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Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, the text for Good Shepherd Sunday is from the Gospel reading, but we will also refer to the Epistle reading. You know, there’s some really good folks out there in this world. They’re very moral. They’re very appreciative of your and my humor, and they laugh at us. Ha ha ha. And they’re a joy to be around, quite frankly. And yet, these people that we enjoy being around, and that laugh at our humor, and that are fairly moral and fairly just, these people are blind, and these people are impenitent.
You see, when you and I think of impenitence, we think in terms of recalcitrant, kind of this in-your-face impenitence. Completely against God in all of its totality. We don’t think of impenitence in terms of nuances. In fact, most of the people that you will encounter in your life who are impenitent are a joy to be around because they see no need for the shepherd in their life. They don’t see that they really are blind, and they are so content with it. So what does impenitence look like then? And impenitence isn’t obvious. If it’s obvious impenitence, then you and I can always say, if that’s what impenitence looks like, then I know that I’m not impenitent. But if impenitence looks something different than that, not so recalcitrant, then you and I have to analyze and look at ourselves a little clearer.
This text that we love and cherish, it’s the first half of chapter 10 in the book of John. This text was not said in its original setting by Jesus, was not said to a bunch of believers. This text and all of those words about the good shepherd knowing his sheep, never going to lose one in his hands, were not said to an assembly of believers but rather to the majority of the people in that group who were impenitent, the Pharisees.
Now, see, you and I, when we have an image of a Pharisee, it’s an image that we would never affiliate with ourselves. It’s an image that’s completely outside of ourselves. We would think, oh, that’s that kind of people. And yet, Phariseeism doesn’t always look that way. This text is preceded by the last verses of chapter 9. Here’s what I’m going to remind you of. In chapter 9, it was the story of the man born blind. Jesus is asked by his disciples, “Lord, who sinned that this man was born blind? Did his parents sin or did he sin? Why was he born blind?” And Jesus made it very clear it was not this man’s sin nor his parents’ sin, but that the work of God might be displayed in his life.
And then, as you remember, there was a conversation between this blind man who now sees and all of the Pharisees trying to whittle out of him that it really wasn’t Jesus and Jesus is really not from God, and so on. But it’s the very words that precede this text that go like this, the very end of chapter 9, which has everything to do with impenitence and blindness. Listen. Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things and said to him, “Are we also blind?” Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt. But now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.”
“Truly, truly, I say to you, that he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs in by another, 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. And when he has brought out all of his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.”
I’m thinking in my head, what’s the use, Lord? These guys are impenitent. Why bother? This kind of saying or an idiom is called, it’s translated in the text as a figure of speech. The Greek is paroimia, paroimia. And it means kind of a double meaning figure of speech. On one hand, the comment about Christ being the good shepherd for you and me as a believer, it’s comforting, very comforting. To someone who is not a believer, it really is a statement of judgment because they’re turning their back on the very shepherd of their soul, Christ himself.
So what does impenitence look like? Are we also blind? You see, the people who are impenitent really claim to see and are enlightened. And yet their guilt and their blindness remains. And they’re typically nice people. Easy to be around, enjoyable, appreciative of us and we of them. Some of you may have them in your own house. Some of you may have them in your own family. Some of you may be married to them. Some of you may have been parented by them. Some of you may have raised them. Impenitence doesn’t look like what we think it looks like.
And the man who would have the greatest insight for you and for me is the Apostle Peter. Peter reminded God when God told him, “Peter, you’re going to deny me three times.” And what did Peter say? “No, Lord, not me. I will never do it.” And after that dialogue took place, did Peter keep serving like the other apostles did? Absolutely. Did Peter keep praying with the other apostles and with Christ? Absolutely. Absolutely. Peter looked and acted like he was the same old Peter, and yet Peter was impenitent. Was he not? Not until that cock crowed and he heard it did all of it come flowing back to him, and he said, “I’m the one.”
And God brought him the gift of repentance, and God brought him the gift of humility, and God brought him to his knees so that he could be led by the shepherd again. You see, Peter writes in his text, “You were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls.” That’s you and me. You know that and I know that. There are many voices out there that hearken to us and we listen to. But there is one that’s very destructive. There’s one that’s very scary. There is one that’s very seductive. And that voice comes from within this. It’s the voice that tells you, “You are right and you are wrong.”
And by golly, I have much more desire to be right than to be reconciled with you. Happens in marriages, doesn’t it? Happens among us, doesn’t it? That voice claims to be above the law, doesn’t it? It claims rightness rather than reconciliation. It claims justness rather than relationship restored. Can’t the two be co-equal? It’s what starts arguments because it’s our pride that’s been wounded. It’s what never forgets an ill done to us, isn’t it? It is what desires to be justified at every turn. It’s in me. It’s in you. It’s in all of us here in this assembly as God’s sheep.
And is that not what we are? God’s sheep? If there’s anything that I want you to remember, it’s that you are God’s sheep. But don’t think that simply because you’re God’s sheep that that voice isn’t inside of you and that will isn’t among us. It is. It’s what you and I wrestle with every day. It’s what Peter said, “I will never fall away. Everyone else will, but not me.” That’s what’s inside of us that screams, fueled by pride and sin. That’s our strain. That’s our struggle.
But do you know when that struggle gets really, really pointed? It’s when you and I struggle together. That we have to suffer for doing the right thing. Listen to what Peter said: “This is a gracious thing. When mindful of God, one endures sorrow while suffering unjustly. What credit is it if when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it, you endure? This is a gracious thing in the sight of God.”
“For to this, you and I have been called together. Because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example so that you might follow in your shepherd’s steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth, and when he was reviled, he didn’t revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.”
Do you entrust your pride to the one who judges justly? Do you entrust your reputation to the one who judges justly? Do you entrust your being right and forfeiting the relationship or embracing that relationship? This is impenitence, brothers and sisters. And lest we think we don’t have it in us any longer, why would Peter say, “You were straying like sheep, but you’ve returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls?”
Let’s be honest. We don’t like where God leads us at times as our shepherd. He leads us in situations where we have to think in terms of salvaging the relationship rather than letting right be what rules more than reconciliation. And then coming to a decision about what is right. Yes, according to the scriptures, we are led to suffer for doing the right thing and not being appreciated. It’s not fun to be led by the shepherd in those places.
And yet God has called us to be led by the shepherd in those places. But do you know where he also leads you? He leads you here to the verdant green pastures where you don’t mind being led. He leads you to the still waters where you don’t mind being told again you are his child. He leads you here to the food that feeds your soul that you may live and leave refreshed and restored and reestablished so that he’ll lead you again because that’s what your shepherd does. He leads.
We’re but the sheep. We only follow because we’re blind. And without him, we can’t see. With him, you and I have been made to see. And we follow as he leads. Some places we don’t like to. Some places we do like to. Both times the shepherd leads because of his love for sheep that love to wander. That’s you and that’s me. We return to him so that that guilt is removed and it doesn’t get in the way of our relationship with him and our relationship with one another—between husbands and wives, between parents and children, between children and parents.
Amen. Between brothers and sisters in the pew, Christ comes to lead us to this apostle’s teaching, this fellowship, this breaking of the bread that he does. And we’re left to pray only this prayer that the psalmist prayed after having been led to this place. “Lord, lead me. Lead me in thy way, O Lord, and I will walk in thy truth. Unite my heart to fear thy name.”
In the name of your shepherd, Jesus. Amen. The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and your minds on Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen.
