A Shepherd Like That
a sermon based on John 10:1-18
by Rev. Cindy Weber

If you read ahead to the end of Jesus’ discourse about being the good shepherd, you see that it took place during the Feast of Dedication in the Temple in Jerusalem. Now, why that fact is important is that one of the scriptures that was regularly read during that feast was Ezekiel 34, a text that absolutely blasts the shepherds, or leaders, of Ezekiel’s day for seeking their own welfare rather than the welfare of the sheep: “You eat the fat and clothe yourselves with the wool; you slaughter the fattlings, but you do not feed the flock. The weak you have not strengthened, nor have you healed those who were sick, nor bound up the broken, nor brought back what was driven away, nor sought what was lost; but with force and cruelty you have ruled them. So they were scattered because there was no shepherd; and they became food for all the beasts of the field when they were scattered. My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and on every high hill; yes, my flock was scattered over the whole face of the earth, and no one was seeking or searching for them.”

It is a chilling passage, chilling because of its relevance to our situation today. As we think of the leaders of our nation, who pass legislation that enriches the rich and impoverishes the poor, who pass legislation that cuts low-income housing, that cuts labor rights, that cuts medical care for children, that cuts medical care for the mentally ill, that increases homelessness by leaps and bounds…As we think of the leaders of nations around our world, the leaders of Ethiopia, for example, who instead of using their resources to feed their starving population, are using them to fuel a border war with Eritrea…

We see it over and over again, here and in countries around the world, we see what the exploitation of the leaders, of the ‘shepherds,’ what their lack of care is doing and has done to their people, to their ‘sheep.’ The weak have not been strengthened, the sick have not been healed, the broken have not been bound up, those who have been driven away, the homeless and the refugees, have not been brought back home…

So, Ezekiel tells us, “For thus says the Lord God, ‘Indeed, I myself will search for my sheep and seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock on the day he is among his scattered sheep, so will I seek out my sheep and deliver them from all the places where they were scattered on a cloudy and dark day. And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land. I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, in the valleys and in all the inhabited places of the country. I will feed them in good pasture, and their fold shall be on the high mountains of Israel. There they shall lie down in a good fold and feed in rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. I will feed my flock, and I will make them lie down,’ says the Lord God. ‘I will seek what was lost and bring back what was driven away, bind up the broken and strengthen what was sick; but I will destroy the fat and the strong, and feed them in judgment.’”

Ezekiel goes on to talk about how God will judge between those sheep who have trampled what the others eat and fouled what the others drink, those fat sheep who have pushed with shoulder and side, who have butted the weak ones with their horn, and scattered them abroad. “ I will save my flock,” says God, “and they will no longer be a prey, and I will judge between sheep and sheep.”

And it is, perhaps, to this scripture that Jesus is referring when he says, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep…and I lay down my life for the sheep.”

This is a passage that most of us have heard before, at least the part about Jesus being the good shepherd. It’s one of the most illustrated passages in the Bible, in fact. All of us have seen paintings, or pictures of Jesus, with staff in hand, holding a sheep or a lamb.

The problem with many of these pictures is that they tend to make us think of a rather passive good shepherd Jesus, of a rather passive good shepherd God. What most of these works of art do not show is the good shepherd who is crawling back into the crevice on the face of a cliff, arms and face all scratched up by briars, to get that lamb who has lost her way. What these works of art do not show is the good shepherd who running at the marauding wolf or coyote, waving club in air, screaming at the top of her lungs, “You leave my sheep alone!” What these works of art do not show is the good shepherd who is crying as he tends to the wounds inflicted by the wolf, who is crying as he tenderly wraps his own shirt around the leg of the bleeding sheep. What these works of art do not show is the good shepherd who bats the fat sheep away with her staff so that the lean sheep and the weak sheep can drink first, can eat first.

When Robert and I were in Southeast Asia over a decade ago, we went into China for a day or two. The Tiananmen Square Massacre had taken place just a few weeks before, and we could feel the tension and the fear in the air. While we were there, we heard a story that I’ve not forgotten. Some of the students from a seminary in Beijing had been a part of the uprising in Tiananmen Square. They hadn’t actually marched, but they had been there giving out water to the other students. When the government tanks came into the square, just rolling over the students camped there, killing them indiscriminately, the seminary students were terrified, as was everyone else. They ran back to the seminary, where they huddled together in fear, wondering, waiting for the guards to come for them. The president of the seminary, an old Chinese man, told them not to be afraid, that he would be the first one to meet the guards, should they come. And then he lay down in front of the door where they slept.

“I lay down my life for the sheep…”

I used to think that sheep are dumb. The reason I thought that they were dumb was that I heard a story about how a tourist almost hit some of them once because they were following their shepherd across a road, without even looking to see if any cars were coming, without even paying any attention to whether or not it was safe.

But the thing is, if you have a shepherd like the one I’ve just described, it makes sense to follow first, and ask questions later, doesn’t it? And that’s why, when we hear the voice of our Shepherd, we follow. Amen.