The Peace of the Shepherd

Introduction

Have you ever been ripped off before? Every paid for something and didn’t get what you were expecting? I recently paid for a stereo system on Facebook marketplace and got ghosted by the seller after I sent him the money. I’m sure we all have an example of someone pulling a slick one on us at some point. Most of the time you get scammed for some cash and go on about your life. Hopefully it wasn’t too much, anyway. In my case, it was like $70. Which is just enough to be annoying but not enough to need to file an insurance claim, you know?

But we live in a world where people who want something can be manipulated in really terrible ways. People suffering from cancer will send their entire paycheck to a televangelist in hopes that he will pray their disease away. People living in poverty will send massive campaign donations to politicians in hopes that they will make the world easier for them to live in.

See, we all want the same thing: we want peace and security. We want our basic needs to be met and to live a healthy, untroubled life where we are free to do what we want. We want peace. So lots of scummy people will prey on our desire for peace and try to scam us out of our livelihood with false hopes.

But during advent we celebrate a savior who brings peace, and he is the only one we can trust to bring peace. Anyone or anything else that offers peace is a false shepherd. We’re going to read a few words from Ezekiel about these false shepherds, and see what he defines as godly peace.

What the Scripture Says

Ezekiel 34:11–31 NIV

“ ‘For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness. I will bring them out from the nations and gather them from the countries, and I will bring them into their own land. I will pasture them on the mountains of Israel, in the ravines and in all the settlements in the land. I will tend them in a good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel will be their grazing land. There they will lie down in good grazing land, and there they will feed in a rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down, declares the Sovereign Lord. I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy. I will shepherd the flock with justice. “ ‘As for you, my flock, this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will judge between one sheep and another, and between rams and goats. Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture? Must you also trample the rest of your pasture with your feet? Is it not enough for you to drink clear water? Must you also muddy the rest with your feet? Must my flock feed on what you have trampled and drink what you have muddied with your feet? “ ‘Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says to them: See, I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. Because you shove with flank and shoulder, butting all the weak sheep with your horns until you have driven them away, I will save my flock, and they will no longer be plundered. I will judge between one sheep and another. I will place over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he will tend them; he will tend them and be their shepherd. I the Lord will be their God, and my servant David will be prince among them. I the Lord have spoken. “ ‘I will make a covenant of peace with them and rid the land of savage beasts so that they may live in the wilderness and sleep in the forests in safety. I will make them and the places surrounding my hill a blessing. I will send down showers in season; there will be showers of blessing. The trees will yield their fruit and the ground will yield its crops; the people will be secure in their land. They will know that I am the Lord, when I break the bars of their yoke and rescue them from the hands of those who enslaved them. They will no longer be plundered by the nations, nor will wild animals devour them. They will live in safety, and no one will make them afraid. I will provide for them a land renowned for its crops, and they will no longer be victims of famine in the land or bear the scorn of the nations. Then they will know that I, the Lord their God, am with them and that they, the Israelites, are my people, declares the Sovereign Lord. You are my sheep, the sheep of my pasture, and I am your God, declares the Sovereign Lord.’ ”

Last week we read from the prophet Jeremiah who lived through the destruction of Jerusalem and watched the people of Israel get taken away into captivity. One of those people was Ezekiel, who was led captive into Babylon but seemed to continue his prophetic ministry the whole way. Jeremiah may be called the “weeping prophet” but Ezekiel definitely had his share of troubles, too. He is starved, forced to cook food over a burning pile of dung, and then loses his wife in one of the raids on the city by the Babylonians.

But Ezekiel had certainly read Jeremiah, and they may have even known each other. Either way, the Hope Jeremiah proclaimed is the same Hope we see from Ezekiel in this passage. He is hoping for a God that will restore Israel. Even as he watches the world around him burn, his wife is killed, and he is taken captive - he has hope that God will not only end the suffering but put it right, and create something better in the ashes.

This is a big, long passage. And I shortened it a bit, too. Really, the first part of this chapter gives some important context to what Ezekiel is saying in this passage. In short, the first half of this chapter is a prophetic condemnation of the shepherds of Israel. Not the literal people herding sheep, but the spiritual and societal leaders of the nation. It was their fault, after all, that Israel fell to Babylon after years and years of evil Kings. This is a huge contrast to the Good Shepherd described in the rest of the passage.

