July 19, 2009

2009 07 19

New Shepherd, New Sheep, New Flock

Jeremiah 23:1-6

Psalm 23

Ephesians 2:11-22

Mark 6:30-34, 53-56

This past Thursday, Jen and the kids were invited to Sharon Baxter’s parents farm.  I remember that Katie was so excited about the trip.  Unfortunately, I had plenty of things to do here at the church.  So I missed out on that trip. But one of the exciting things Katie got to do was bottle feed some of the lambs.  She really enjoyed that.  Perhaps as she gets older and more involved in 4-H, maybe she’ll get to learn more about raising sheep.  Who knows?  Maybe someday she’ll get the chance to raise and care for her own.

Throughout the Bible, the language of shepherds, sheep, and flocks are frequently used.  And for good reason.  The Old and New Testaments were written long before the Industrial Revolution.  There was no semblance of modern technology.  No electricity, no cars, no phones, no computers.  Every once in a while, I wonder what it would be like for someone from about 2000-3000 years ago to see what our modern day life is like.  It would be a very large shock to their systems. 

People in those times were not consumed with leisure and entertainment.  Their main concerns were food, clothing, shelter, and family.  If they wanted to eat, they either raised it themselves or engaged in a trade that earned enough to buy what food they needed.  It was a truly agricultural society.  In those days, it wasn’t a special treat for a child to see what we might call “farm animals”.  In the countryside, just about everyone raised sheep, and in the villages and towns, everyone had bought, butchered, and cooked a lamb. 

Remember, the Jewish people did not eat any pork.  In Leviticus 11 and Deut. 14, the Lord deemed the pig as an unclean animal.  Israelites were unable to eat the meat or even touch the carcass, or else they would be ceremonially unclean.  Who is going to raise pigs, if no one can eat them and no one will buy them?  We know that cows were raised, but it is likely that they needed more water and feed than was often available in that climate.  So they were not as common as they are in our area today.  Sheep were the most common animals raised.  Their milk was good to drink.  Their wool could be spun into yarn and made into cloth.  But also remember, sheep were absolutely necessary to the spiritual life of the Jewish people. 

When a person committed a sin, they were to bring as a sin offering, a bull to be sacrificed for their sin.  However, people were able to bring forth a lamb instead.  And at the feast of the Passover, each family was expected butcher and cook a lamb.  You have to imagine that must be a lot of sheep.  Sheep were a central part of agriculture, commerce, and worship from the time of Moses through the life of Jesus.  And these sheep were not going to raise themselves.  They needed people skilled, experienced, and knowledgeable about the care and raising of sheep.  These people were called shepherds. 

One of the best known shepherds in the Bible is David.  David is one of my favorite people in the Bible, and you are certain to hear about him in many of my messages.  David was the youngest son of Jesse in a family of shepherds.  God chose him to be king…over the people’s choice, Saul.  With one well-noted exception, David ruled Israel justly.  He gave us the Psalm that we read in our welcome this morning.  Although David had everything his heart desired, he remembered who was really leading Israel.  “The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want.”

Now, I may have limited understanding of modern farming techniques.  And while serving here at Mt. Carmel, I am sure that I will have many opportunities to learn.  But there are a number of differences between modern sheep tending and being a shepherd.  Back those days, a shepherd would lead his flocks to suitable grazing lands, moving them whenever food or water became scarce.  The shepherd would watch over and protect the sheep from predators and thieves, usually sleeping among them.  It was a lonely job with no scheduled vacations, no long weekends, and no sick days.  A shepherd, using whatever he had available treated their wounds and delivered their young.  It may have been a thankless job, but without the shepherds, the sheep would surely be lost.  You see, usually the greatest danger to sheep…was themselves.  Led by their stomachs, they would move from one grassy patch to another.  They would often get lost without ever knowing it.  Shepherds watched, protected, and guided the flocks, all the while searching for ones that might have wandered away.

This is exactly the reason why the Israelites are in such trouble in Jeremiah 23.  The people of Israel have wandered away, and their shepherds…the priests…have not gone after them.  In fact, from the reading this morning, we might assume that it may have been the priests that have led the people astray. 

¹ "Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of my pasture!"

