I remember once eating at a Pizza Hut (not the one in Du Quoin). When I went to pay, the drinks had not been put on the receipt. Wanting to be honest, I mentioned it to the cashier. "Whatever," he said, "it's not like it's my money." He was a hireling. He cared nothing for the business, just his own job. There were shepherds like that. If a wolf came or the sheep were in trouble, they were out of there! It wasn't their problem. When it comes to faith and salvation, the Law is a hireling. The Commandments of God will watch over you: they'll tell you what to do and they'll scold you if wander out of the pasture. They'll convict you and condemn you. But they won't save you. When you fall into the craggy crack of some sin, do you think the Law will pull you out? No way! When you fall into sin, when you need help, when you need to be rescued and saved, the Law runs away and is no help at all! If you perish, it's nothing to the Law! The Commandments declare that you will die in your sins. Whether you do or not isn't the concern of the Law. When you are in trouble, don't run to the Law to save you. Don't run to some principles of holy living or some hard effort to make God happy to save yourself. Nope. When you, little sheep, are dying, only one thing will save you: The Good Shepherd.
The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. The Law can't rescue us from our sins. It's a hireling who runs away and leaves us to die. But Jesus doesn't. Jesus is the Good Shepherd. And He lays down His life to save the sheep. Dear sheep, the only thing that will save you when you fall into sin is the Good Shepherd. And the only way He saves you is by laying down His life. By giving Himself in your place into the death and judgment of sin. Brothers and sisters in Christ, that's what makes Jesus the Good Shepherd: He lays down His life for the sheep. Run away from anyone or anything that draws your faith and trust away from that Jesus, that Shepherd. There is so much preaching and teaching and believing out there that teaches you to trust in yourself and your own opinion, or to trust in the Law and try to earn God's favor. So many preachers teach you to trust in them and their "vision" for the church. So many tell you to trust in some alternate, false Jesus: like the Jesus who is just a good teacher or philosopher or something. Run from such false shepherds. Run away from such hirelings. They won't help you. They can't save you. When you fall into sin they have nothing for you. They just run away and leave you to die. But Jesus, obedient to the Father, comes for the sheep who have wandered. He comes to be the Good Shepherd to those who have no shepherd. As the Lenten hymn says, "The Shepherd dies for sheep who love to wander." We wander. We fall into pits and crags and sins. We get lost. Jesus lays down His life for us. Jesus rescues us from sin and death by His death on the cross. Jesus seeks us and finds us and brings us back into the Father's flock. It's Jesus being the Good Shepherd.
And the Good Shepherd says, "I know my own and am known by my own." How does the Good Shepherd who has laid down His life know His own? He knows you because He has washed you at the font and put His Name upon you. He knows you because He has spoken into your words the voice that absolves you of your sins. He knows you because you are the little lamb He feeds with His own body and blood in the Holy Sacrament of the Altar. How is He known by you? You know Him because He is the One who gave up His life for you, laying it down by being lifted upon a cross. You know Him because He is the Shepherd who has washed you clean and made you white at the font. You know Him because He has given you a preacher to tell you over and over what that His life, death and resurrection are for you. You know Him because His body and blood are the food which you eat and by which you have forgiveness of all your sins and eternal life. Brothers and sisters in Christ, fellow lambs, run away from any shepherding that doesn't bring you to the font and altar, any shepherding that doesn't point you to Christ and what He has done for your. Run away from any preaching or teaching that would give you the false hope of a hireling like the Law to watch out for you and save you! Know your Shepherd because He has laid down His life for you and all the preaching and teaching and sacraments are all about THAT: the Good Shepherd saving you.
St. Peter in His epistle tells us that we therefore have Jesus as our example. Jesus teaches us by laying down His life two things. First of all, He teaches us how God saves us: by sending His Son to die in our place. But then He is also teaching us to love others. So your shepherd, your pastor, has the Good Shepherd as his example. Jesus laid down His life for the sheep. You should know that your pastor will lay down his life for the sheep. You should expect your pastor to stick by you as long as the Lord keeps him there and to preach and teach nothing other than Christ crucified for you. You should expect when you are troubled by your sins that your pastor will give you the saving gifts of the Good Shepherd, reminding you of your baptism, absolving you, teaching you God's Word and feeding you with Jesus' body and blood. You should know that when you fall into sin, your pastor will come looking for your, to call you to repentance, to preach and teach God's Word to you to rescue you from the devil, the world, and your sinful flesh. You should know that when all else in this world fails, and you draw near death, your pastor will be there, with Jesus' gifts, pointing you again to the Good Shepherd. Am I the Good Shepherd? No. I will mess up. I'll make mistakes. I'll fail to do my duty. But that is when I am taught that I too am a lamb who is rescued by the Good Shepherd.
Jesus, as the Good Shepherd, the Good Pastor, is an example to all pastors. But He is also your example, as St. Peter says. When Jesus was attacked, He didn't attack back. He trusted the Father and commended everything into His keeping. And He laid down His life for the sheep. Will you do that, dear Christian? Will you lay down your life for anyone else here in this church? Your brothers and sisters in Christ, will you take it on the chin for them? Turn the other cheek? Cheerfully forgive them when they step on your toes? When you are wronged, or slandered or someone does something against you, will you hold it against them? Or will you lay down as the Shepherd and give your life in forgiveness? Dear little lambs, in Jesus, we have all been called to be shepherds to others. To lay down our lives for others. To love others as Jesus has loved us. And we usually don't even have to go that far! But just love one another by putting up with one another. Putting the best construction on things that are said and explaining what is done in the kindest way. And you know you can try, but you'll mess up, too. When you do, go to that person, and apologize and make things right with them. Lay down your life if you have to, and remember: that's no more than Jesus did. And beware of any preaching or teaching that lets you off the hook to not love your brothers and sisters in Christ!
Dear little lambs of Jesus, Jesus is your Good Shepherd. He is the Good Shepherd because He lays down His life for the sheep. The Law can't save you. Other can't save you. No one else in heaven or earth can lay their life down and die in your place to save you from your sins. Only Jesus the Good Shepherd can do and did do that. Only He is the Good Shepherd who gives you life by giving up His own life. And only His gifts save you. Only His Baptism and His Word and His body and blood. Any other shepherd, any other teaching, is just a hireling who will run away as soon as you get into trouble. But not Jesus. He is the One promised by the prophet Ezekiel to come for the wandering sheep. He is the One who rescues us and has brought us back into the Father's flock. So rejoice little sheep, and say, "Baa-men."