If you’re thinking of the 23rd Psalm, you’re probably on the right track to understanding what this prophecy is imagining. In taking on the image of the Good Shepherd, God is promising to correct the evil leadership of the nation of Israel. He is promising these people even as their city is destroyed that their will be a shepherd who will lead the people back home.

This promise sounds a lot like the promise of the exodus, right? These Israelites are being taken away into captivity and may imagine that this is going to be just like Egypt all over again. Moses led the Israelites out, and this is a promise for a coming leader who will take the Israelites out of Babylonian captivity and back into their promised land.

But then verse 23 says something strange: God is going to place over them a shepherd, his servant David. Now if anyone was coming back from the dead to lead Israel out of captivity, it should be Moses, right? So why David? Well, in verse 25 starts with God saying he’s going to make a covenant of peace with them. Ah, okay, we’re talking about Messiah here, aren’t we? David and Moses are both supposed to come alive in the Messiah who comes to restore Israel.

So what does the restoration of the Messiah look like? What sort of thing can be hoped for? First, in verse 11 and 16 we see that this is a shepherd who will search for his sheep: this is describing a God who takes the initiative to rescue those who have gone astray. Next, in verse 13 we see a Shepherd who brings his sheep out of the wilderness of the nations and into the promised land. Third, verses 15, 16, and 23 all describe a shepherd tending to his sheep, binding up wounds and strengthening them.

Verses 17 through 22 interject with something else this shepherd will do: he will judge them. This is still a shepherding task: he’s protecting his sheep from inside attack. See, the wolves are easy to identify and fend off. But the goats hiding in the flock are harder to spot. Part of this protective shepherd’s job is to keep his flock safe from the internal threats of his sheep. Remember this, because we’ll come back to this later.

The further promise of the shepherd continues in verses 25 and 26: This shepherd will not only repair them and bring them into the promised land, but he will bless them. Finally, there is the promise in verse 27 that this shepherd will break the bars and rescue them from their slavery.

The reason for all these promises comes in verses 30 and 31: God will restore Israel and do this work as a shepherd because it will show the nations who God is. It will prove God’s covenant faithfulness to the world, and act as a witness to His power. He will do this simply because he made this promise to his people.

What this Means

So we are getting this picture of peace for the people of Israel that is probably not what most people imagine when they think of the “Peace of Christmas.” Because think about it: our idea of Christmas peace is a baby sleeping in a manger. The Shepherd in this passage is much more powerful than that. David was a shepherd, and this promised shepherd is identified with David in verse 23. See, if we left it with just a generic shepherd, we can draw the line between a humble fieldworker and the baby in the manger.

But this is a shepherd-king, one who rules people with all the competence and gentleness of a shepherd with his sheep. But to these people being taken away into captivity, the shepherd needs to be powerful. That’s because in this broken world, peace can often only be achieved through violence. Teddy Roosevelt called it “Big Stick Diplomacy.” It’s the idea that oftentimes, peace requires a certain level of offensive capability in order to deter those who would take your peace away.

But notice that the power of this shepherd is not used to do violence against Israel’s enemies. Don’t get me wrong, Babylon eventually gets their comeuppances, but it’s not the Shepherd who does it. God actually does Justice for the crimes commited against Israel by breaking down Babylon from the inside-out. The Shepherd is just the one who leads them out of captivity and lead them into this time of peace.

No, his strength as a ruler comes across in the judgement, not against the nations, but against the rams and goats in the midst of Israel. Once the sheep have been rescued, the Shepherd is one who will create a New Israel made exclusively of those who are of the Flock of God, not those who pretend to be a part of the flock just to abuse and manipulate the people around them.

We know, looking back, that this shepherd was born 600 years later in a manger. But again we get this issue with our savior because he does not exactly display the kingly power of this Shepherd as he lies in a feed trough. Jesus doesn’t match up with peoples expectations for this Shepherd, and obviously we are not living in the covenant of peace that Ezekiel was imagining in verse 25.

So what do we wait for? What sort of peace was Ezekiel hoping for? It is the peace that only comes when the right person is in-charge. We have to understand that this shepherd is also a king, he leads his sheep and rules over them. Peace can only come when someone will the full character of God is ruling with perfect justice. The only person with the full character of God is God Himself - so until God sits on the throne over his people, there will be no peace.

