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This column represents the thoughts and opinions of The Rev. Carl Roth. This is not the opinion of the Elgin Courier.
We usually use the word “flock” as a noun, to refer to a group of birds or sheep, but the saying “birds of a feather flock together” reminds us that “flock” can be a verb. “To flock” means “to gather or move in a flock” The Third Sunday of Easter each year is Good Shepherd Sunday. In the liturgy, readings, and hymns, the Lord as our Shepherd is the theme of the day. Christians are sheep of the Lord’s flock, and Jesus is our Good Shepherd.
Psalm 23 comes to mind, but actually, the theme of the Lord as Shepherd and His people as a flock recurs throughout the Bible. Israel was always considered the Lord’s flock, as we see in Psalm 95: the Lord “is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.”
God flocked Israel together to be His own. He chose Israel to be His flock. Israel did not choose the Lord. It’s always important to remember that God chooses, and people are chosen. When God is active, we humans are passive. Our lives are not really our own, and we can only be God’s sheep if He brings us into His flock.
You probably get tired of me pointing out how sinful and unworthy we all are, but we need to hear that. As sinners, we do not deserve to be in the Lord’s flock. This is what 1 Peter 2:25 says: “You were straying like sheep.” He echoes Isaiah 53:6, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—everyone— to his own way.” Or in Psalm 119:176, David says, “I have gone astray like a lost sheep.” (And David knew something about sheep; he also knew something about going astray.)
Our fundamental human situation is to be straying like lost sheep, not following the Good Shepherd, but trying to find our own paths in life. We want to define our own reality rather than have God define how things are with Him and for us. By our sins of thought, word, and deed, we have shut out our Lord’s voice and have instead tuned in to the seductive sirens of the devil, the world, and our sinful flesh.
Thank God the sermon doesn’t stop here. David, Isaiah, and Peter do not stop by saying that we are straying and lost in sin. David prays in Psalm 119, “I have gone astray like a lost sheep; [O Lord,] seek Your servant, for I do not forget Your commandments.” Isaiah said, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned— every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” On whom? On Jesus! Jesus, our Good Shepherd, also is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, for Isaiah continued that Jesus “was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.” (Isaiah 53:6-7) That passage from Isaiah 53 was the sermon text for Philip when he preached the Good News about Jesus to the Ethiopian eunuch (see Acts 8:26-40). And St. Peter was expounded on Isaiah 53 when he wrote that Jesus “committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.” (1 Peter 2:22-25) A better translation of that last phrase is, “You were straying like sheep, but now you have been returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.” The straying was done by us, but the returning has been done by God. It is true that we have returned to the Good Shepherd in repentance, but the question is, “How?”
The answer is, “By grace alone.” We have not returned to the Shepherd by our own will, but we have been returned by God’s mercy, by the Holy Spirit calling, gathering, enlightening, and sanctifying us through the Gospel to bring us to repentance. We straying sheep have been rescued from the ravenous lion, Satan; we have been snatched out of the hungry jaws of hell; we have been spared from being devoured by wolves in sheep’s clothing, those false prophets who would lead us away from Jesus.
Jesus has done it all for us, as He says in John 10, “I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me…and I lay down my life for the sheep” (John 10:14, 15b). In Baptism, straying sheep are converted into Jesus’ little lambs, so they can be certain that Jesus knows them. He knows who belongs to Him. When He was laying down His life on the cross for the sins of the world, He had the salvation of sinners in mind—even you! He wasn’t thinking, “Good grief. If it weren’t for soand- so’s sins, I wouldn’t be up here on the cross.” No, He was thinking, “I am laying down my life to save that little lost sheep.”
Jesus was also thinking of you when He rose on Easter. Jesus had the authority to take His life back up again (John 10:18), for He was the Son of God. And that means our Good Shepherd will never die again and has total authority over every inch of this crazily immense universe. So there is nowhere in all the universe beyond the reach of His mercy; even though you have strayed by committing great sins; even though you have been ungrateful for you Good Shepherd’s care towards you; there is still mercy for you, for all who have been baptized and forgiven their sins.
And so, as we pray in Psalm 23, Christians can cheerfully say, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life” (Psalm 23). Because Jesus has died and risen, we sheep “have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). Our abundant eternal life starts here and now, and we can rejoice in the salvation accomplished for us by the Good Shepherd. Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia! Amen.
