How the Shepherd Cares | a sermon

Though it may sound like it, I'm not sure all of this is not to speak ill of the hired hand.

The hired hand who 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 comparison between the Shepherd and the hired hand here is a crucial point of this kind of parable.

We have the hired and the Good Shepherd. What we don't have is the Bad Hired Hand and the Good Shepherd.

It does say that the hired hand does not own the sheep—the one who owns the sheep is the Shepherd. All of this is just here in the text.

And I'm thankful that it is here because this is one of those descriptive moments in the Bible where Jesus is speaking to how things are on this Side of the Fully Realized Kingdom of God, descriptive of the reality in which we live.

Let's give this Hired hand some credit—maybe they had been with this Shepherd for years, and they knew each of those sheep by name. They knew the valleys with the sweetest grass and the clearest pools of water.

But chances are good that Hired Hand had a family of one kind or another—some person or people to whom they felt they were responsible—to keep them fed, warm, and with a roof over their heads.

The moment they hear that pack wolves are coming, the people to whom they owe their ultimate responsibility become the only thing worth thinking of. For the hired hand to choose between the well-being of their family and the life of these sheep - the choice for the hired hand was to run.

These days, we actually call this having boundaries.

What the hired hand did might even be called having good boundaries.

There are books upon books written that say that what the Hired Hand did when they ran upon hearing and seeing those wolves was precisely the right thing to do.

I've got that advice, I am sure that many of us have, from trusted mentors, supervisors, and counsellors, and I have given it to myself.

                You can't serve if you've been eaten by the wolves.

                There's a little treasure in the Greek here - it says that the hired hand does not "care" about the sheep. We’re talking about the kind of "care," or Melei in Greek here is deep motivational caring, not a superficial one.

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Come with me for just a moment,

Imagine a farmer has just cut their field of wheat and brought it to the threshing floor, where you'll bring in an ox to stamp out the grain. The oxen have been working for hours, and the grain work is almost done; the grain is about to be piled high, and the year's bounty is before them. But then, as the ox bends down to take a mouthful of this grain, the farmer stops it and puts a muzzle over its mouth to prevent it from taking a single bite of the bounty...

This act is condemned in the Book of Deuteronomy as simply as this, "You shall not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.”

In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul uses the same word, care:”  'You shall not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.' Is it for oxen that God cares?"

No, it's not just for the Care of the oxen but for the Motivations of the Heart of the one guiding them.

God cares about not muzzling the Ox because it prevents our greed for every last bit of grain or profit from getting away from us. God cares about protecting our hearts.

And not just protecting our hearts from greed and lets them be opened.

As the Ox eats from the piles of grain it just worked to stamp out, the farmer has the freedom to look upon both the bounty and the oxen with gratitude because they are not worried about every last kernel and dollar,

                                    That is the depth of this word care.

Or the disciples go to a sleeping Jesus while the winds and waves are crashing around them, wake him up and ask, using the same word, Care, "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”

They are asking Jesus whether he cares for their life. Whether they live or die.

 We are told that the hired hand does not own the sheep. They are someone else's. He may be affectionate towards the sheep, even love them in a way, and want them to have the sweetest grass and the cleanest water.

But that deep eternal sense of Care - being on this side of the Kingdom of God - it is too much.

So it's not that the Hired Hand was running gleefully away, looking forward to the rest of the day off before finding another flock to help with next week.

No, if you've ever had to leave a person or people you love because of the wolves, you know that it is a heartbreaking moment. But the deep Care - the ones to whom you owe your life - they are not the ones in danger - and so you run.

The hired hand is descriptive of the broken world in which we live.

             —

But thankfully this reading is not from the Gospel of the Hired Hand according to John. It is reading from the Gospel of the Good Shepherd according to John.

    "I am the good Shepherd. I know my own, and my own know me, just as the Father, and I know the Father."

        You and I are the Shepherd's own.

            And the Good Shepherd continues, "And I lay down my life for the sheep."

The Shepherd is not the hired hand. Everything just said about boundaries, about running from the wolves, and about good advice from supervisors, mentors, counsellors, and friends does not apply here.

    The Shepherd cares deeply, eternally, about his sheep.

So deeply that even of the advice given from within the flock, good old Peter, to stay and lead them in the ways they thought would make them most comfortable, he had to dismiss because the kind of caring that God had for them and for each one of us was beyond what we could possibly imagine.

When all of the wolves in our life are circling, the Good Shepherd is there.

    When we feel all but surrounded, we can hear the words, "I lay down my life for my sheep." Hear that again, "Lay down my life" active, present. Not just something that happened in the past. Some of the work of an active God, one who is always with us, especially when the trials of life feel like the wolves are circling.

Psalm 23 is appointed for today, Good Shepherd Sunday,

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for the Good Shepherd is with me;

You preparest a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anointest my head with oil, my cup overflows.

             Now, it's all happening now - not then - but now.

                Even though we are walking through the valley of the shadow of death, The Good Shepherd is with us, and because we have seen him lay down his life for our own - we fear no evil.

Because we find love in each other by acting in the name of the Good Shepherd, our tables are prepared in the presence of the wolves.

As we pray for one another in our sorrow, we anoint each other's heads with oil.

        Most of the time, most of us are the hired hands. Not always...

        Most of the time, we need good boundaries. Of course there are times when we will sacrifice our whole self for the ones to whom we owe it all.

            But those really are the exceptions.

        But then again, much of the time, we do act as part of the Body of Christ that cares deeply and eternally.

        No one of us can do it all; sometimes, we can't even do any of it.

        But that's perfectly alright because it's not up to us.

        It's up to Jesus, the Good Shepherd, the one who could, and did, and continues to walk us through the good times and the bad, to the green pastures of sweet grass, clear pools of still water, and through the valleys of the shadow of death.

        It is up to the Good Shepherd to Cares for His sheep all the days of our life.

        Amen