Misericordias Domini, 2022
Rev. Thomas Van Hemert
St. John 10:11-16
Misericordias Domini (Why is the Good Shepherd “good”?)
May 1, 2022
In the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit.
I. Introduction
What makes a worker worth his salt? What makes a worker a valuable asset to the company? Certainly, arriving on time, staying late, getting along with the other coworkers, and getting his work done efficiently and on time. Perhaps even working on projects from home when needed, coming in on the weekends and maybe if necessary, joining that conference call while the family is on vacation. All these things would be attributes of a valuable worker, a worker worth his salt.
Now the title on your bulletin covers names this Sunday Misericordias Domini, that actually comes from the first line of the Introit. Except the introit in ESV translates this as “The Steadfast Love of the Lord,” Misericordias Domini really means, “The Mercies of the Lord.” We know that the earth is full of the mercies of the Lord and that all these mercies of the Lord spring forth from the events that happened on Good Friday and Easter in Jesus laying down His life on behalf of us, His sheep, and by Him taking up His life again, as this authority has been given to Him by His Father. But a more recent title for this Sunday, generally pretty popular among us Lutherans for today is “Good Shepherd Sunday.” You might have guessed, and rightly so, that this title comes from the Gospel reading, in which, Jesus calls Himself, “The Good Shepherd.”
You might say, “He’s the Good Shepherd, so what? I know He’s good. He’s Jesus. Jesus is always good.” Well rightly so. But there is more to this title and to what Jesus is trying to teach us than what we generally think about or often times understand. Do we actually understand what this word “good” means? See I don’t think so.
II. What Kalos means
Because when you think about Jesus as being the Good Shepherd, you often think of pretty, colorful pictures or paintings where Jesus is carrying the little cute lamb on His shoulders, smiling back at it, and leading it to quiet waters through plains of green grass. We sometimes think that the “Good” in Good Shepherd means that He’s nice or that He’s kind. But simply Jesus being nice, looking nice—looking friendly to our eyes—and leading the lambs gently, that in itself, does not make Him “good.” He is the Good Shepherd. But what makes the Good Shepherd “good”?
In our context, in our culture, in our economy, a worker, someone hired and paid money to be a shepherd that we would call “good” that is, a shepherd who is actually good at his job—right? Because that’s what we mean by “good” in our context—someone who’s good at doing the work, who is successful at it, who knows what he’s doing, would mean, first of all, that he knows how many sheep he needs to take care of. He would also know how to take care of them—how to feed them so they don’t starve and die; how to wash them and clean them so they don’t get sick and get infections; how often and when to shear them for their wool and when to slaughter them for their meat so that profits can be maximized and money can be brought in. That’s what we would say a “good” shepherd is—someone who can maximize profits because of the resources and meat the sheep give him to sell for money. Someone who we might call a “good” worker, we think, is someone who knows how to maximize profits. And by this, our understanding of the word “good” is different than how the Scriptures understand it. We understand “good” to mean “of favorable character and tendencies; handsome; attractive; not depreciated; commercially sound; something that can be relied on; and so forth” like the shepherd I just described to you. That definition comes right out of Webster’s dictionary.
But here in John 10, the word used for “good,” in the context of the Good Shepherd, has nothing to do with the romantic way we think of Jesus as being the Good Shepherd—such as how nice Jesus looks when He lovingly carries the lamb on His shoulders in much of the art we see and pictures—but when Jesus says that He is the Good Shepherd, it expresses the absolute claim of Jesus as being the only Shepherd, and the only Shepherd who is Good. He is the Good Shepherd. He is the Unique Shepherd. No one is like Him. All who came before Him were thieves and robbers. The sheep did not listen to them because they were not the Good Shepherd. All the prophets and those in positions of authority like David and Solomon were not like Jesus. Jesus is unique. He is unique because He is the only-begotten Son of the Father. No one is the only-begotten Son of the Father except for Him. No one is the Good Shepherd but Him.
III. How is the Good Shepherd “Good”?
So He is Good. But what does that mean? How is the Good Shepherd “Good”? In what way can He make this claim that He is the Good Shepherd? What does He do?
Well in John 10, when Jesus is making this claim that He is the Good Shepherd, that He is the best and most unique shepherd because of how He’s a shepherd, He makes a distinction between Himself and those whom He calls “hired hands.” On the one hand, Jesus says He is Good because He as the Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. No other worker who calls himself a shepherd would do this. This is not a job requirement for any shepherd, any farmer, or any worker in the private sector or anyone who works for the Government. We might be able to say this about soldiers—how they are to die for their brothers on the battlefield if necessary. But that comparison really isn’t that good because soldiers aren’t dying on the battlefield for those who are their enemies and trying to kill them. A soldier doesn’t run out into the field of battle with the intention of getting shot down because he thinks that will benefit the souls of those who are trying to kill him. Likewise, a shepherd or a farmer, if he sees the tornado or derecho coming, he’s not going to stay out in the fields with the sheep, even if he brings his cattle underneath a somewhat safe structure. He is going to do what he can with the time he has, but in the end, he is going to get out of there as quick as he can because the tornado sirens are going off and he’s going to get into his house as fast as he can and get into his basement immediately. He does this because in the end, he knows sheep and cattle can be replaced. That’s because in reality, he is a hired hand. And in the end, when it comes down to it, he cares for his own safety and his family over the sheep and the cattle. He does this because he is a hired hand. And there is nothing wrong with that. Someone who works in the vocation of raising sheep is just that, a hired hand whose bosses know that at the first sign of danger, he’s going to flee and get to safety.
But not Jesus. He is Good. He lays down His life for the sheep. No other shepherd, as we understand it, with family and friends back home would say, “I promise, at the first sign of danger, I will give myself up for these animals and die so that they might live.” But not Jesus. He does exactly that. He knows how frail we are. He knows how much we are prone to repeatedly falling away, to going astray, to hurting ourselves and one another, and how much we readily pass off His love for us as though it’s meaningless and doesn’t matter. But that’s the thing about Jesus. He is the Good Shepherd who lays down His life for us, the sheep. He looks out and sees us wandering about in this valley of the shadow of death and comes to us. He pays the price for our sin. His blood that flows from His side quenches His Father’s anger and wrath against sin and He rises from the dead. And Jesus says that He is the Good Shepherd. He cannot be—that’s present tense—He cannot be the Good Shepherd, even now in the present, if He stayed dead. But He didn’t He rose. Jesus lives. And now He leads us through this valley of the shadow of death, back to quiet pastures, near springs of living water so that we would never thirst again.
He lays His life down, not only for those who love Him and who know Him. He lays down His life even for those who hate Him. He lays down His life for those who hate others; for those who are angry and hold grudges. He lays His life down for those who think His love is meaningless; for those who think that Christianity is a farce; for thieves, prostitutes, and even tax-collectors. Because when Jesus is hanging on the cross, laying His life down for the sheep, He cries out, “Father, forgive them.” That’s everyone. Everyone is included in that prayer—murderers, adulterers, extortionists, hateful men, those who are suffering, those who never seem to have things go their way, those who taken advantage of others, those who are taken advantage of. He forgives liars, thieves, prostitutes, the anxious and depressed, the despondent, the suffering, and those who are grieving. He is the Good Shepherd. He lays down His life for them. He lays down His life for sinners.
We are all sheep here today. Sheep are weak and vulnerable. But that’s ok. Let us be weak. Let us be vulnerable. Let us be weak and timid and needy. Let us need our Savior. Let us let Him lead us and guide us with His rod and His staff into paradise.
In +Jesus’ name.
