That is, a nice day, by definition, signifies that they're not all like this. There are nasty days, overcast, rainy, or, here on the prairies, freezing cold. Things are not always great, even in California, you can still be rained out or too cold or whatever there. It's not as though it's always 75 degrees there. And every time someone calls a day 'beautiful' or 'nice' or 'great' or whatever, you know that not all days are like that. A good dinner implies that there are bad dinners to have. A nice day implies that some days are miserable. A small catechism implies a large one, and a good shepherd implies that there are bad shepherds out there somewhere.
As there are. Now, what you probably already know is that there are a lot of parts of the Bible that nobody knows, but parts that everyone knows. And when I talk to the recently bereaved about Biblical verses that they would like to have as part of a funeral service, they will frequently mention two of them. John 3:16 and Psalm 23. Those two passages have gotten such immense market penetration that people will default to them over and over again. In fact, even if you know nothing else from the Bible, you'll know those. And so it may come as some surprise to a lot of us that such a well known passage, such a comforting passage, referenced by Christ would garner ill will. Which it does, and lots of it.
Our Gospel reading from today is one many that garners disapproval from those who are there to witness it firsthand. The audience that Jesus is speaking to here get angry, angry enough to kill. They pick up rocks to throw at him, to stone him to death, because he has called himself the Good Shepherd. This should strike us as strange, given that we love the Good Shepherd, right? How could someone not like the passage about the Good Shepherd? Well known, well loved, comforting and faithful, the passage has formed the backbone for what a lot of people know about the scriptures for a long time. And yet, and yet, the people to whom Christ speaks are furious enough with him to kill.
Why is that? Well, for two reasons. First of all, as I mentioned right at the beginning, talking about a Good Shepherd implies, and implies heavily that not all shepherds are good. Some are bad. Some are downright rotten. Now, as Christians, we tend to view shepherds through the lens of Jesus Christ, but the people of Israel at the time of Christ would have been more mindful of a passage from Ezekiel 34. And that passage talks about how there are bad shepherds indeed, and they will be deposed from being shepherds eventually by God himself. God has seen the injustice, he has heard the calls from his sheep for justice, restoration, and clean pastures. And God is rightly displeased with the poor quality of leadership from those who are bad shepherds indeed. Something happens when Jesus speaks to an audience like this, which is that they gather that he is speaking about them. This passage is no exception. When they pick up stones to throw at him, they do so partially because he has spoken these words against them. He is speaking about bad shepherds because there has been some very bad shepherding going on for quite a while. Shepherds who have been living out what was described Ezekiel. Shepherds who were taking the sheep under their charge to very bad pastureland. They were leading them astray, fleecing them, and extorting them. All the ways in which the people of Israel were laboring under the edicts and weight that the Pharisees had placed upon them are seen clearly in the New Testament. It all became about keeping rules, following specifics, straining out gnats while the scribes swallowed camels, that sort of thing. And it muddied the water, fleeced and killed the sheep and made them miserable, held under a heavy yoke.
And so when Jesus calls himself the Good Shepherd, he is pointing the difference out between what he does vs what they do, and they know it. They're well aware of what he's saying; that they are seeking obedience to rules, and Christ is offering grace. Every time Christ loosens bonds, discusses grace, tells people that God is working on their behalf, every time that happens, they bristle, mainly because as long as God is in a box, and they have the key, then everyone will be dependent on them to navigate the divine. How can you have forgiveness of sins, how can you be in God's good graces, how can you ensure that you are a beloved child of God unless the gatekeepers, the shepherds tell you that it is all possible. And if they're bad shepherds, they will fleece and steal more than they will support and sustain.
But there is another thing that bothered the original audience, and it was that Jesus called himself the Good Shepherd. And in calling himself the Good Shepherd, he was, in part, referencing another part of Ezekiel 34 - the part where God says that he himself will be the shepherd of his sheep. He is going to take over, to be the shepherd, to be the one in charge, to lead the sheep directly. And in calling himself the Good Shepherd, Jesus is absolutely calling himself God - further followed up by him saying 'I and the father are one.' People picked up stones to throw at him, for sure, in anger that Jesus would dare to equivocate himself with God. And you know, people still will.
The Good Shepherd still leads us, if we listen to his voice. And what he leads us to is forgiveness of our sins. That's what he leads us towards, rightness with God through his cross. And that's still something we resist. We resist it now because we are people who are livid with the idea of being sheep, and where the shepherd leads. We don't like the idea that we are sheep, you know, because we like the idea that we are smart, capable people who don't need no shepherd. We are skilled, capable, confident people who can quite happily chart our own path, and follow our own edicts. But that's the sort of thing that would lead us to massive problems, as it did way back in the book of Genesis. We don't like the idea that God might have to protect us from ourselves, because we don't like the idea that we are sheep in the first place. Even if we think we may need to be protected from outside forces, we sure don't like the idea that we might need to be protected from ourselves.
And there's another problem, and that problem is at the heart of the problem with the Christian condition today - and that is that the essential core of the faith is the forgiveness of sins, which implies that there are sins to be forgiven. And what that means is that we are going to be looking at our relationship with God a bit differently. Not as friends, not as pals, and not as though he owes us any answers. We are going to have to look at it as a sheep / shepherd relationship. That is, he is the shepherd, we are the sheep, and we are errant and wandering sheep indeed. We have no time for his rules, though they are good for us. And we rebel constantly. The average person knows that they have a need to be right with God and with one another, and where they break down in their lives is to make the endless mistake of thinking that the need to be right can be resolved by anything but grace. Go ahead, flip through the sad catalog of Christian beliefs, and you'll find yourself staring at all sorts of shepherds who are leading their flocks away from what God says, and towards what is comforting and safe - the redefinition of sins leading to a lack of sinfulness completely. It is as though we figured we could, by fiat, legislate sins away. Which is what they were doing back in the time of Christ.
But know the voice of the shepherd. Hear his voice. He is trying to lead you, so don't fight him when you don't like the direction he is going. To follow another voice is to follow a thief and a robber, one who will lead you astray, and will kill and fleece. If anyone is trying to tell you that you're not really a sinner, and you don't really have anything to repent of, that person is desperately trying to lead you away from Christ the Good Shepherd, and is leading you to perdition. It's a hard thing to do, to be a sheep, to know you're a sheep, and to know that you've got astray. It's a hurtful thing to take that hard look at yourself, and see that you've been following wicked and sinful people, but it is a necessary condition. Only through a look at the worst can you see your need for Grace. Only by actually seeing your sinfulness can you see what it is the Good Shepherd does.
So listen to his voice. Be aware of what he says. Recall his words and listen to them carefully, and the more you listen to him, the better you'll be at following him. And where he leads is not the weight of legalism, nor is it the dust of condoning - where he leads is to grace, sins recognized and forgiven, and then how sweet the grass and clear the water of that pasture.
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