When you were a child, did you ever pretend to be an animal? What kind of animal did you want to pretend to be? I know that we did, my brothers and I would play games and pretend to be Elephants, or talk like parrots, or maybe we would chase each other around the yard while barking at each other. Sometimes we would argue about which animal was the coolest, you know how it goes. I would say to my one brother, “You pretend to be a cat, and I will pretend to be a dog.” Woo ha ha ha. Then my brother would of course argue back, because no one wants to be one of the wimpy animals, we always wanted to be the cool animals, you know with sleek coats and fangs. Well in our Old Testament lesson today, God compares us to a group of animals. And unfortunately, the animal that God tells us we are like is not one that my brothers and I would have considered very cool to play. God compares people in our lesson to Sheep. That’s right, God compares us to sheep, not very smart, stinky, furry sheep. However, sometimes we truly are lost sheep in need of a shepherd.
Lost sheep with out a shepherd? What does this mean? I mean, first off I am not lost, am I? And I am obviously a little smarter than a sheep, at least better looking. So the question is then, how am I a lost sheep? How can God even compare me to a lost sheep?
Well, the answer to that is pretty easy if we stop and think about it, isn’t it? We all know that sheep are herd animals, they go around in flocks, right? Sheep follow other sheep around. But they don’t always stay where they are supposed to. Sometimes, sheep get separated from the flock. Perhaps they see some nice new green grass over the hill, and they pursue it. Or perhaps they stop paying attention as the rest of the flock moves ahead to new grazing ground. Sometimes, sheep get scared. Whatever the case, at times sheep can become separated from the flock.
When Ezekiel was writing our Old Testament Lesson, Israel was straying from God, and instead trusting in other Gods. At this time, Ezekiel and the rest of his country had been taken into exile in Babylon. It was easy for them to lose faith. God had given them a land flowing with Milk and Honey, and now they were forcibly taken from that land. They lost faith, because what kind of a God would allow them to suffer? What kind of God would inflict this much pain on his chosen people? The people had lost everything, including hope. They strayed because they no longer believed the words of God to be truth. They were leaving the flock of the church and being scattered throughout the world. What’s more, they began to trust in other things. They began to trust other Gods, and they began to trust in themselves.
Well, what about you and me? Do we always stick close to our flock, the Church? Unfortunately, the answer is no. At times we too lose hope in the words of God. Perhaps we too do not trust God’s Word. No, I know that we have not lost everything as those in Ezekiel’s time had. No, we are not being carried away into exile, as the people in Ezekiel’s time had. But don’t we lose hope anyway? Don’t we become complacent in our lives, and lose the hope we have in the Gospel, trusting instead in ourselves? We are a lot like one of those sheep, who see the nicer grass over the hill and wander off to eat it, because we feel like it. That is how we are, people who are so inwardly focused on ourselves, that we don’t care about others. We don’t do our best caring for the weak and sick of the church. We don’t do these things because we are sinners. In our sin, we daily stray from the one true faith, leaving behind the comfort of the flock, all because we are only concerned with ourselves.
In a way, we too act like “herd animals.” We sometimes do things, not because we want to, but because other people are. I’m sure you have heard the question asked, “If everyone was jumping off a cliff because it was cool, would you too?” Sad to say, it appears that way occasionally. We become more interested in what other people think than what the truth is. This happens in our faith when we become obsessed with fads. Whether it is the latest self help book, or the latest growth program, we get caught up in what everyone else is doing.
When this happens, we are like sheep, going astray. We are blindly wandering about, not knowing which way to turn or where to go. We call our wandering “freedom”, but in the end we are slaves to ourselves, and little more than dead men walking.
How else are we like Sheep? As we know from fables and other children’s stories, sheep have an enemy, the big bad wolf. The big bad wolf is always sneaking into the flock, trying to devour one of the sheep. Aesop’s fables tell of a wolf who even dressed as a sheep, just so he could get into the flock and have a nice tasty snack of a lamb. Sheep are always in danger of being eaten by some sort of enemy.
