The Shepherd’s Voice: An Eastertide Meditation on John 10

I am the good shepherd: 

the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.

But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, 

whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, 

and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: 

and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep.

The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, 

and careth not for the sheep.

I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, 

and am known of mine.

As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: 

and I lay down my life for the sheep.

And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: 

them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; 

and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.

Therefore doth my Father love me, 

because I lay down my life, 

that I might take it again.

No man taketh it from me, 

but I lay it down of myself. 

I have power to lay it down, 

and I have power to take it again. 

This commandment have I received of my Father.

Like so much of John’s recorded discourses of Jesus, chapter 10 is immensely rich in both depth and nuance.  The over arching theme is Jesus’ declaration of Himself as the good shepherd around whom His sheep are gathered by His Word, and who gives His life that His sheep might live forever.  Those sheep— His people— are the ones who hear Jesus’ voice and know Him as their true shepherd.  And just as Jesus is known by the Father, and the Father by Jesus, so do the people of Jesus know their shepherd, and are known by their shepherd.  But not only is Jesus the good shepherd who lays down His life to safeguard His people from the present threats and dangers of wolves and thieves, He is also the only shepherd who has received from His Father the power and command to take back up His life after He has laid it down.  Unlike many people who have died to protect or serve others in their care and have no power to raise themselves up again, Jesus declared (and then later proved on the first Easter morning) that He had the power to do both.  Such life, which is not a prisoner or slave to death, is the life which Jesus gives to His people, so that even though they die, they would live in Him forever, awaiting the resurrection of the dead on the Last Day.

That’s a pretty sharp distinction between Jesus, and every other shepherd of people who has ever lived.  Certainly there have been many, whether in the community of the church or in the world at large, who rose to positions of power and influence over people, only to use their power to kill, deceive, steal, and destroy.  Time would fail to recount all the televangelist hucksters of the last century, who used a corrupted message to separate countless people from their money, and eventually even from their hope; of pastors who treated their Office as a hireling, abandoning their sheep for the lure of money and ease in some other vineyard; of church leaders who lived opulently off the labors of the people, shifting their message to focus on revenue generating programs and membership drives which drew people to pews only to fleece them; of bishops and councils which put politics as their highest focus, surrendering to the spirit of the age and its unmoored ethics; of popes and patriarchs who secured for themselves honors, palaces, and decadence while their people starved and suffered unthinkable abuse under their rule.  As an old saying of the early Christian era lamented, the road to hell is paved with the skulls of unfaithful pastors.

Yet, though unheralded and often disdained by the world, there have been many good and faithful pastors who looked after Jesus’ people in His stead.  They have selflessly done without much in the ways of comfort or convenience, survived on humble means, and worked their entire lives in service to Jesus’ people.  Some gave their lives slowly over decades, until age and infirmity could no longer shoulder the burden of the day; others stood between their people and the wolves or thieves of their day, taking upon themselves the persecution of a violent and evil culture; still others spoke truth to corrupted secular or ecclesiastical powers, losing their vocations and their lives at the hands of unfaithful rulers.  And even these, knowing they had no power in themselves to take back up the lives which were being taken from them, used their last breath to point the people back to their one, true, and saving Shepherd.  What faithful under-shepherds know they cannot do, they guide others to see and hear in the only Shepherd who can:  Jesus.

The voice of this Good Shepherd calls out to you this day, over the din of worldly fascinations, self-serving tyrants, unfaithful leaders, greedy thieves, and the murderous howls of heretical wolves.  Jesus, the only shepherd who has ever laid down His life for you and then taken it back up again, so that He might give to you life in place of your death, victory in place of your defeat, and joy in place of your suffering, calls to you through His Word, that you might by grace through faith be gathered together with Him forever.  This Word He sends to you through the preaching of His Holy Scriptures, and applies to you through the waters of Holy Baptism, the bread and wine of Holy Communion, and the declaration of forgiveness in Holy Absolution.  This Eternal Word of the Father comes to you through humble human witnesses, who themselves live only by grace through faith in their shepherd, Jesus Christ, alone.  Regardless of all the error and speculation, of the marketing and the mess of modernity, the voice of the Good Shepherd continues to call everyone to forgiveness, life, and salvation— to gather the sheep of every fold into one great flock, with one divine Shepherd, in the eternal fellowship and love of the Most Holy Trinity, one God, now and forever. 

Hear Jesus calling to you this day, that you might turn aside from the lying cacophony of a dying world, and be gathered into a Kingdom which has no end, eternally governed by the one and only Shepherd who has given His life so that His people might have life abundantly in Him forever.  Amen.