaths or His return, trusting that the Good Shepherd will equip each of us with the tools we need, the words we need, the actions we need in order to draw the world into His flock.
And though Kai’s baptism is special in the eyes of her family, for her wider family, that is the Church, it is a wonderful moment of renewal in our own lives. We have been reminded of the Good Shepherd who laid down His life for us. We have been reminded that the Good Shepherd serves as the gate. We have been reminded that the Good Shepherd is, indeed, God, who promises He will lead us through dark valleys in the shadow of death, who promises He will see us watered and fed, who promises to seek us if we find ourselves lost, who celebrates when we are rejoined to our flock, and who promises one Day we will dwell with Him, hearing our names on His lips, and following Him as He leads to those amazing places He prepared for His flock, as we share one with another the stories of His care for each one of us, from our most mature to little Bella and even those who come after.
In His Peace and His Care,
Brian+
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