Don't Trust Me

Scripture: The Fourth Sunday of Easter, A.D. 2015 B

Sermon:

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

The word “pastor” means “shepherd.” It comes from an old Latin verb meaning to feed, maintain, pasture, or graze. And that comes from an even older Indo-European root meaning to protect. A pastor protects, feeds, and guides the flock to greener pastures. This goes double for bishops, who are to be pastors of their pastors. That’s why a bishop’s crosier looks exactly like a shepherd’s crook.

Shepherds have sort of a mixed reputation in the Bible. On the one hand, ancient Middle Eastern rulers, like the pharaohs of Egypt, liked to call themselves the “shepherds” of their people, the guides and guardians of the nation. On the other hand, actual shepherds were often looked upon with disdain, especially as the nomadic Israelites urbanized and settled down. Real shepherds spent all their time in the fields, associating more with beasts than men. Real shepherds had to get their hands dirty, and smelled rather like the sheep and goats of their herds. Such folks did not rub shoulders with royalty, no matter how kings praised their virtues.

You and I will see plenty of this for ourselves in the upcoming presidential election, when ludicrously wealthy individuals will try publically to identify themselves with common, hardworking citizens, for whom they truly have little in the way of understanding or affinity. As the Psalmist sings, “Put not your trust in princes”—and that was most likely written by a prince.

So in the Bible shepherds represent both the highest of the high and the lowest of the low. Let us remember this at Christmas, when the birth of our Lord is heralded by an odd assortment of angels, kings, and shepherds. The shepherd-king par excellence is, of course, King David, whom God anointed fresh from the field, doubtless caked in dirt and sweat. David was that rare hero who rose from being an actual shepherd to a symbolic one—from the pasture to the palace, from the country to the crown. Yet soon even this king proved to be dirtier on the inside than the filthiest of his flock. The lesson, it seems, is that a good pastor is hard to find. Even the ones we love the most eventually reveal themselves as all too human, all too sinful, all too flawed.

In our Gospel this morning, Jesus proclaims Himself the Good Shepherd. Not a good shepherd, mind you, but the Good Shepherd, the one and only.

“I am the Good Shepherd,” He promises to us. “The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. The hired hand, who is not the Shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away—and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. I am the Good Shepherd; I know My own and My own know Me—just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father. And I lay down My life for the flock.”

These words fall like warm summer rain upon us all. Here Jesus promises His undying love and devotion, His guarantee of protection and guidance, the fact that He Himself will guard His sheep against the depredations of serpents and wolves. He promises that even though all others betray and abandon us, nevertheless He will stand by us and defend us unto death—even death on a Cross. And He does so willingly out of nothing other than pure, steadfast, gracious and merciful love for even the smallest, farthest, and most wayward of His sheep.

This promise, that Christ and Christ alone is the Good Shepherd, falls doubly joyous upon those of us who dare to be called pastor, because it allows us to declare what every pastor of God’s Church really wants to say every single Sunday, and that is: Do not trust us. Do you understand? Do not trust your pastors. We love you, we truly do, and we pray that we would lay down our lives for God’s people, but at the end of the day, we are not the Good Shepherd. We are not your true guardians, your true shepherds, your true saviors. Jesus is. Thanks be to Christ.

We are all sinners just like you. Indeed, if anything, we are in even more need of grace. Paul tells us that it is only the dishonorable members of the body that we clothe in greater honor. James warns us that teachers will be judged more harshly. When Jesus speaks about the hired hands, who are not the Shepherd, who do not own the sheep, who run and leave the sheep when they see the wolf coming—that’s us. Darn near every person I’ve ever met who’s left the Church has a bad clergy story. They put their trust in their pastor, their shepherd, and he proved unworthy.

If you have yet to feel as though I have disappointed or disillusioned or just plain failed you, give it time. I have a whole laundry list of character flaws, and if you think that’s just false modesty, go ahead and ask my wife. Heck, ask my children. When the drek hits the fan, when the world crumbles down, when the cross proves too heavy to bear, please, do not trust me. I will fail you. I will fall.

But Jesus never will. He is the Good Shepherd. He is your true Pastor, as well as mine. Jesus will always guard us, always guide us, always abide with us. He will share in every one of our hardships and sufferings, in the harshest of fields, through the darkest of valleys. He will never run, never abandon, never betray, never disappoint. He will die before He loses even one of us, and even death could barely slow Him down.

I’m not saying that there aren’t good pastors, good bishops, good leaders of every sort in both the Church and the world. By the grace of God, there are, and I have been privileged to learn from and to be served by many of them myself. I’ve had good pastors. I’ve even married one. But ultimately you cannot place your trust in us. When you receive the absolution of your sins, know that it is Jesus Himself Who forgives you. When you hear the truth of the Gospel, know that it is Christ, not us, Who preaches it. When you partake in the Body and Blood of our Lord at the Holy Supper, know that you receive it not from our unworthy hands but directly from His own.

Christ is here, and He is the real deal, choosing to work through sinners like you and me: guiding us, feeding us, protecting us, forgiving us. He is the Good Shepherd. He is the one true King. And thank God, we are all of us His flock.

The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside still waters; He restores my soul. He leads me in right paths for His Name’s sake. Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, 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 forever.

In the Name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.