Text: John 10:22-30
Date: May 8, 2022
Event: Good Shepherd Sunday (The Fourth Sunday of Easter), Year C
John 10:22-30 (EHV)
Then the Festival of Dedication took place in Jerusalem. It was winter, 23and Jesus was walking in the temple area in Solomon’s Colonnade.
24So the Jews gathered around Jesus, asking, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.”
25Jesus answered them, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The works I am doing in my Father’s name testify about me. 26But you do not believe, because you are not my sheep, as I said to you. 27My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. 28I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. 29My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all. No one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. 30I and the Father are one.”
Jesus Is Our Eternal Shepherd
It’s Good Shepherd Sunday, which means the sermon is obligated to include a paragraph about how not-bright sheep are. It might be a little trite or even cliche, but it’s true. If you have spent any time with sheep, you know that they’re pretty mindless. They will wander from safety into danger and from plenty of food and water into a barren place.
This truth is why God so often speaks of himself or even other human leaders over his people as shepherds. You know that we are all too likely to wander off away from the safety of God’s protection and love and instead get ourselves wrapped up in the danger of sin. And like a sheep realizing that it’s no longer grazing in grass but sinking in mud, we often don’t realize the danger we are putting ourselves into until it’s too late to course correct.
So God promises to be our shepherd. Most of our songs this morning are summaries and paraphrases of David’s famous Psalm 23, “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.” The theme of our whole service is that God provides for and protects his sheep. We know that God is loving and especially forgiving for we sheep who get ourselves wrapped up in sin. He is our perfectly patient, eternal shepherd, who rescues from sin and brings us to eternal life.
But often, we lose track of that. We lose track of the eternal and instead focus on the here and now. We get so focused on earthly things that we take our eyes off of eternity and that leads to real problems. We become sheep wandering away from what our Shepherd knows that we need, and he has to come seek us out and put us back where we belong, refocusing us on what is truly important.
Our Gospel takes place during the Feast of Dedication. You know this celebration by a different name, Hanukkah. Now the celebration that Jesus attended probably looked pretty different than modern-day celebrations, but the event celebrated is largely the same. This festival commemorated a victory of God’s people over rulers who sought to snuff out the worship of the true God.
In the time between the Old and New Testaments, the Greek empire ruled over the Promised Land. Israel was subject to Greek influence, first brought about by the ridiculously large conquests of Alexander the Great. By the early 100s BC, things were going badly. A Greek king named Antiochus IV ruled over this section of the empire, and he demanded unity at all costs. That unity included religious thought and practice. Which meant that anything the didn’t conform to Greek thinking about religion—including Judaism—had to go.
Antiochus did horrible things to God’s people during this time. Perhaps one of the worst symbolic acts he performed was having pigs sacrificed on the altar in the temple. If you remember, pigs were considered unclean animals in God’s Old Testament worship laws; they had no place in sacrifices during worship. This was a defilement of the worship space second almost to none.
So, the people fought back. By God’s grace, through the leadership of a man named Judas Maccabeus, God’s people ended up kicking the Greek rule out of the area and then rededicated the temple. They built a new altar to replace the defiled one and rededicated the worship space to the true God. This Feast of Dedication, Hanukkah, is a celebration of that rededication of the temple, the very temple that Jesus would worship in a little over 150 years later.
It is telling that during this celebration of Judas Maccabeus’ victory over the Greeks that the Jews gathered around Jesus, asking, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” They undoubtedly has Judas Maccabeus in mind, the champion of that temple fight and purification. Was Jesus going to be another of these heroes? Wouldn’t the Christ, the Messiah, want to save them from the Roman rule that in their day had replaced the Greek rule of 200 years prior? The question is really, “Jesus, are you going to do something to save us from the Romans? Are you going to restore our nation like Judas did long ago? If you really are the Christ, show it to us plainly by action!”
Jesus identifies the problem. “I did tell you, but you do not believe.” He had been speaking plainly to them, but they weren’t listening because they were looking for something very different than what he was providing. Jesus had not come to be a physical or political rescuer as those they were celebrating that day in Jerusalem had been. He had come to be an eternal Savior. “The works I am doing in my Father’s name testify about me. But you do not believe, because you are not my sheep, as I said to you. My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand.”
You and I are among those who are Jesus’ sheep. We hear his voice and listen to him, know him, and follow him. We know our sins and our need for a Savior. We know that our sin brings hell on us, but that Jesus came to be our Shepherd, to lay down his life for us. That’s what we need him to do, and that’s what he did for us. His death paid for our sins, and he proved that by his resurrection. We are forgiven and have eternal life because Jesus took away our every sin.
But how often are we still those foolish sheep, wandering away from safety? How often doesn’t the desire of our hearts override what our Shepherd has done for us? Does the appeal of money and other earthly riches distract you from eternity? Does lust in your heart lead you to discount what God’s will for your life is? Does the appeal of work, or entertainment, or sleep pull you away from time with God’s Word regularly in worship with your fellow Christians?
Oh what foolish sheep we are, wandering away from our Shepherd, seeking temporal pleasure and joy rather than focusing on what our Good Shepherd knows is best for us. And yet, he seeks us out. He lovingly picks us up and corrects us. That’s not always pleasant—being told what we want is not what we’ll get is never anyone’s idea of fun. But it’s necessary for us. He refocuses us on himself, on what he’s done to save us, and how the perfect, eternal life waiting for us is infinitely better than even the best life we could find here. “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand.”
Sheep can wander into danger, but there are also dangers that are no fault of the sheep. Predators can come and attack the flock. Wolves can hurt and even kill the sheep. A dozing or absent shepherd may let his flock be decimated by these outside forces.
But not so with our Good Shepherd. No one will snatch us out of his hand. And even more than that, Jesus says that God the Father has given us to Jesus, and that no one can snatch us out of the Father’s hand either. Jesus speaks in simple words that speak baffling truth: I and the Father are one. They are one in so many different ways, especially in their mission to save us from our sins. God the Son, Jesus, came to do this work for us because God the Father sent him. Our Triune God is in perfectly united to save us from our sins and bring us to be with him in eternal life.
As we move through this life, we will face struggles and trials. Some of them will come from outside of us, like wolves attacking a flock of sheep. Others will be self-inflicted, like sheep wandering away from safety and plenty and into danger and scarcity. But no matter what trials and hardships come on us, our Good Shepherd is with us, guarding us and protecting us. He is certainly concerned about our physical, temporal welfare. But make no mistake: our Good Shepherd is ultimately our eternal Shepherd and all of his work is focused on our eternal safety. Don’t mistake him for one who will make life easy; see him as the one who will rescue from this world of hardship and heartache and bring us to himself, to those eternal pastures of heaven, to be safe and secure forever. Amen.
