Sheep, Shepherd, or both?

Timothy Wolff

Mark • Sermon • Submitted 3 years ago

Ephesians 2:11–22

Mark 6:30–34

2 Samuel 7:1–14

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Welcome

Announcements

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S/S 9:45 - 10:45

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BIRTHDAYS AND ANNIVERSARIES

Opening Prayer

Call to Worship

Affirmation

Historic Creeds and Confessions (Apostles’ Creed)

I believe in God the Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth. And in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary Suffered under Pontius Pilate; was crucified, dead and buried; The third day he rose again from the dead He ascended into heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church; the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

Song of Affirmation

Special Music

Psalter Lesson

Psalm 23 NRSV

A Psalm of David. 1 The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters; 3 he restores my soul. He leads me in right paths for his name’s sake. 4 Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff— they comfort me. 5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. 6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long.

Special Music

Pastoral Prayer

Offering

Doxology

Special Music

START TIMER

Mark 6:30-34, 53-56.

Mark 6:30–34 NRSV

30 The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught. 31 He said to them, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. 32 And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. 33 Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them. 34 As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.

Mark 6:53–56 NRSV

53 When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored the boat. 54 When they got out of the boat, people at once recognized him, 55 and rushed about that whole region and began to bring the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. 56 And wherever he went, into villages or cities or farms, they laid the sick in the marketplaces, and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed.

Are you sheep, shepherd, or both?

This is the question that we will answer this morning.

You may have noticed that we skipped a few verses in our reading of the gospel lesson.

Today lesson is like two book ends to great story.

The feeding of the five thousand.

I must admit, that for most of the week, I had it all wrong.

As I began the process of wrestling with the text, I picked up on something that disturbed me.

In verse 31, Jesus immediately recognizes the apostles need for rest.

I followed this through the text.

I looked for it.

I searched diligently, but never found any rest for the disciples.

Let us revisit the story.

Last Week

Jesus sends the disciples out two by two.

Mark 6:7 (ESV)

7 And he called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits.

Mark 6:8 (ESV)

8 He charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in their belts—

NO SPECIAL PROVISIONS FOR THE JOURNEY

Mark 6:12 (ESV)

12 So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent.

They went out with power over unclean spirits and the ability to heal.

Today

We pick up the story in verse 30.

Mark 6:30 (ESV)

30 The apostles returned to Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught.

Mark 6:31 (ESV)

31 And he said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.

Mark 6:32 (ESV)

32 And they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves.

Mark 6:33 (ESV)

33 Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they ran there on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them.

Mark 6:34 (ESV)

34 When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things.

Here is where I began to struggle with the text.

At first I was excited.

I imagined myself as one of the disciples, hearing this beautiful word of Jesus.

Rest, in a deserted place.

That sounds like a great idea.

Let’s go.

We get into the boat and we are on our way.

But as I look out across the water, I see the crowds already forming on the banks of my deserted place.

My heart begins to sink, because I already how Jesus will respond.

He will have compassion, he will see them as sheep without a shepherd, and he will respond appropriately.

I searched this text diligently, looking for rest.

It was Jesus idea. I must be here.

I read the story of the five thousand over and over

Mark 6:35 (NRSV)

35 When it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, “This is a deserted place, and the hour is now very late;

Mark 6:36 (NRSV)

36 send them away so that they may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy something for themselves to eat.”

Mark 6:37 (NRSV)

37 But he answered them, “You give them something to eat.” They said to him, “Are we to go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread, and give it to them to eat?”

I could not help but imagine these tired, weary disciples, as they heard these words.

You give them something to eat.

This is the place, Jesus.

The deserted place, that was supposed to be desolate.

The place we were supposed to be resting.

But there is no rest for the weary.

Their excuses.

Not enough food. Not enough money. It’s too late. All proved to be useless.

I imagined these tired weary disciples as they served breads and fish to over five thousand people.

I was reminded of Hurricane Sally.

I thought of you.

I remembered how Melissa and I ventured out in the wee hours of the morning to assess the damage.

Trees were down everywhere,

Most roads were impassable.

As the sun began to rise, the devastation to our little island was undeniable.

We were surround by immediate need.

Amazingly, the resources began to flood in.

The flood buckets came, and the crowds, came.

The tarps came, and the crowds, came.

Like bands of hurricane wind. They came and came and came.

You served and served and served and served.

From the wee hours of the morning to late in the evening.

Day after day after day.

You served your served Jesus and your neighbor.

Just like our text. NO REST FOR THE WEARY.

What am I missing here?

There must be more to the story.

Maybe missed the point.

What if the story has nothing to do with rest?

What if the point is something completely different?

So, I go back to the beginning.

Mark 6:7–9 (NRSV)

7 He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. 8 He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; 9 but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics.

No special provision.

NO MONEY. NO BAG. NO BREAD. NO EXTRA CLOTHES. NO SPECIAL SHOES.

Just ordinary sandals and the clothes on your back.

AND a staff.

POINT TO STAFF

Jesus sends them our with tool of a shepherd.

Fishermen, and tax collector. Sent out with nothing but the tool of a shepherd.

Maybe Jesus is Jesus is beginning the process of teaching his disciples to be shepherds.

Nowhere in the text do they ever complain of weariness.

Nowhere do they ever ask for a break.

They were excited, they where serving, they had been casting out demons and healing the sick, and preaching the good news of the Kingdom.

I got hung up on rest, because I had forgotten that even though I am shepherd, I am a sheep.

I can still pray with the psalmist

Psalm 23 NRSV

2. PARADOX

In God’s kingdom there is this beautiful paradox, where we can be sheep and shepherds at the same time.

This small band of folks who have responded to the Good Shepherd, and follow faithfully like sheep, are actually shepherds in training.

They, like us are in love with God.

They understand the metaphor of us being God’s sheep.

However, as followers of Jesus, they and we are called to be shepherds.

Listen for the shepherding language in the text.

Mark 6:33–34 (NRSV)

33 Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them. 34 As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.

Mark 6:35 (NRSV)

35 When it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, “This is a deserted place, and the hour is now very late;

Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil.

Mark 6:39 (NRSV)

39 Then he ordered them to get all the people to sit down in groups on the green grass.

He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside still waters, he restores my soul.

Mark 6:41 NRSV

41 Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; and he divided the two fish among them all.

Jesus blesses the meal, and gives it to the disciples to distribute.

They sit the people down on the green grass, in the middle of desolate place.

And they feed the sheep.

The disciples, Jesus sheep become the shepherd.

There is a paradox in the Kingdom of God.

Jesus the mighty shepherd, who’s rod and staff bring comfort.

Who like the shepherd David slays the bear and the lion.

Jesus the good shepherd, becomes the lamb

The lamb of God, slain from the foundations of the earth.

The good shepherd who saves the world when he lays down his life as the crucified Lamb of God.

The paradox extends to us.

We are God’s sheep and cry out with the psalmist, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.”

We are also shepherds for Jesus.

In Jesus last conversation with the Apostle Peter in the 21st chapter of John, Jesus asks him three times, “do you love me?”