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Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Be seated.
It’s a great Sunday to celebrate Good Shepherd Sunday because of also having the great celebration of what God has done with lambs of his flock here among us, not only as a very old Lutheran school, in fact the oldest in the whole city, but also as giving birth to the newest high school. Now Good Shepherd Sunday rolls around every single year, and it’s not really known as Good Shepherd Sunday, but you can’t help but notice, between the readings and everything, it’s talking about Christ being the Good Shepherd, a motif that is throughout the Scriptures.
But the problem is that you and I, we experience and see the wolf in our lives every day. He’s always trying to cut us from the flock, trying to bring uncertainty about our relationship with our shepherd. Trying to get us to really wonder if the voice of the shepherd is speaking love to us or if the voice of the shepherd is speaking condemnation to us. The wolf is out there and he loves to cause uncertainty among Christ’s sheep of whom you and I are a part. But it’s here where the voice of the good shepherd speaks tenderly to you and me.
Where your soul and my soul is sustained by that voice of the Good Shepherd, recognized by His Lamb, of which you and I are a part. Where He speaks sweetly and gently, not condemnation, but encouragement, hope, and forgiveness found in Him only. So many, sadly, in this world love to emphasize about us knowing the Shepherd. That’s important. Christ speaks about it. You and I struggle with it, though, don’t we? We struggle whether we know the shepherd correctly, whether we understand our status in shepherd’s sight.
And so what we end up doing is really doubting the shepherd’s proclamation about us. So the emphasis is more on being known by the shepherd than knowing the good shepherd. Because being known by the good shepherd implies that you do know the shepherd, or it wouldn’t mean anything to you.
Here are the words of the young man who struggles with the wolf: “When she said these words to me, I felt as if my heart had been crushed. I could not erase the pain of her face, the tone of her voice, nor the unbearable ache of my gut, seeing what I have done to her. Though the intensity of these revelations of my sin may dim with time, because of the wolf, they nevertheless will stay with me until death. The shepherd has revealed me for who I am through her words.
And how I despise this nakedness before God, this inability to cover any part of my wretchedness, this humiliating writhing of my soul before the holy gaze of my shepherd. Truly, I’m emptied of myself. My pride and the value of my person have been burned to the ground and I lie in ashes. I am nothing without being known by the shepherd. How can I cry out to the shepherd, for it’s he who crushed me? It is he who has smitten me.
Feeling of hypocrisy burns through my veins, for even calling upon him as my shepherd, for this much-needed forgiveness. But that is what he has commanded me to do, and that is what he has promised to hear, my confession of my sins. And he has promised to bring me forgiveness. I am damned. And in my flesh, I will always remain a damned sinner. The shepherd leaves me in this self-seeking so that my flesh may be kept in fear of him, not my spirit.
And he keeps me in this state so that in humility, I keep running back to that shepherd, always in fear of my sinning and always praying that he may not charge this sin to me and that this sin may not dominate me. But I am known by the good shepherd. My brokenness has been claimed by the shepherd of my soul. He has taken my good intentions, my best laid plans, and received them as his own, thwarting the wolf’s desire to crush me.
He as a good shepherd deigns to lay down his life for me. He as a good shepherd claims me, even though I am wayward and wandering, as we just sang. Amen. My salvation starts from being known by my shepherd. Let me read that to you again. My salvation starts from my being known by that shepherd. Yet in this life, how frustrating it is as a lamb of the good shepherd to never escape the wolf’s howl of my being a sinner. For that is what I am.
Yet in these most fragile moments, when I truly feel this sin pressing hard upon my heart and being overwhelmed with such guilt, there’s my loving shepherd who knows me. There he sets the virgin pasture before me to eat and feed upon. There are the still waters, the water of eternal life flowing up and welling up within me that he alone brings. I am fearful of being known in such a manner by the shepherd. But that’s a good kind of fear, isn’t it?
Because being known by that shepherd is different than your being known by someone who loves you. You see, you and I have been loved and known by other people. But isn’t it interesting how that love is so dependent upon our actions toward them? If we bother them, if we upset them, if we have no clue or whether we do know what we’ve done, their love for us is dependent upon your and my performance.
See, being known like that is scary. That’s why this man wrote with such fear. Because he was being known by someone whom he loved and who loved him, and now the question arises in his mind, will this then break the love of this person toward me? That’s what the wolf howls about in your head. Regularly, daily, that’s what you and I wrestle with, is it not?
And it’s here in this place where the shepherd’s voice speaks out I know you and I love you. You are mine. You’re not lovable or beautiful because of you. You are not my lamb because you know me. You are my lamb because I know you. I know every facet of you, every corner of you. Whether it’s lit and you’re proud of it, or whether it’s in darkness and you’re ashamed of it, I know you. And in spite of you, I love you. You are mine.
It is a fearful thing to be known by the shepherd indeed as he speaks. That’s because those questions will never stop nagging us, because the wolf will never stop howling at us, but he’s impotent. He has no power over you. You are the shepherd’s lamb. You are not his. Though he may howl and though he may roar and though he may at times scatter us like he did the apostles, he gathers us here.
Here’s where his voice speaks to us tenderly, gently, lovingly, where it takes the very painful parts of your and my soul and brings balm of healing. In the middle of the night, when your dear baby cries out to you, whether you are mother or father, that dear baby does not cry out to you fully convinced of being known by you. You surprise that child because you come when he or she cries. You know the child.
The child is just beginning to get to know you as their mother or father. Because at three in the morning when that child cries, he’s not thinking, you know, this may not be a polite thing to do. But he does it because he’s known. Not because he knows the parent, but because he’s known. No different than you and I cry out to the shepherd, because we’re known by the shepherd. He has promised to hear us, and he’s promised to answer us.
And we cry out to him, Lord, save me. And he saves us. Remember the lamb that the parable of the good shepherd is all about? The shepherd finds the lamb. Because the shepherd knows the voice of the lamb crying out, I’ve got this one, Lord! No, no, no. Crying out, I am completely flummoxed. I am completely at odds with myself and with you. I have no hope. Lord, save me. That’s what the shepherd answers.
And the shepherd finds that lamb in his lostness, lays it upon his shoulder, and leaves back to the flock to reunite the flock with other lost lambs. You and I are by no means the good shepherd. There’s only one. But you and I are good shepherds to other people. We are one who have been known by the shepherd and are continually known by the shepherd. And we want them to be known as they are, as we are known.
That they may have that confidence too because the wolf… The wolf does not leave them alone either. Keep inviting them here, because here the shepherd speaks to you and to me. Here you are made aware. Every time you come, you are known by the shepherd, and then he sends us out. This is a good shepherd indeed, and it’s a fearful thing to be known by such a shepherd as he, but it is good. It is good.
In the name of the good shepherd, Jesus our Lord. Amen. Keep your hearts and your minds on Christ Jesus to life everlasting.
