Gloria Dei Lutheran Church | Urbandale, Iowa

Jesus the Good Shepherd: Sacrificial Care

Pastor Robarge’s Sermon

Ash Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Grace, mercy and peace be unto you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Marshall Applewhite. He said he was Jesus Christ. Maybe more familiar for you, he was the leader of the Heaven’s Gate cult. He led 39 people to their death. Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda, another man who says he is Jesus Christ. Yes, people follow after him. He has the poor who give him money as he promises them wealth and prosperity. None of it comes.

I have a personal experience that happened. A couple of years ago, I was making shut-in calls. And every week, I know I would go to the same shut‑in and she would sit down and the first thing we would talk about was what she was going to watch on TV during the week. That’s right, so I would sit down and I would listen to it. And she would go through, “Well, Monday I get to watch,” and she would list her shows off. Tuesday and Wednesday. But then she would list on Sunday, “This is what I do Sunday mornings. I turn on the TV at 6:00 in the morning and I turn it on to this particular station and this is who I watch. I see these televangelists. I get to watch some of the good preachers who are on Sunday morning.” But she said, “Oh, there’s this particular one that I really love to watch,” and she really talked about him. Every time I went to see her, she said, “This is the guy that I love to hear.” So she said, “Sometimes what he asks is for me to give money and then in return, if you’re looking for some wealth, if you’re looking for that possibility of being healed, that money, that love gift is going to bring about wealth or health.” No matter how many times I talked to her about it, no matter how many times we looked at passages of scripture, she didn’t always listen to me. But it was one day she called me up. She sounded kind of frantic. She said, “You know, the electric company called me today and said they’re going to turn off my power.” And I said, “What? Why would the electric company call you up and say that they’re turning off your power? Haven’t you paid your bill?” And she said, “No. I just didn’t have enough to pay the electric company.” And I said, “Have you been still giving your love offerings?” She said, “I’m afraid they’re not working.” She said, “Do I have enough faith?” It broke my heart, watching her as she was giving this money selflessly but also with the same idea that there was going to be something in return, that she was going to get some kind of wealth a hundredfold, that she was going to be healed of her illnesses so she could get out of there. She was thinking about retiring to the place where this man had his church. And now she couldn’t even pay her electricity.

We hear a lot of voices. We hear a lot that goes on. We see a lot of people. They look good. They might sound good. They’re very charismatic. But it can be dangerous. It can be very dangerous when we start to listen to the words and hear what people are saying and then start to buy into it. “God’s going to bless me with wealth and possessions.” “God’s going to heal me if I just give enough money.” Is that what God has become? To some people, yes. And that’s what happens when we start to hear a voice and we start to follow after and we start to say, “Well, it sounds good. It sounds like this is something that could help me.” But it just ends up in pain, sometimes ending in death.

Today is Ash Wednesday. On Ash Wednesday, we start the celebration of this season of Lent. And in this season of Lent, we’re going to continue to look at Jesus. You know, go figure. But we’re going to see Jesus maybe in a new way. We’re going to continue to listen to what it is and who He is. Maybe we’re going to figure out that we don’t know everything. We’re going to see that Jesus is the way. We’re going to see that Jesus is divine. What does it mean for the people right now? We’re going to start to hear about Jesus as the Good Shepherd. What does it mean Jesus is divine? We can’t believe that there’s only one way. And in this Lenten series, we’re going to start to look at some of these topics. We’re going to start to look at them and, as they unfold, what does it mean in this Lenten season that we get to look at Jesus in a new way? And we start to study Him a little bit closer so when we hear another voice, when we hear something that might sound good, something that might look good, but is it Jesus? And I pray tonight that as we continue to hear the voice of the Good Shepherd, we’ll be able to hear the voice more clearer. We’ll be able to hear that voice from Jesus and we’ll say, “There’s nothing that can take away from that. I’ll always hear the voice of my Good Shepherd.”

And so tonight, we hear from our Good Shepherd. We hear from Jesus when He says, “I am the Good Shepherd.” He talks about bringing those in to save them and yet, there are people in our communities that say, “No, I just don’t need to be saved.” It reminded me of a story, factitious story that I heard of. There was a man who was in a car accident. And the ambulance came and the paramedics came out and they saw the man. He got out of the car and he said, “I’m fine. Nothing’s wrong with me.” And they said, “Why don’t you just get checked out? It’s not going to take very long. We’ll just take you in the ambulance. We’re going to take you down and we’re going to check you out. It won’t take long.” And he said, “Nothing’s wrong with me.” And they said, “Well, you were in a car accident. You’re bleeding. You have some bruises already. Don’t you want to be checked out?” And he said, “Nothing is wrong with me.” And this man ended up leaving. His wife picked him up. He went home and he died that night from internal bleeding. And nothing was wrong with him.

Sometimes that’s the way I feel when we’re talking to people outside the church and they say, “Nothing is wrong with me.” Spiritually. When we start to say that nothing is wrong with us, that goes against God’s word. You see that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God in the church and outside the church. It doesn’t matter. Everyone has fallen short of what God had intended for them. And yet, there’s still that understanding that nothing is wrong with me.

