Before we go to the Word, let us open with a word of prayer:
Gracious God, you are the Good Shepherd. As we come now to your Word, help us, your sheep, to hear your voice so that we may receive the message you have for us. Lord, I ask that you use me as your vessel, so that those who hear will recognize not my voice, for I am only the messenger, but instead let all of us hear your truths and your voice.
Today’s Word comes from the book of Jeremiah and although we need a little history lesson to help us understand the context of Jeremiah’s message; I’m going to start right with the text. It comes from the 23rd chapter and we will be looking at verses 1-6. (Read Text) – The Word of God for the people of God – Thanks be to God.
I must admit that when I first read this text it made me question my desire to go into ministry. I mean it starts right off saying, “Woe to the shepherds”. And as some of us may know, the Latin word for shepherd is “pastor”. As I read this passage, I was getting the idea that the “shepherds” were getting blamed for all that was going wrong and that the people seemed to be “let off the hook”. God is going to “attend to” the shepherds for their evil doings. I don’t know about you but “attend to” used in this manner doesn’t strike me as spending 5 minutes in the “time-out” chair. It sounds like serious business. And while the shepherd is being attended to, God will bring the sheep back into the fold where they will fear no longer (violins please). By itself, this passage seems to me a congregation’s dream passage. I mean, if any problems arise in the church and outsiders come in to help, say the district superintendent or even the bishop, all the congregation has to do is quote this passage, then point to the pastor and say, “It is the shepherd you must attend to, we are but sheep. Please help bring us back into the fold so that we may fear no more.” Now I’m not trying to take away from the responsibility of the shepherd, church leaders can and will be held more accountable if their teachings lead their followers away from God and the penalties will be severe, as quoted from Jeremiah 23:15, “I am going to make them eat wormwood, and give them poisoned water.” Now that’s what I call being “attended to”. But if we make a deeper investigation of this passage it shows us that, yes, the leadership during the time of Jeremiah was rebelling against God’s will, but we will also see that the sheep were not so innocent. But regardless of who was at fault for the condition of the nation, more importantly we need to see that what Jeremiah’s message is telling us is that finger pointing is useless. To God it does not matter who is at fault. What we will find is a God that reprimands the sheep (and shepherds) but never stops loving them. That no matter how the sheep and shepherds try to turn away from God’s covenants, they are reminded that it was God that made the covenants and that we cannot break them. We are also assured that the remnant of the flock will be gathered personally by God, and that shepherds will be made to rise over us, shepherds who will follow God’s commands of righteousness and justice. And, at the end of this passage, Jeremiah shares God’s promise to raise a righteous branch of David to reign as king, and who shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. Now, before we look at this with our New Testament eyes, let us first examine it in its original context.
Let me first start with the image of God as our Shepherd. Shepherding was one of humankind’s earliest occupations. Flocks and herds consisted specifically of cows, sheep and goats for the most part. The principal, however, owing to size and abundance, and usefulness, was the sheep. Possession of these animals indicated power and wealth. Job had thousands of sheep, camels and oxen and Abraham’s flocks were counted among his blessings. So, everyone understood this image of shepherd as leader in those days. But the image was probably a little different from how we see it. Let me explain.
The OT is full of references that portray God as our shepherd, but there is one that has become a favorite. Any guesses? Of course I’m speaking of the 23rd Psalm. I am going to read it, but while I’m reading I would like everyone to close your eyes and listen (Yes, I know this sounds a little touchy/feely to some of you guys out there but give it a try). And while you listen, try and develop an image in your mind:
“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still water; he restores my soul. He leads me in right paths for His name’s sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff – they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long.”
Now keep your eyes closed and just stay there awhile. I myself have never had a great imagination, but even I can almost feel the grass of the meadow and feel the cool breeze across my face. I can almost smell the flowers and taste the pureness of the water. I am free to roam and if I stray too far, I can feel the tender touch of the Shepherd guiding me back to the safety of the flock. When I hear this Psalm, my senses go into overload. This can be seen as our current day view of shepherding. Now I want you to keep your eyes closed and stay in that place of comfort as I share some insight from a book by Phillip Keller titled, “A Shepherd Looks at the Twenty-third Psalm.”
