Jesus is our Good Shepherd / John 10:22–30 / Pr. Ted A. Giese / Sunday May 11th 2025 / Season of Easter / Mount Olive Lutheran Church

Jesus is our Good Shepherd - John 10:22–30 / Mount Olive Lutheran Church / Season of Easter / Rev. Ted A. Giese / Sunday May 11th 2025

At that time the Feast of Dedication took place at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the colonnade of Solomon. So the Jews gathered around Him and said to Him, “How long will You keep us in suspense? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.” Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in My Father’s name bear witness about Me, but you do not believe because you are not among My sheep. My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”

Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in Your sight O Lord. Amen.

Grace peace and mercy to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Good Christian Friends when the Jews who had gathered around Jesus asked Him, “How long will You keep us in suspense? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.” Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in My Father’s name bear witness about Me, but you do not believe because you are not among My sheep.” One of those works preformed by Jesus for all the World to see, that the Jews of the day where conflicted over, was Jesus’ healing of a man born blind. This event happened immediately before our Gospel Reading for today and has some bearing on what Jesus is saying in the Gospel Reading, when He says, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me,” you see Saint John right before this records Jesus saying of Himself, “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 sheep.”[1]

Jesus is saying to them that He is truly the Shepherd of Psalm 23:

The Good Shepherd who makes you

to lie down in green pastures.

        Who leads you beside the still waters;

        Who restores your soul;

        Who leads you in paths of righteousness

               for His name’s sake.       

The Good Shepherd who is with you even though you walk

through the valley of the shadow of death,

               The one who calms your fear of evil,

               Whose rod and shepherd’s staff,

                       protects and comfort you in the face of trouble. 

        The Good Shepherd who prepares a table before you

in the presence of your enemies (some of whom will look on wishing they had what you have and others who surprise, surprise through forgiveness and grace end up sharing the banquet with you as your friends);       

Yes, Jesus is saying that He anoints your head with oil

Just as the heads of kings and priests are anointed;

        He is the Good Shepherd who makes your cup to overflow.

        He is the goodness and mercy of God that follows you

               all the days of your life,

The one who promises that you shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever, and as a result — knowing this — you can confess with confidence that you lack nothing.[2]

And so in our Gospel today Jesus says of Himself, “I give them [that is His sheep] eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”

But not all people hear the Shepherds voice, and some upon hearing the voice of Jesus the Good Shepherd will not follow. Related to this teaching of Jesus is that man born blind. The blind man cannot see Jesus and as a result the man born blind is a great example of one who heard the voice of the Good Shepherd and followed Him. You see when “Jesus heard that [the Pharisees] had cast [out of the Synagogue the man blind from birth,[3] the man Jesus healed by removing his blindness, Jesus found the man, and asked him,] “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” [The man, having been blind when he first met Jesus, did not recognise Jesus at first, so he] answered, “And who is [this Son of Man], sir, that I may believe in Him?” Jesus said to him, “You have seen Him, and it is He who is speaking to you.” [The man then] said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped [Jesus]. Jesus [responded], “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” Some of the Pharisees near [Jesus] heard these things, and said to Him, “Are we also blind?” Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.”[4]

Context is important, how things fit together can tell you a lot: The man Jesus healed, the man blind from birth could not see Jesus but he listened to Jesus’ voice and followed Jesus’ voice as Jesus lead the man to sight. Keep reading in and around this part of the Gospel of Saint John and it quickly comes clear that the Pharisees are the thieves and robbers who have climbed into the sheepfold by another way that Jesus warns everyone of.[5] Saint Paul, an under-shepherd of the Good Shepherd Jesus, would latter give a similar warning to the pastors entrusted with the sheep in Ephesus, “Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which [Jesus] obtained with His own blood. I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them.[6] The Pharisees who where causing the man born blind, who’d been healed by Jesus, all this trouble and who were stirring up trouble for Jesus were like fierce wolves in shepherd’s clothing.[7] 

Today in North American people are celebrating Mother’s Day. Does Mother’s day have anything to do with all this? If you read chapter 9 with chapter 10 of the Gospel of Saint John you can quickly make some connections: First, on the one hand, you have this man blind from birth, and he like you has a mother who gave birth to him, and when you read the whole account of his story his mom show up as one who is questioned by the Pharisees about her son, but this mother (along with her husband, the man’s father) ends up throwing her son under the bus out of fear of being rejected by the Pharisees and being thrown out of the Synagogue along with their son.[8] Motherhood isn’t all apple pie sometimes it is very difficult and sometimes mothers are put in bad situations like this man’s mother. Now this leads us to a second thing to think about, on the other hand, this man blind from birth and his mother (with Jesus in the centre of the whole thing) reveals an aspect of motherhood that is obvious but not always pointed out in connection to Jesus being the Good Shepherd: Motherhood can be similar to shepherding. From conception a woman with child is tasked with the vocation of mother, she is to nurture and protect her child through the pregnancy, through infancy, through childhood, even though adulthood (even past the point when children stop wanting to be shepherded in life). Doubtlessly you’ll have observed that some mothers for selfish reasons sadly reject their role of mother,[9] and then there are also people who try, like the Pharisees, to horn in on the responsibilities of the mother; well meaning yet misguided people who can end up becoming a bad influence on children. Go home and read chapter 9 with chapter 10 of the Gospel of Saint John and you’ll see it.

