Shepherds and Sheepdogs

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Shepherds and Sheepdogs

Sheep are not an animal that can survive on their own in the wild. They are meant to be cared for. They are meant to be led to green pasture and still water. Led, fed, and watered. Sheep need sheering. Sheep need to be called in from the open fields by their shepherd and directed through the fence’s gate for safe keeping at night.

Sheep need their shepherd. Sheep also need their shepherd’s sheepdogs. Sheep will stray. They need the dog’s bark in their ears and its teeth nipping at their ankles to keep them within the boundaries – and to drive back the wolves.

And I would safely assume that the sheep, though they love their shepherd, probably don’t always like the shepherd’s sheepdogs. Their bite hurts and their bark is loud in their ears. Though that dog is there for their wellbeing, the sheep probably sometimes kick back against it – or sometimes are frightened by it.

In an ideal world, the sheepdog would not be necessary. But sheep live in two realities: In the safety and care of their Shepherd’s keeping; but also in the reality of the wilderness where there are wolves and easy places to get lost.

I.

So, what in the world am I talking about? Jesus is the Good Shepherd. And I am talking about the Good Shepherd’s two-fold voice – His Word of Law and Gospel. His Word of Gospel and Law together fulfill this needed role of shepherd and sheepdog in your life, and in the life of the strayed and the lost who need to be led home.

Jesus’ Word of Gospel – His Word of care and comfort, of His forgiveness and His promises – is pleasant to the ears. His Word of Law is also needed, but like the sheepdog’s bark, is not always pleasant to us.

The Word of our God and Savior does always come to us in those two voices, His Law and Gospel. The Law is God’s commandments and judgments, true threats of consequences for not keeping them. Those consequences are just. The Law says what we must do and what we must not do. And, we never get it all done.

God’s Law is written on the page and is written on the human heart. On the conscience. Leaving us with no excuse.

Our Shepherd’s Word of the Gospel is His Word of the forgiveness of your sins. It’s the voice of the Shepherd which tells you, not what you must do, but what He has done for you – that the Good Shepherd laid down His life for the sheep [John 10:11].

Jesus’ voice of the Gospel is His assurance that, by His cross and resurrection, your sins are forgiven, you have eternal life, and He will never let you go – “My sheep hear My voice… and no one will snatch them out of My hand [John 10:27-28].

The Gospel is God’s greater power, not the Law. The Gospel has the power of salvation. However, like sheep, you also live in two realities. And in this wilderness-reality of our own sinful nature, the devil, and a fallen world, the sheepdog of the Law is still necessary for us. Our Good Shepherd speaks His Word of Law to us for three purposes: As a curb, as a mirror, and as a guide.

The curb on the road keeps your car within certain boundaries (off the sidewalk!) to minimize the damage you might do and help keep you going the way you need to go.

Our Shepherd’s voice of Law bites at our heals to keep our temptations, sinful tendencies, wrong words and actions – and our inaction – within certain boundaries. We would do much worse without that bad feeling in our conscience from His accusing Law – and sometimes other consequences as well – to curb our behavior.

Second, our Shepherd’s voice of the Law serves as a mirror. We may have a certain opinion of ourselves, but a mirror is always honest. God’s Law is a mirror that shows us the truth of the wrong we’ve done, the wrong we’ve been, and the good we’ve failed to be —

— It shows our sin, “So that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin” [Romans 3:19-20].

God’s Law has a true and loud bark – and a true and serious bite. Yet, in the mouth of your Shepherd, it serves only one purpose: The purpose of turning you to your Shepherd’s voice of His saving Gospel.

Those who are self-satisfied or blind to their need for a Savior need the bite and bark of God’s Law. Those lost in confusion or pained in conscience need to hear the Law gently, to realize why, what’s at the the root of their trouble. And all baptized believers in Christ still need the Word of Law – because we still live with two realities.

We live in the renewal and new life of salvation. And we live with our sinful nature still clinging so closely. We do need that curb and mirror, while always remembering that the strongest and most enduring voice of your Shepherd is His voice of the Gospel. It’s His voice of Gospel that gets the final say about you and has the power of renewal.

The third and final use, or purpose, of our Shepherd’s voice of Law doesn’t bite or bark at all. It’s His Word of commandments as our guide and encouragement in life. This is His Law’s most prominent role in our life now —

— His commandments as a standard which is no longer a burden [1 John 5:3] – because He carried the burden – but is now a hope we aspire to, and a promise of what we will one day be. “Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when He appears we shall be like Him” [1 John 3:2].

This Word of His Law as my guide is the answer to the question, “How do I thank Him for the Gospel’s free gift of salvation?” “What life of love and appreciation can I live?” I can take up His commandments as my guide because they are pleasing to Him.

The voice of our Good Shepherd is Law and Gospel; Curb and Mirror; Promise and Guide. This fullness of His voice, altogether, going out into the world is how He returns the lost sheep and the lost coins.

II.

So let’s look quickly at today’s readings: In our Old Testament [Ezekiel 34:11-24], and in the verses before it in Ezekiel, the voice of the Law speaks against the negligent shepherds – those who aren’t moved to action when sheep have strayed – and against the fat sheep who are happy to receive what the Lord gives but who do not share it.

Then the voice of the Gospel speaks loudly as well: “Behold, I, I Myself will search for My sheep and will seek them out… I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak…”

In our Epistle reading [1 Timothy 1:5-17], we hear the proper use of the Law, to speak against our sin-fallen nature: “Understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine”

And then we see the man, Paul, the author of these words, formerly called Saul, who once thought that he could live by the Law and didn’t need the Gospel. Until his eyes were opened and he saw that he was the chief of sinners – and that Jesus had come to save him: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.”

Finally, we hear in our Gospel reading [Luke 15:1-10] that Jesus is the Lord in Ezekiel who says, “I, I Myself will be their Shepherd. I will seek them out.”

In Jesus’ day, God’s people were hearing God’s Law in the wrong way. In their ears, God’s Law chiefly accused others, and their hearts followed suit. So they grumbled: “That Jesus receives sinners and eats with them.”

Jesus responds, “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.”

“Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it? And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’”

“I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents” than over ninety-nine who believe they need no repentance [Luke 18:9]. From beginning to end, He seeks the lost and turns them – repentance – back to home.

III.

That that woman swept the whole house, and that that shepherd searched the whole wilderness, shows what value Jesus places on the lost. Value each other likewise, He says. Value the lost in your world likewise, and do not grumble.

We live in a world in which we are all too content to only bark at each other, and to leave it at that. That is not God’s true Law or Gospel, and it’s not His purpose. It only leads to men and women devaluing the lives of those they oppose.

Your Shepherd’s voice speaks with an entirely different purpose than anything on any “side” in this world: To seek the lost and to bring darkened souls into the light of His Gospel salvation. Thanks be to God that we are called to speak with the voice of our Good Shepherd for this same purpose. Amen.