Our Beliefs : Sermons : Sermon Archive - 2005 : November 20, 2005
Theme: Sheep Need a Shepherd
Text: Ezekiel 34:11-24 (selected verses)
Church year occasion: End Times 4 - Christ the King
I just have one question to ask: What won't people buy on eBay? Two years ago Fred Whan, a man from Kingston, Ontario, was frying fish sticks for his family's supper, but he burned them. He was going to feed them to his dog when he flipped one of them over and saw a face staring at him. His son thought it looked like Jesus. Mr. Whan thought it was a bit silly and threw the fish stick into the freezer to use as a conversation piece. A year later he heard that a woman from Florida has sold a grilled cheese sandwich with the likeness of the virgin Mary on it over eBay, and someone actually bought it. Can you guess how much it went for? $28,000! Fred Whan thought he'd try his luck. I don't know if it ever sold, but I think it shows a few things about the times we live in. First—people will do anything to make a buck. But maybe it shows something a little more important. People are looking all over the place for the spiritual, no matter how far-fetched it might be. Why are they looking for the spiritual? Because they realize that they need a spiritual element to their lives.
That's nothing new to Christians -- we know that we need a spiritual life. And we can thank God that we're not searching for it in a piece of bread or a piece of cod. We've found what we need in Jesus Christ. On this Christ the King Sunday, Ezekiel shows us why the spiritual element in our lives is so important. It's because we are wandering, witless sheep, and we need a shepherd. God tells us how he is the Shepherd we need.
The first thing sheep need is a shepherd who seeks the straying sheep when they stray. The prophet Ezekiel could tell all kinds of stories about how much the people of God had strayed from God and his Word. If they didn't trust in their own might to conquer their enemies, they trusted other nearby nations to help them. And if that wasn't enough, they actually turned their backs completely on the loving God who had brought them to the Promised Land and driven out the heathen nations before them, and instead trusted in a god like Baal or a goddess like Ashtoreth. So God told Ezekiel to proclaim, "Because of your sins, God's judgment is coming. You will go into exile." And so the Babylonians came and destroyed their land and killed many of the people and took many more as captives to Babylon.
But as the people were languishing in captivity hundreds of miles from home, God had a different message to tell them, "Don't give up! There's still hope. I will bring you back to the land I once gave you." That hope is what we hear in today's text, as God gives a direct promise to the Israelites in verses 12-13: "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."
God fulfilled that promise when he brought the first of his Old Testament people back from captivity in Babylon 70 years after it began. He brought them back to the land of Canaan. But this promise takes on an even greater significance when God showed the ultimate captivity that he saved all people from -- captivity to sin and death and Satan. Satan is described by Peter as a roaring lion, looking to devour us. As sheep, we don't stand a chance against such an enemy. And we show it, don't we? You and I often are all-too-willing victims of the devil's temptations. As sheep, we know the lion is dangerous and deadly, but we are so witless that we often walk right up to him and put ourselves in his jaws. Isn't that basically what you did when you fell prey to temptation this past week? But Jesus our Shepherd comes to our rescue. But he doesn't save us by being a powerful shepherd who takes on the lion bare-handed like David in the Old Testament and kills the lion. No, he saves us by the Shepherd becoming one of the sheep and willingly dying in our place. So Jesus is called the Lamb of God, who, by his death on the cross, takes away the sin of the world. Jesus won the victory by being weak and helpless -- just the opposite of what we would think. The Israelites looked forward to going back to the Promised Land of Canaan, and God brought them back. That was a picture of God saving all people from the spiritual captivity of sin, death and the devil. And God will bring those who believe in him as Savior from the captivity of this world into the promised land of heaven -- that sweet and blessed country, that dear land of rest, all because of Jesus being willing to lay down his life for his straying and wayward sheep.
He uses the same tactics today. Think of what a neat thing it is when a baby is baptized. You don't need some big ceremony with all kinds of important people taking part and all kinds of spectacular signs to show the awesomeness of God and how that God has now used that power to make someone a believer. No. Jesus tells us to apply water in some way to a baby and say, "I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." In this seemingly weak and simple thing God powerfully works faith and forgiveness. That is how today he continues to seek the straying sheep.
But he doesn't just seek us out and save us. After he saves us, we need a shepherd who will feed the famished sheep -- to provide us with all the food a famished sheep could ever need. "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." Just think how amazing this verse would have been to someone living in captivity hundreds of miles away from the lush Jezreel valley. It would have seemed impossible, but with our Shepherd-King, nothing is impossible. There might be days that we think this kind of picture is impossible. Even if your dog just bit the neighbor kid, your furnace just blew up, your house is in foreclosure, you lost your job, your health is going from bad to worse, you have no friends and your teenage son just got picked up for driving drunk after he wrecked the car -- even if all those things and more are making your life miserable right now, these words bring comfort. Because notice that it isn't the land itself that brings all these blessings for God's sheep. No matter what happens in this life for the Christian, they still have their Shepherd caring for them, feeding them words of encouragement and hope from his Word and sacraments that we need, telling them that a better life is coming soon, and a life of peace is ours right now. So our Shepherd says, "...I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak." But then he says something very different: "but the sleek and the strong I will destroy." In reality, though, it's not different at all. If we think we can get through this life on our own with our own strength and our own wisdom, then we will go hungry -- not only lose out of many blessings of having God present in our everyday lives here on earth, but we will also lose out of the blessed pastureland of eternal peace and safety and blessing that is to come. Only those sheep who see their need for a Shepherd, who know they can't make it through this life on their own, but who need his guidance and strength and wisdom, are going to see Jesus as important in this life. And if Jesus isn't important to us in this life, he won't bless us with his presence for eternity either.
The greatest blessing awaits those sheep whose straying steps have been halted and whose famished souls have been fed by the peace of forgiveness. We also need a shepherd who will guide us to glory. Ezekiel relates that blessing in verses 23-24: "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." Who could this shepherd be that Ezekiel is talking about? King David had been dead for 400 years by this time. So he must be talking about some other David. But who? Well, who could be called David and tend God's people as a shepherd and be a prince among them? It can only be referring to one person -- one the Bible calls the Good Shepherd, who is great David's greater son (the Son of David), and one who is called the Prince of Peace. Our Shepherd is Jesus. Jesus will be the one who will eventually guide his sheep to glory. That is the final picture God wants to assure us of this morning on Christ the King Sunday. Some day, a day that is coming very soon, Jesus will return to take us from this world held captive by sin and the results of sin. Then he will not come as the lowly and suffering servant, but as the King and Lord of heaven and earth, come to take his sheep home to the promised land of heaven. But isn't it a joy to know that even when he comes as the King in all his ower and eternal glory, that he will still have room in his arms for you and me? He'll still be the loving Shepherd every sheep needs.
How much would you pay for a burnt piece of fish with the likeness of Jesus burned into it? $28,000? Isn't it a beautiful thing that you don't have to search for a relationship with Jesus in such a questionable way? You are one of Jesus' sheep through faith. He has sought and found you. He continues to feed you through Word and sacrament. And he will guide you to the glorious and peaceful pastures of heaven. And here's the amazing thing -- you didn't have to pay $28,000 or even one penny for it. God gives it to you for free. Amen.