Frequently in the Bible, human beings are compared to sheep. Now that sounds nice, but surely you realize that it is not necessarily a compliment, because sheep are among the dumbest and dirtiest animals in the world. Sure the sheep start out each year clipped short, white as snow, and very pretty to look at. But as the year goes on, the wool collects on its body and so do all the impurities that surround it. Also, sheep require more attention than any other livestock. They just can’t take care of themselves. Unless their shepherd makes them move on, sheep will actually ruin a pasture, eating every blade of grass until finally a fertile pasture is nothing but barren soil. Sheep are near-sighted, very stubborn and easily frightened; an entire flock can be stampeded by a jackrabbit. Sheep also have little means of defense. Having no claws or sharp teeth, if they have no one to protect them, their only recourse is to run. And if they run too far, unlike dogs, horses, cats or birds, they have no homing instincts. When a sheep gets lost, it’s a goner unless someone rescues it. (Go ahead and open your eyes).
So…..did your vision change? If you’re like me, I saw dirty sheep running all over the place, scared of each other, scared of their surroundings. They were trying to eat as much as they could and were not sharing with others. I could hear the shepherd calling them, by name, but I saw the sheep ignoring the call, choosing instead to go their own way, or following other wayward sheep, or even worse, choosing to follow wolves. Now I’m not trying to change our impression of the 23rd Psalm. That first vision we all had is what can happen when we all truly make God our Shepherd. The second vision is what shepherding can really be like and, for me, reflects more a portrait of our world today and it also gives us some insight into the world during Jeremiah’s time. Now I also want to share something that didn’t change between my two visions. Amongst the chaos of the sheep and the darkness that came over the meadow, I noticed that the one thing that did not change was the demeanor of the Shepherd. Although a little disheartened, the Shepherd still had the look of compassion and love. The Shepherd called out gently to each of the sheep and remained patient. The Shepherd did not just turn away and give up but instead deliberately stood and started toward the sheep with the determination to bring them all back even if it had to be one at a time. But you know, that’s our God, a God that is slow to anger and a God that offers second chances and third chances and fourth. No matter how disobedient the sheep, God still performs the duties of the shepherd. We are fed with the Word, watered with the Spirit, and like a shepherd, God has shown willingness to lay down life in order to protect the sheep. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
I also noticed, in the chaos of my second vision, that there were certainly a lot of sheep for just one shepherd to watch over. Now I read that when the number of sheep increased to a size to where the shepherd was overwhelmed, the shepherd would seek help. Recognizing that hired help would not have the same dedication to the flock (would maybe run from a wolf instead of saving the sheep), the shepherd would look to family for help. A family member would have a stake in taking care of the sheep and could be seen as more reliable and trustworthy. The same goes with God. Although we all know that God can clearly take care of the whole flock with no help, God constantly tries to partner with humankind (His family), to help take care and nurture His creation. You see, God lets some of the sheep go out in front of the others and even lets some of them lead, but God always remains close by. This can be seen most dramatically in the Exodus. God chooses Moses (His lead sheep) to lead the chosen people out of the bondage of slavery in Egypt. But remember on the journey through the wilderness, represented by the smoke during the day and by fire at night, God was always close by. And one of the reasons God stays close is so that the sheep and shepherds that get out of line can be “attended to”. Now, there’s that “attended to” statement that we heard in today’s Scripture. So how will God attend to the “bad” sheep and shepherds? Well, let’s look at what shepherds do to sheep that keep leaving the flock.
I came across a story about a traveler in Syria who saw a shepherd carrying food to a sheep that had a broken leg. The traveler asked how it happened. “Did it fall into a hole or did some other animal break the leg?” he asked. “No,” said the shepherd, “I broke it.” “You broke it?” asked the surprised traveler. “Yes. This is a wayward sheep. It wouldn’t stay with the flock and would lead some of the sheep astray. It wouldn’t let me near it and so I had to break its leg so it would allow me to feed it. In doing this it will get to know me as its shepherd, trust me as its guide, and keep with the flock.”