The people in Ezekiel’s day also had an enemy. The enemy that they faced was made manifest in the nation of Babylon. Babylon had come and oppressed the people, and then defeated them in battle and led them away into exile. Their enemy was very easy to see.
Yes, we too, just like sheep, and just like the people from Ezekiel’s day, have an enemy. Our enemy is death and the devil. And just like sheep have the enemy of a wolf waiting to devour them, St. Peter tells us in 1 Peter 5:8 that “our enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” In fact our enemy has us right where he wants us. He is always lurking around us telling us one of several lies. He is either saying to us, “You haven’t done anything wrong,” or “Your sin is too great, you will never be saved.” Both of these lies he whispers into our ears. And we believe them, because we want to. We want to believe both of them, because when we believe either one of them, we are once again in charge of our own life, and able to leave the fold of the flock.
But things are not hopeless. For just as sheep have a shepherd who walks amongst them and leads them to safe pasture, so too do we. We have a shepherd who walked in our midst. We have a shepherd who comes to us when we have strayed and carries us on his shoulders back to the flock. We have a shepherd who would rather die than let enemies steal us from his flock. Ezekiel tells us about our shepherd, saying “I will place over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he will tend them; he will tend them and be their shepherd.” Our shepherd is this one, the shepherd king, Jesus Christ.
Though we were scattered, and without hope, alone in the utter darkness of our sin, Christ came and rescued us. It is told here in our Old Testament Lesson, “I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness” (v. 12). Here is the promise for us, rescue from our sin. How are we rescued? The Shepherd lays down his life for us. (John 10:11) He is the one who was without sin, the one who fulfilled God’s will completely, willingly suffered, and died for you. Jesus, though He had not sinned, “became obedient to death-- even death on a cross!” as Paul says in Philippians 2:8. Jesus was crucified, dying a criminal’s death. He came to rescue his sheep from slaughter, and instead was slaughtered himself. Isaiah 53:7 tells us that Christ was led like a lamb to the slaughter. The blood of the shepherd cleansed the sheep. The blood of the shepherd cleanses you.
Where does this happen? In the waters of Holy Baptism, He puts His name upon us. In the waters of baptism, He washes away all of our sin with His very own blood, and makes us a part of the flock of God. At the font, Christ claims you for His own flock. Ezekiel said in our lesson that we will lie down in good grazing land, and there we will feed in a rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. This means that the best food available will be ours. We already get a taste of that glorious food, here at the Altar where we receive Christ’s own body and blood, shed for the forgiveness of sins into our very mouths. In these gifts we receive the priceless treasures of heaven. In these holy sacraments, the Lord becomes our shepherd, as it says in Psalm 23, and he leads us beside still waters, and prepares us a feast before our enemies.
Shepherds are interesting people, because they lead their flock while standing in the middle of the sheep. They walk with sheep before them, and behind them, sheep to the right and to the left. This is how they lead them. This is how Christ leads us, from among us. As He promises in Matthew 28, “Surely I am with you, always, even unto the end of the age.” So he is. Christ, our Good Shepherd, has walked among us. Christ walks with us, through the valley of the shadow of death, and we fear no evil. Not because we are special. Not because of anything we have done. Not because we are without sin, but because we are His flock, and He is our shepherd who died and rose again. Now that we are a part of his flock, we too will rise from the dead. We too will share in eternal life, and we too, will live in heaven forever. The hymn “I am Jesus’ Little Lamb” puts it well when it says:
"Who’s so happy as I am?
Even now the Shepherd’s lamb,
And when my short life is ended,
by His angel hosts attended,
He shall fold me to His breast,
there within His arms to rest."
Revelation 7:17 says, “For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” This is our promise: Jesus our Shepherd ever leading us, and God the Father wiping all tears away from our eyes. This is our promise in Christ.
Amen.
