CHRIST WANTS ME, SO I WANT NOT!

Sheep need a shepherd, and the Lord provides. “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want” Psalm 23:1.

These beautiful words that have inspired great hymns and countless stained glass windows! After the cross, it’s hard to think of a picture that captures Jesus’ ministry to us more than the image of our Good Shepherd. We might think of sheep set against deep green grass, rich blue sky, and white puffy clouds. It’s an idyllic and calming image of an ordered, peaceful life, but that’s not the whole story.

The fact is there are many dangers for those nearly helpless sheep.

Sheep need shepherds. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of wild sheep. No football team will ever be called the Green Bay Lambs, or the Minnesota Sheep! Scattered sheep are doomed. So the Lord laments in Ezekiel 34: “They were scattered, because there was no shepherd, and they became food for all the wild beasts” (Ezek 34:5). In Ezekiel, God files his complaint against the kings and priests of Israel. They were to feed, protect, and lead the children of Israel in the Lord’s pleasant pastures. But instead they led them into false worship. They usually didn’t completely deny the true God; they allowed the people to worship the true God and false gods. They didn’t love the Lord or his flock. They loved themselves. They loved fitting in with the spirituality of their day. They loved the income and earthly peace they thought would be theirs by embracing the sins and self-made salvations that surrounded their little land. And the poor sheep were scattered and destroyed.

The Lord God spoke in full, righteous wrath. That’s it! “Behold, I am against the shepherds. . . . No longer shall the shepherds feed themselves. I will rescue my sheep from their mouths, that they may not be food for them” (34:10; emphasis added).

The Lord God proclaimed a most merciful promise: “Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out” (34:11; emphasis added). The Lord appointed himself Shepherd for his people. As David taught us to sing, “The Lord is my Shepherd!” This beautiful promise is fulfilled in Christ Jesus, the Lord in our flesh who rescues us. Surely,

The King of Love My Shepherd Is!

for he lays down his life for the sheep; he leads his sheep; he never forsakes his flock.

He Lays Down His Life for the Sheep

First, the Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He came down from heaven to save us, Jesus is not a deserter. He doesn’t cut and run in order to save his own skin when the fight to save you gets tough. He doesn’t let the satanic lion and demon-driven dogs sink their teeth into his sheep. Jesus put himself into the lion’s mouth and let the dogs surround and corner him. He suffered for us. He purposely was betrayed, mocked, scourged, crucified, and damned. He made himself a silent, uncomplaining lamb in our place. As St. Peter confesses:

“When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed” (1 Pet 2:23–24).

Jesus suffered without threatening and was reviled without reviling back, because he was bearing our consequences for wandering away; he got what a lone, isolated, scattered sheep deserved. The Lord had promised through Ezekiel: “As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness” (Ezek 34:12). On the darkest day—a Friday called Good—your Good Shepherd delivered you by delivering himself into death. The Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

And the Good Shepherd

Leads His Sheep.

The Good Shepherd calls his sheep and they follow his voice. Of course a dead shepherd doesn’t help his sheep for long. Soon the wolves’ stomachs are empty. But your Good Shepherd not only lays down his life, but he takes it up again. He rises from the dead to lead you.

Sheep have impeccable hearing. Multiple flocks can be merged together at night and then separated in the morning, simply by the shepherds calling. This is what Jesus taught in John 10, speaking of himself as the Shepherd: “The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice” (Jn 10:3–4).

Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Jesus leads you by his voice. He first tenderly taught you to recognize his voice at your Baptism; through the Word and blessed Sacrament of the Altar, he continues to teach you and lead you through this sinful world with his voice. But you must learn to distinguish his voice—the Word of Holy Scripture—from the cacophony of loud and alluring voices of our day. His voice calls you to repentance, to the anointing of your head with the oil of Holy Baptism, to feed on the lush pastures of his Word and at the Table of his life-giving blood and flesh spread before you even while Satan, sin, and death surround. Notice in Psalm 23 that all the important actions happen by the Shepherd’s work, not yours. He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads; He restores; He leads.

But watch out, for there are legions of wolves and thieves who would teach you that Holy Baptism is your work, instead of God’s—something you do to show yourself to be a sheep rather than the brand the Good Shepherd puts on you to mark you as his. As if a sheep could brand itself! There are those who want to teach you the Lord’s Supper is not the table of the Good Shepherd’s body and blood, but a symbolic supper by which we think fondly on what Jesus did for us. As if a sheep could feed itself! There are those who would turn you inward to your believing, to your piety, to your feelings, to your works, to your self, and away from Jesus and his blood-bought gifts. As if a sheep could shepherd itself! There are those who tell you that receiving Jesus’ work isn’t enough to save you. You must have enough love and do enough good to make it to heaven. As if a sheep could defeat the lion itself! There are those who tell you that they can give you success, popularity, wealth, and health if you just follow their rules. As if a sheep can turn himself into a sleek and successful sheep!

Flee from them and do not follow them, Christ says. As Martin Luther wrote, “If you wish, therefore, to be richly supplied in both body and soul, then above all give careful attention to the voice of this Shepherd, listen to his words, let him feed, direct, lead, protect, and comfort you. That is: hold fast to his Word, hear and learn it gladly, for then you will be well supplied in both body and soul” (AE 12:157). The Good Shepherd leads us.

And the Good Shepherd

Never Forsakes His Flock

David, who faced death many times, calls us to pray: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me” Psalm 23:4.

There are times when you might feel abandoned. Why would a caring shepherd lead me through the valley of the shadow of death? Why would the death of a dear one cast a shadow over me? Why does my own death loom before me as a dark cloud? Is it that the Good Shepherd has left me? Is it because of my sin or my failure? No, he is not punishing you. No, he has not failed to care for you. “I will fear no evil, for you are with me” (v 4). Jesus is with us in death. He went through it first for you to open the way to life. Jesus is with us in mourning. He wept at Lazarus’s tomb. Jesus is your Good Shepherd, who comforts you. He sends goodness and mercy to nip joyfully at your heels. He leads you right into his house here today and will keep you who follow him in his house forever.

Sheep that are separated from the flock are easy pickings for the poachers. Christians don’t go it alone—that would be going against the very voice of the Good Shepherd. Experience teaches that people without a flock — a congregation — tend to believe in a little bit of everything, and so in truth wind up believing in nothing at all. Sheep who don’t learn the voice of their Shepherd will soon follow any voice. Outside the flock, it’s cold and deadly—there’s no forgiveness, no life there.

But here in the Lord’s flock — His congregation — the Lord restores the joy of salvation to your soul; the Lord brings you back rejoicing; the Lord binds up your wounds; the Lord guides you in his righteous way; the Lord is with you and comforts you even under the dark shadows of death. Because of your Good Shepherd’s boundless, selfless love, received by the faith he supplies, surely goodness and mercy shall follow you all the days of your life, and you will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.