Now I’m not saying that God will break our legs (Achilles???) but God will allow a self-righteous spirit to be broken. So lets take a look and see how God, like the shepherd in Syria, had to do some “leg breaking” during the time of Jeremiah (We are now going into the historical part of the sermon – please take notes – there will be a test). Let’s start with the leaders, the kings.
Jeremiah’s call came towards the end of the reign of King Josiah. Now you Biblical scholars will recall that Josiah is best known for his reform. That is to say, in short, Josiah found an old copy of the Law of Moses, saw how bad Judah was doing, and started to clean house. The changes that were being made must have been supported by Jeremiah, because he didn’t do too much preaching during this time. He must have felt that Judah was heeding to his earlier warnings, joined in the reform, and therefore must have been hoping that Judah would be spared. But after Josiah’s untimely death, things began to change. Jeremiah tried at first to remain optimistic but it wasn’t long before the defects of the reform became obvious and Jeremiah saw how shallow and artificial the reform was in the hearts of the people. Externally the people of Judah were following the law, but internally they had not changed. So early in the reign of king Jehoiakim, Jeremiah delivered a series of oracles against all the people of Judah (not just the leaders). In these oracles Jeremiah condemns the people accusing them of having turned away too far from their God. He tries to convince them that they cannot continue to believe that Jerusalem is safe from destruction because of the temple being located there. And it’s from the very gate of this temple that Jeremiah tries to get the people to repent, from chapter 7, saying, “Amend your ways and your doings, and let me dwell with you in this place…For if you truly amend your ways and your doings, if you truly act justly one with another, if you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, and the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own hurt, then I will dwell with you in this place…but here you are, trusting in deceptive words to no avail. Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house and say, ‘We are safe’, only to go on doing all these abominations?” Here we see no hope for the sheep or the shepherd. Here Jeremiah goes on to predict the coming destruction of the temple. Here we see Jeremiah’s view of the 23rd Psalm changing.
Now you may remember from the beginning of the sermon that I was concerned that the people of Judah seemed to be “let off the hook”. Bet lets go back and look at the beginning of the third verse of today’s passage. It reads, “Then I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the lands where I have driven them…” God says, “Where I have driven them”. So God was driving them already (regardless of the “bad” leaders). We can see by this passage that the fate of the people was already sealed from the time Jeremiah gave the sermon at the temple; they were to be exiled like the people from Israel. It seems like everyone was serving other gods throughout the week and coming to the temple on the Sabbath feeling saved. Well let’s be thankful we don’t see that happening anymore (wink, wink).
So we might ask, if the fate of all of Judah was sealed, why the extra “woe to the shepherds” at the beginning of our text today? Well, believe it or not, the wickedness did not end at what we have already covered. Jeremiah continues trying to tell the kings of Judah that the Lord is using Babylon as a tool of justice, but, and here’s where the other “bad” shepherds come in, the king’s prophets were prophesizing that peace shall reign and that all the people should continue life as normal resting in the assurance that they were Gods chosen people. Jeremiah tries fruitlessly to explain that these “false” prophets were speaking from visions of their own minds and not the words of the Lord. Eventually the forces of Babylon do come and Judah is able, for a while, to remain semi-independent by paying huge amounts of money in tribute to Babylon. So in this time of poverty, what do you think the king of Judah did to help his struggling people? Right, he builds himself a big house and makes the people perform the labor free of charge. There goes looking out for the oppressed and poor right out the window. An environment where the rich stay rich and the poor stay poor. Again, I must say, I’m glad we don’t see that anymore. Well, eventually the kings and prophets, the “bad” shepherds rely one too many times on their own self-confidence and tried to overthrow the reign of Babylon. The king of Babylon finally got tired of them and the city of Jerusalem is destroyed along with the temple.
