Shepherd

Ezekiel 34:11-16, Psalm 23

December 10, 2006

Our reading from Ezekiel comes during the time of history when the children of Israel had turned away from God. It is amazing how often Israel turned away from God, and had to face God’s divine wrath, punishment and justice. So once again the children of Israel no longer lived in the Promised Land.

It happened just as Moses had predicted.

Remember last week when we talked about prophets, and on the cover of your bulletin was Moses?  When Moses sent the Israelites into the Promised Land, he said be careful. As you live in the land of abundance you might forget about the Lord your God. The Israelites did exactly that. Worse than that, worse than just forgetting about God, they turned to other gods. They worshiped false gods.

Because of this, God caused his enemies to come to destroy Jerusalem , destroy the temple, and take away the Israelites as slaves to Babylon .

So once the blessings of the Promised Land were taken from them, the Israelites began to realize what they had lost. It’s like that, isn’t it?  You never know what you have until you lose it. 

Thankfully they had a merciful God, a shepherd who cares for his sheep. God says: “I will search for the lost, and bring back the strays”. The Sovereign Lord was going to look for them and find them. Those who were lost—that is, those who had turned from God—were going to be found, to be reclaimed by God.

Then God adds, “As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so I will look after my sheep.”

The Lord is going to provide the sheep with a place where they will lie down in good grazing land, and there they will feed in a rich pasture on the mountains of Israel . “I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down,” declares the Sovereign LORD.

God himself, then, will be among the sheep—the lost, to guide and to watch over them, to bring them back into the fold and provide for them.

We are reminded of Psalm 23 and how the Good Shepherd takes care of us: “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake” (PSALM 23:1-3).

It is such a quiet, peaceful image, without a care in the world.

By the way, did you know that sheep are afraid of running water?  They will drink only from a quiet pool, or still waters.  Which is why the Psalm reads, “he leads me beside quiet waters.”  No extra charge for that.

So back to ‘Zeke.  Ezekiel’s prophecy of God coming as a shepherd comes for his sheep is realized almost 600 years later in a Bethlehem manger, and the good news is announced by an angel to a group of lowly shepherds in the pasture.

You’re familiar with the words from Luke 2:8-20 (video- shepherds) (or, shepherds see angel, and are amazed and need to go see the newborn King).

Look at your bulletin cover, the picture of a group of shepherds coming to see the Baby Jesus.  Notice what they are doing—they are exemplifying the behaviors and attitudes that God wants us to have toward Jesus.

The one standing is uncovering his head, exposing himself to the Lord, baring his soul in order that it may be healed.  The person on the bottom right is praying, praising God and thanking Him for what He has done in her life.  And the person on the bottom left is caring for a little lamb.  Jesus tells us to “love our neighbors as ourselves” and to “feed his sheep.”

It’s salvation, thanksgiving, and service.

It is very interesting for us to note that the baby in Bethlehem is visited by a group of shepherds.  God in the flesh, has come to care for us, his sheep, because we have gone astray.

That’s why it’s very important for us, especially at Christmas time, to remember that the baby in the manger is not the end of the Christmas story—Jesus did not live in the manger.

A little boy was asked one day if He knew where the Lord lived.  He said,
"Yes! The Lord lives in our bathroom!" The Sunday school teacher said,
"Whatever makes you think that?" The child responded, "Well, every Sunday morning I hear Daddy banging on the bathroom door and hollering, `Good Lord! Are you still in there?’"

I can relate, growing up with six people in a one-bathroom house!

If I asked you the question, “If you could be any animal, what would you be and why?”, why is it that no one ever says they want to be a sheep?

Why is a sheep never a mascot of a sports team?  I suppose that there is nothing romantic or complimentary about being a sheep.
Sheep, you see, are not the sharpest knives in the drawer, and they’re stubborn-have you ever seen a trained sheep? 

At the circus, you come see the dancing elephants, funny monkeys but never trained sheep.

In my study of shepherds and sheep for this message, I’ve discovered some interesting things about sheep that I didn’t know:

1. Sheep are dumb and they are dirty—they aren’t like the Serta sheep you see on TV selling mattresses.
2. They are timid and defenseless and helpless.
3. They go astray, always getting lost and hurt and never learn from their mistakes.
4. They literally do not know enough to come in out of the rain.

5. Easily frightened and confused, sheep are known to plunge off cliffs in their fear and confusion.

Suffice it to say, sheep aren’t very self-sufficient, nor are they very smart.

But the prophet Isaiah writes, "We are all like sheep who have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way." 

Ouch!  But we often act like the children of Israel . Sometimes we go off on our own path. We forget the direction the Lord has given us. This often becomes too easy, since our society today has many attractions that can distract us.

But God does not give up on us.  Jesus—God in the flesh, the One foretold by Ezekiel—is our shepherd, who cares for us. He does not treat us as our sins deserve, even though we have gone astray and turned away from Him.

On our own we are lost. On our own we would never be recovered. But we are not on our own. Christ is our good shepherd. He seeks us out to find us. Christ came to bring us as outcasts back into the fold.

John 10:27 "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me."  Christ calls to us and now we don’t have to be lost like sheep, we don’t have to stray, because we can be in God’s flock by God’s grace.

Listen to what Jesus tells us in John chapter 10: Read John 10:11-18.

Christ was born as a baby in Bethlehem , and was visited by shepherds because he would eventually endure the cross as our good shepherd, in order to lead us home. Remember, it was Jesus who said, “Greater love has no man than this, that he would lay down his life for his friends (or his sheep).”

Jesus is the Good Shepherd, the One who did indeed lay down his life for us, so that we may be gathered in, as Ezekiel had foretold.  Not only that, but he searches us out, finds us, and he rescues us.

Jesus is calling you.  Do you hear His voice?  Do you follow him?