I AM the Good Shepherd - Lent Mid-week 5 - March 30, 2022 - Text: John 10:7-18 (esp. v. 11)

When God called Moses and sent him to deliver His people, the Children of Israel from their bondage of slavery in Egypt, “13Then Moses said to God, ‘If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, “The God of your fathers has sent me to you,” and they ask me, “What is his name?” what shall I say to them?’ 14God said to Moses, ‘I AM who I am.’ And he said, ‘Say this to the people of Israel, “I AM has sent me to you.”’” (Exodus 3:13-14). This year during the season of Lent through to Easter morning we are exploring the “I AM” words of Jesus, especially as John expounds on God’s telling Moses that His name is “I AM.” Today we are looking at Jesus’ words as He declares, “I AM the Good Shepherd.”
 

Again, as we have been doing, we begin with God’s name as He tells Moses, His name is “I AM.” His name declares Him to be God from eternity, living outside of time, in the eternal present. As we heard over the hast weeks, Jesus declares Himself to be the Light of the world so He says He too is “I AM,” in other words He proclaims His divinity, from Exodus. Jesus declares Himself to be the door, the only entrance into heaven.
 

And again let me reiterate that Jesus is true God in the eternal present. Jesus is not a God who was as He has no beginning. He is not a God who is to be as He has no tomorrow, at least not in the same sense of time which He created for us, yesterday, today and tomorrow. Rather He is God who is I AM such that He lives in the eternal present thus all things with Him are concurrent and outside of time as you and I sense time.
 

Now, here in our text Jesus declares that He is the Good Shepherd. In order to better understand Jesus as the Good Shepherd He compares Himself to the hireling. The hireling is the one hired to take care of the sheep. The hireling is one who has no interest nor stake in the sheep or the lives of the sheep. The hireling is more interested in his position, his status, his pay, his following. When danger draws near, rather than protect the sheep, the hireling seeks to protect his own life, he runs away.
 

Jesus is the Good Shepherd. As the Good Shepherd He knows His sheep intimately. He knows His sheep by name and His sheep know Him, they know His voice. While they will run from the voice of the hireling they will run to the voice of the shepherd. As the Good Shepherd He leads the sheep into good pastures so that they might have good grass to eat. He leads the sheep to find good water so they have good clean water to drink. And He stands guard to protect the sheep. The Good Shepherd has ownership of the sheep. The Good Shepherd loves His sheep and cares for His sheep. He is more concerned about His sheep than His position, His status, His pay or His following.
 

Jesus the Good Shepherd risks His life, even to the point of death for His sheep. Again, the Good Shepherd knows His sheep by name and even calls them by their name and the sheep recognize and know the voice of the Good Shepherd. They respond when the Good Shepherd calls. While the sheep may run from anyone not the Good Shepherd, even the hireling, they know that the Good Shepherd is there to care for them, to feed, water and protect them.
 

Jesus is the Good Shepherd. Jesus is also God in flesh. When John the Baptist sees Jesus he points to Him and declares, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” Thus, not only is Jesus the Good Shepherd, He is also the Lamb of God.
 

In the Garden of Eden, immediately after Adam and Eve sinned bringing a curse, death and hell on all creation, God stepped in and promised that He would take care of the sin of Adam and Eve, He promised a Savior. When God called Abraham He promised him that through his family the Savior of the world would be born. When God called Moses to lead His people, the Children of Israel out of their bondage of slavery in Egypt when they reached the wilderness God gave to Moses the Moral Law of the Ten Commandments and the Ceremonial Law of the sacrificial system.
 

In the beginning, in the Garden of Eden God told Adam and Eve that the price for disobedience, for sin, for eating of the forbidden fruit, the fruit in the middle of the garden, the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil was death. More specifically the price for sin was human life for human sin. God’s promise, however, was that He would take care of their punishment. The Ceremonial Laws God gave to Moses were animal sacrifices, but those sacrifices did not pay for sin. Those sacrifices were merely a reminder that the price for sin was death, that blood had to be shed. Those sacrifices were meant to point the people to the one ultimate sacrifice of a human, the Savior of the world, God in flesh.
 

Jesus was born, God in flesh, true God conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and true man, born of the human woman, the Virgin Mary. Jesus came as the Good Shepherd who would take care of His sheep, His people, us. Jesus came as the Lamb of God. As Jesus declares, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” Jesus declares, I am God in flesh. I am the One who cares for my people. I am the One who will die for my people.
 

Jesus is true God in human flesh. He had to be true God in order to be born in perfection and to live the perfect, obedient life demanded of us. Jesus had to be truly human in order to trade His life for our life, the price for sin, human life for our human sin.
 

What does this mean? Jesus is true God in human flesh who created us. He created us to love us. He lives in the eternal present so He already knew what was going to happen, that Adam and Eve would sin, that He would have to give His life for us, His creation, He knew all this even before He began creating and yet, we see His great love in the fact that He created us anyway. He created all things and at our conception, He created each one of us, individually as a special person. And He created us to love us, to lavish us with all the good gifts and blessings He has to give.
 

Jesus is true God in human flesh who redeems us. The price for sin was set at death, human death for human sin. We are conceived and born in sin. At the moment of our conception we are sinful human beings. Sin separates us from God. Sin taints our will such that our complete desire from conception is to refuse and reject God and His good gifts and blessings. However, Jesus came to redeem us, to buy us back, to trade His perfection for our imperfection. At our Baptism God washes us. He forgives us, He puts faith in our hearts, He writes our names in the book of Life. He makes us His own. On the cross He traded His life for ours. Of His own free will He laid down His life. It was not taken from Him. By His stripes we are healed.
 

Jesus is true God in human flesh who sanctifies us. We are made right by God, through faith in Jesus, faith given to us at our Baptism, faith strengthen through His Word and Holy Supper. We are brought back into a right relationship by the forgiveness of sins in Holy Absolution. Having been made right with God He continues to work in and through us to do the good works He has prepared in advance for us to do. He works in and through us to imperfectly be the people He would have us to be. Indeed, just as our justification points to Jesus and His work, so our sanctification points to Jesus and His work in and through us.
 

And ultimately our response of faith is given to us. As we read and hear God’s Word, as we remember our baptism, as we hear our Lord’s word of forgiveness, “Your sins are forgiven,” and as we taste our Lord’s body and blood in His Holy Supper so we are filled to the point where we simply cannot help ourselves, but we must respond with words of thanks and praise and works of service, serving Him through our service to others, living as priests in the priesthood of all believers, offering our lives as living sacrifices. We live in such a way that as others see us they say, not what a great person we are, but what a great God we have.
 

As we continue on in this Lenten season, as we continue to hear Jesus proclaim that He is true God in human flesh, and today as we hear Him declare that He is the Good Shepherd, we are also reminded of John the Baptists testimony that He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Thus, we rejoice in our salvation, purchased and won for us by Jesus, true God in human flesh, the Lamb of God and our great Good Shepherd. And our response, as moved and worked in us by Jesus Himself is to rejoice and say, to God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.