So what happened then seems pretty simple to us now. Through Jeremiah, God simply stated what was expected of the people and their leaders - to love God with all your heart, soul, and might and to love others as yourself. Consistent with the view of genuine religion in Hebrew scripture, Jeremiah knew that love of God must be paralleled with love of neighbor; worship without social responsibility was no religion at all. The lesson for us in this part of the story is clear, and that is our love for God will always show itself in our love and care for God’s people….all of God’s people. If we claim to love God at the core of our being, we will love those whom God loves at the core of God’s being. But sadly there are many people who claim to love God with their whole heart and yet who show nothing but contempt and hatred toward other of God’s children. They simply do not answer the call to lovingly and gently nurture God’s children, the call to be shepherds!
So, is that the end of the story? Not by a long shot. We must remember that through Jeremiah God promised the return of the remnant of God’s flock and the rise of good shepherds along with the coming of the righteous branch of David who would reign as King. And in chapter 31:33-34 Jeremiah reveals God’s future covenant that will be made saying, “But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, “Know the Lord,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.” (Pause) This new covenant would be made effective by the free grace of God, which creates in the hearts of the people a knowledge of God and of God’s ways, leading to the obedience of God’s law. God will be their God and they will be God’s people in a fellowship unbroken by the sinful rebellions of the past. This hope of Jeremiah is the hope of Israelite faith and in turn of the Christian faith.
Now it’s a good habit not to jump too quickly into the NT because you can miss things along the way. But here I can’t help but look with NT eyes. Why? Because my search of scripture shows many events happening (return from exile, rebuilding of temple, destroyed again) and many leaders came but none that fully fit Jeremiah’s prophecy and none that brought the idea of a new covenant. That is until Jesus. Think about it, was it not described at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry that He was going out to “sheep without a shepherd”. So, is Jesus the king we are looking for? Matthew goes out of his way at the beginning of his gospel to show Jesus’ lineage back to David. And it is Jesus himself that uses the analogy of the good shepherd in comparison to his ministry. After all, Jesus fed us with the Word of God, Jesus washed away our sins, and Jesus, like a good shepherd, by his own choice, laid down His life for the sheep. And what about this new covenant that Jeremiah talked about. Well, was it not after the ascension of Jesus that his disciple were filled with the Holy Spirit, just as Jesus promised, and through that Spirit that was inside of them they were given the courage and the strength and the knowledge to go out and witness to Jesus’ teachings?
And what about those other shepherds that were promised? Well look around you. Was it not Jesus himself who after his resurrection told his disciples, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations…teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you…” In this, the great commission, Jesus is calling us all to action. I say “all” because if we follow our Protestant heritage, are we not all called into the “Priesthood of Believers”. In the NT pasturing and shepherding are actions that we are all called to do. We are called to action just like Peter was when the Risen Christ instructed him that if Peter loved Him he should tend and feed God’s sheep. Just as Jeremiah saw it, love for God and love for people are so intimately bound up tight that we cannot separate them. We cannot claim to love Christ and at the same time persist in bitterness, spite, revenge and gossip. We cannot claim to love Christ and continue to hate. A lack of love for any of God’s people cuts us off from any claim to love God. As Jesus sees it, all of us are called to do this special task, to care and love one another, to shepherd.
And we need to be careful in how we understand this task of shepherding. Too many times we also make the mistake of thinking that it is the job of only the minister to care for the church. And as long as we persist in seeing ministry as the singular responsibility of the minister, we will always be linked to the notion of the church as a professional organization that employs people to do the caring. So ministry becomes just another job. And when someone is in need, when someone is sick, or has financial difficulties, or is suicidal, or is spiritually depleted, we call in the professional, the minister – after all it’s the minister’s job.
Folks, that’s not the way God sees it. God calls on all that profess love for him to also love others. So, let us learn from today’s scripture and step up to the responsibilities that God has laid before us. We need to ask ourselves a question this morning, “Do we truly love God with all our heart, soul and mind?” If you answered “yes”, then go and feed God’s sheep. If you answered “no”, then find and sit with someone who answered “yes”, I’m sure they will be glad to talk, and walk, with you this morning.
Let us pray. Thank you Lord for all that you do. Help us to love others as we love you. Help us to act on this love as we go out into this world and feed your sheep. In the precious name of Jesus, our Shepherd, we pray. Amen.