Here’s the good news though, Jesus being born in the manger shows us a God coming to be with his people - the shepherd actually coming to live among his sheep. He was enthroned at Calvary and promises to return to fulfill many of the expectations that Ezekiel had. But most importantly, he opened up his flock to all those who would seek to follow him. The righteous remnant is no longer just a small group of sheep within the nation of Israel, it is a flock of people from all the nations and peoples of the world.

How We Live it Out

Here, though, is the caution of this passage. Remember that is starts with this condemnation of Israel’s leaders who failed to shepherd them correctly. Also remember the judgments that happen in verses 17 through 22. Part of the task of a leader is to root-out threats from within.

See, I think we all want peace. We want suffering to end and evil to find justice. When we want this sort of peace, our tendency is to try to find hope in the false leaders of our day. Why do you think the prosperity gospel is so popular on Sunday Morning television? Because people want assurance of immediate peace in their lives. Why do you think people are dedicating so much of their energy to getting their political candidate into office? Because they want to see someone finally bring peace. Even people who propose taking violent actions against their opponents secretly want peace - they believe it will come when their enemies are defeated. But then, this passage seems to hint, you still have the internal threats from people in your own ranks.

See, I think the worse this world gets, the quicker people will be to latch onto false messiahs. And listen, a person doesn’t have to claim to be Jesus reborn to be a false messiah. All they have to do is promise world peace and prosperity in exchange for your support. In fact, let me say that another way: If anyone or anything in this world promises peace and gives you hope, and it isn’t God, it’s a false messiah.

See, our hope was born in a manger and didn’t promise us immediate peace, he promised us eternal peace. This world is broken and he is in the act of redeeming it. Like we discussed last week, that redemption can come alive in the church, showing the Hope of Christ through the people around us. But that is still the Hope of Jesus. It transforms people from the inside out and comes alive in the people around us, but it’s still hope from God.

Because while I am overjoyed to see lives redeemed and transformed by Christ, I know that none of you are perfect yet. None of us will be until Christ returns and finally brings peace. Until then, there is always a potential for hurt and brokenness to break out, even in the church.

Now listen, I can hear you complaining now “Geez, this kid is awfully young to be so cynical. We’re not that bad.” And fair enough, maybe you are perfect. But I know I’m not. I know my heart and know that my life can never be peaceful until God fixes my heart. Because Israel was the cause of most of the things that troubled them, and I’m the same way. Most of the chaos around me is my own fault.

See, the Peace of Christ is not some sort of blissful, walking-on-air meditative state. We’re not going to spend eternity floating on clouds and playing harps! We’re going to spend it gardening in the New Eden. The Peace of Christ is the peace of re-creation. It’s the peace that comes from living in a community, in the New Creation, where the root of evil has been repaired and I can no longer spoil my own peacefulness. The Peace of the Shepherd is a promise that, when Christ takes his seat on the throne of this world, all chaos and violence will cease, because the human capacity for violence will be wiped away.

Is that something a president can do? Or a prophet on the television? Can anyone or anything in this world totally do away with the evil of the human heart? Of course not! So why do we follow the things in this world that promise such peace? None of them will ever be as peaceful as eternity.

And I know it’s hard to follow the baby laying in the manger. He doesn’t seem powerful. He doesn’t promise you peace in this life. He doesn’t promise you that you’ll get to see your enemies trampled beneath your feet. On the contrary, he actually calls us to be incarnated to the world around us, and that means loving our enemies and enduring persecutions with patience. See, the world is going to want you to follow the people with the most power - the people who promise peace through might. Christ promises us peace through humility.

That’s a hard promise to follow. But we have to remember that while those who follow Christ are called to pattern their life off of his humility, Christ himself is the one who has the power. If we believe peace truly comes through power, then Christ is the only one we can follow. He is the only one whose promise of peace means anything.

So when we speak of Peace at Christmastime, it may not look like the peace this world has in mind. It’s a peace that requires the right person being in power - which he isn’t yet in this world. But he is in our hearts. So the peace of Christmas is the peace of allowing Christ to shepherd your life. He will shepherd you into uncomfortable places, and he might ask you to give up some things you love. But the peace that he promises is eternal.

If that peace is something you want to taste in this community, we’d love for you to come talk to us. I’ll be available after service if you want to get to know the Christ of the Manger, the Christ of the Cross, and the Christ of the open tomb. He’s the only one that can offer the peace you’re seeking.