And I pray tonight that this message that we hear from the Good Shepherd, this message that we hear from Jesus, it’s not just for us here but it’s a message for all people. Preceding our text for tonight, we see that Jesus is speaking to the disciples and some crowds that are around Him in John 10. Directly preceding what we already looked at, what we heard from the text tonight, this is what it said, “Truly, truly I say to you, he who does not enter the sheep pen by the door but climbs in another way, that man is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him, the gatekeeper opens. 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. A stranger they will not follow but they flee from him for they do not know the voice of the strangers.” It says, “This figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they didn’t understand what He was saying.” So initially, Jesus, even though He said, “Verily, verily,” as it says in the King James version or “Truly, truly, this is the truth,” but they didn’t exactly hear Him. The disciples said, “I don’t know if I’m catching the illustration, Jesus. You’re talking about sheep. You’re talking about shepherds. You’re talking about somebody jumping over the fence to get in. What are you saying?” Jesus doesn’t want to leave them confused so what does He continue with? He say, “Truly, truly I say to you I am the door of the sheep.” So not only is Jesus leaving them with a picture, they’re saying, “I’m not understanding. I’m not getting what you’re talking about. And you’re saying this is the truth. So truth, truth.” And He says it again, “Truth, truth.” When Jesus is repeating Himself like that, we know that He’s telling the truth.

And then He follows with, “I say to you I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me were thieves and robbers. The sheep didn’t listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down his life for his sheep.”

We have this picture, I believe a beautiful picture of who Jesus says He is. It’s not so much of a beautiful picture about who He says we are, though. When Jesus says, “I am the Good Shepherd,” that means that we’re the sheep. Does anyone like to be a sheep? Oh, we have one sheep at least. But Jesus is saying we’re sheep. I don’t know how many people have been to the State Fair, big in Iowa, right? Huge in Iowa. And so if you go to the State Fair, you see the sheep and these are the sheep that are cleaned up. These are the show sheep. What about the sheep that we might come across that are just roaming outside that are just in the dirt all the time? Do you want to be that sheep? So we get a good picture about who the Good Shepherd is. The Good Shepherd speaks. He lays down His life for His sheep. But that means we’re sheep.

I think the prophet Isaiah says it best when he says, “All are like sheep that have gone astray.” This gives us that great picture then of what we’re talking about here. When we look at the people outside, when we look at the people inside, all are in need of God’s grace. All are in need of that saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. Jesus says, “I care about all people. I’d like to bring everyone into this fold.” And that’s what He talks about in this verse. He says, “It’s not just for Israel but I want to bring other sheep into this, gather them together, bring them in.” But we’re still sheep.

Sheep like to wander. Sheep like to go their own way. Sheep think, “Oh, maybe we’ll follow these other sheep,” and the other sheep maybe run off and there’s a wolf. And who’s going to stand in front of the wolf? When we start to carry Jesus’ metaphor out, He says, “Not the hireling, not the hired hand.” The hired hand is not going to stand in front of the wolf because they’re only in it for the money. But who’s going to stand between the wolf and these sheep? Only the Good Shepherd. Only the Good Shepherd is willing to lay down His life for these smelly sheep, these sheep who continue to wander off after He’s brought them back a hundred times.

And that’s why the message continues for us and when we look at starting here in Lent, when we come before God, we start to recognize that we’ve been running. We’ve been wandering. We’ve been getting in the dirt and the muck and the grime, but the Good Shepherd always brings us back. One of the great pictures out of art, I think, it was in my confirmation room tonight, Jesus is standing there with his staff, right? And He’s just standing there. He has all the sheep around Him. They’re listening to Him. They’re following Him. It’s a beautiful picture. Sometimes we miss it. The picture is old. The picture is something we’ve heard before and yet tonight, we can see the Good Shepherd in a new way. We can see the Good Shepherd as He’s called us back here once again and He’s shown us that He’s going to lay down His life for us, that He’s already laid down His life for us. He said, “No hired hand is going to do that.” And yet, that’s what He calls us to in this Lenten season right now, as we identify the Good Shepherd, as we hear His voice that we start to learn His voice and we start to understand more about who He is. We study Him. We study His word because then when we come across something, it’s like, “We recognize that’s not the voice of the Good Shepherd. I know we’re not supposed to follow that because that is the wolf, the wolf who’s come to steal, kill and destroy.”

Jesus laid down His life for us. He saved us from death, from the devil. He’s bought us back. He’s purchased and won us and that’s a beautiful picture, no matter if we’re sheep, whether we’ve wandered off or whether we’ve stayed right here. Jesus continues to call us, and He calls us all back to see who He is this Lenten season. We have victory, victory that’s found in Jesus Christ and in the Good Shepherd who laid down His life. He laid down it freely. As He says, He took it up again.

As we hear our Good Shepherd, as we continue to learn more and more about Jesus, nothing will lead us astray. As we hear the voice of Jesus, it always calls us back. And I pray that we continue to hear that voice as He’s constantly calling us back because we’re prone to wander. Hear that voice tonight as He calls you, as He said, “I’ve laid down my life for you.” In Jesus’ name, Amen.