^2b "Because you have scattered my flock and driven them away and have not bestowed care on them, I will bestow punishment on you for the evil you have done,” God will punish the priests and religious leaders of Israel.  Either by their actions or their inactions, God’s people are wandering, lost.  They have sought out other gods and virtually abandoned their faith in the God of their fathers, their true leader and shepherd. 

God will not sit idly by and allow this to happen.  ⁴ I will place shepherds over them who will tend them, and they will no longer be afraid or terrified, nor will any be missing,"  But then in verse 5, God goes even further.  ⁵ "The days are coming," declares the LORD, "when I will raise up to David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land. ⁶ In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. This is the name by which he will be called: The LORD Our Righteousness.

God will replace these inept and evil priests and leaders.  He will replace them with Godly leaders, so that the people will turn away from their wandering and turn back to the God who loves them.  But he promises more.  He promises a righteous branch from David.  God promises a new shepherd…a new king…to guard, guide, and rule over the people.  God promises a savior, and his name will be: The LORD Our Righteousness.

In Mark 6, we see and know that this righteous branch…this savior…has come into the world.  It is Jesus.  The scene we see in vv. 30-34 is sheer chaos.  It says that there were so any people coming and going that they did not even have time to eat.  Jesus calls the apostles to get away with him for some rest.  ³² So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place. They left.  They got out of dodge.  They went where no one would bother them.  ³³ But many who saw them leaving recognized them and ran on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them.

Have you ever been on vacation…or had a day off…and someone kept calling you at your home or on your cell phone?  Maybe they showed up at your house.  They needed this.  They needed that.  That person just about drove you crazy? 

Imagine what it was like for Jesus.  Throughout his ministry, he frequently went off by himself or with the disciples to pray to his Father in heaven.  Now his private time…his Father time…was interrupted by all these people.  In our selfishness, we might take tell these people to take a hike…leave us alone.  But that was not what Jesus does.

³⁴ When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.

He had compassion on them.  For far too long the religious leaders of the day had given the people teaching…given them the laws and regulations of God…but had never shown them faith.  The Jewish people knew of God, but they did not know him.  These people did not know what it was like to actually believe in God.  But now, with Jesus, they were hearing and seeing God.  His teaching had truth.  It had power.  The people who came to see him got so wrapped up in what Jesus was doing and what he had to say…that they forgot where they were and what time it was.  It was late and they were in a solitary place far from any towns.  Mark 6:35-44 was the feeding of the five thousand. 

The people are so hungry for what Jesus had to offer them, that they forget any food to eat.  Yet, Jesus provides even that for them.  Eventually Jesus sends his disciples ahead of him in a boat.  Jesus walks on the water to meet them in the boat.  Again, he is mobbed by people. 

⁵⁵ They ran throughout that whole region and carried the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. ⁵⁶ And wherever he went-- into villages, towns or countryside-- they placed the sick in the marketplaces. They begged him to let them touch even the edge of his cloak, and all who touched him were healed.

Restoration..healing.  Things that the people had never heard or seen from its so-called shepherds were now taking place with this man Jesus.  He was the new shepherd…the long-awaited righteous branch of David.  But Jesus did not come to create new religious laws or to enforce the old traditions.  He came to fulfill the laws, the prophecies.  Jesus came to bring righteousness and new life.  He came to transform old sheep into new creations. 

And in so doing…Jesus created a new flock.  The Church.  Jesus came to teach and reach out to the Jewish people, but he came to save all people.   I don’t have time to go in depth, but in Ephesians 2:11-22, Paul speaks to the Gentiles, the people OUTSIDE the Jewish race and the Hebrew faith.  They were outsiders to the grace of God, but in Jesus Christ, the barriers were torn down.  The new flock of God holds more sheep than ever before.  Regardless of race, heritage, or background, The people who were forgotten, forsaken, excluded.  There is now room for them to sit at the table of God.  We are the church of the broken.  The church of the forgotten. 

1.    Jesus…the new shepherd

2.    Those who open their hearts to him and are transformed by saving faith…the new sheep

3.    The Church which holds us all together in His rich grace…the new flock. 

I’m here to tell you people that the world is watching us.  The world is watching to see if the Lord really is our shepherd, because only a shepherd who makes a difference in the lives of his sheep will be deemed worthy to lead others.  The shepherd is only as real as the sheep who follow him. Let people see us and know that God is real.

Closing prayer…Psalm 23.