What about this man blind from birth and his mother? We don’t know what ever happened with this man blind from birth and his mother after the events in Saint John’s Gospel. Did he reject his mother because she refused to stick up for him in the Synagogue? Did he forgiver her even though she’d failed to defend him against the wolves in shepherd’s clothing, those Pharisees that were casting her son out of the sheepfold for the crime of being healed by Jesus on the Sabbath Day? That was the big point of contention for the Pharisees. We just don’t know.

If you are a mother you know that you need forgiveness for the times you’ve failed at being a mother, for the times you’ve failed at shepherding you children through life. If you are not a mother but you are the child of a mother — by the way that’s all of us — we too have occasions when we need to ask forgiveness for the times where we’ve broken the 4th commandment and not honoured our mother, the times when we have not received her guidance and the shepherding she has lovingly provided. We also need to forgive our mother for the times that she has provided bad guidance or no guidance, for the times she has sinned against us, or abandoned us to the dangers of the World.  

Let’s bring this back around to Jesus. Later as Jesus was drawing ever closer to the crucifixion and looking towards Jerusalem Jesus said “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!”[10] Jesus describes Himself as a ‘mother hen’ with chicks under the wing, this is another illustration of Jesus and His Shepherding; so while others come only to steal and kill and destroy Jesus comes to us like a ‘mother hen’ with outstretched ‘wing,’ He comes to us as our Good Shepherd with shepherd staff in hand so that we may “have life and have it abundantly.”[11] This is your Jesus who says “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 sheep.”[12] Dear ones this is Jesus who later promises us saying, “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of My hand.”[13]

Be comforted by these words. If you as a mother have had a baptised child snatched out of your hands, remember that Jesus has that child in His hand. If you as a baptised child have been snatched out of your mother’s hands remember that you are not left to wander in life you are in Jesus’ hand.

Today and every day, remember that Jesus is the Good Shepherd and in Him there is forgiveness: Forgiveness for the times you have rejected your mother and broke that 4th commandment failing to honour her; Forgiveness for you (as a mother) when you have exasperated your children.[14] Forgiveness that is, by the way, for both mother and father. Forgiveness for poor shepherding, forgiveness for rejecting the kind shepherding provided to you in love. All this forgiveness flows from Jesus. In your mind you may have more questions suddenly, a laundry list of things may suddenly immerge, and hard accusations may pop up that you didn’t expect — Jesus forgives sin, sin of every kind. You’re a bad child? Ask for forgiveness, you’re a bad mother? Ask for forgiveness. You pride yourself on being a good child or a good mother? Remember, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”[15] There’s always room for forgiveness and honesty, for repentance, and for returning and for growing and building each other up in Christian faith and love — Dear ones listen to the voice of the Good Shepherd when Jesus says “I am the Good Shepherd. I know My own and My own know Me, ... I lay down My life for the sheep ... I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of My hand.” Listen to Jesus say this to you this day: if you have ears to hear it hear these words! If everyone else in the World rejects you, trust that Jesus will not reject you, as the ‘Mother Hen’ He comes to you “with healing in [His] wings.”[16] Those arms stretched out for you at His Good Friday cross covering over your sin are the very arms that shepherd you home. He is your Good Shepherd. Pattern your life after Him, trust His guidance, be restored by Him, be lead by Him in paths of righteousness for His name sake.[17] If you are lost remember He goes after you until He finds you. He puts you on His shoulder rejoicing and carries you home.[18]

Mothers look to Jesus, Fathers look to Jesus, Children look to Jesus: whether you are a mother or not, in life we are all tasked to look after each other as we ourselves would like to be looked after; look to Jesus to see how it’s done and do it, tuning always to Him for forgiveness, keeping in mind that “The law says ‘Do this’, and it is never done. Grace says, ‘believe in this’ and everything is already done.”[19] In Jesus everything is done and it is all done well, with the man blind from birth who received his sight, with all who hear Jesus’ voice and follow Him, trust that He has done it all for you and your forgiveness is secure in Him: Forgiveness for death, destruction and rejection, forgiveness for abandonment and neglect, forgiveness for anger and toxic selfishness, forgiveness for stubbornness and dishonour: Forgiveness for all of it and in that forgiveness life, abundant and eternal life and a call to follow Him, to return to the Lord and whether you’re a mother or father of a fellow Christian live lives of godly service to others in keeping with His Holy Word to the glory of God the Father. We give thanks for the good mother’s we’ve had in our life and all the love and kindness they’ve shown to us. But above all today we give thanks that Jesus is our Good Shepherd; He is the Life, the abundant and eternal life given to each of us, and you most certainly are His and He is most certainly yours: we are all in His hand and He promises no one will snatch us out of His hand. Amen.    

Let us pray: Lord have mercy on us, Christ have mercy on us, Lord have mercy on us, “take our minds and think through them, take our lips and speak through them, take our hearts and set them on fire; for the sake of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Amen.

[1] John 10:14–15
[2] Psalm 23
[3] John 9:1
[4] John 9:35-41
[5] John 10:1-5
[6] Acts 20:28-30
[7] The Pharisees, instead of reforming the system of their day, worked to usurp Sadducees, to replace them. The true under-shepherds of the sheep in the days recorded by Saint John were still the Levitical Priests, whom the ruling Sadducees were derived.  The Pharisees, who themselves were not Levites, were not at work to support and build up the Sadducees, they were not encouraging them to be faithful in their vocational task. The Pharisees instead are guilty of trying to influence the Children of Israel to their own ends (and regardless of their ‘good intentions’ they had assumed a role that wasn’t theirs to assume); the Sadducees had largely abandoned their role (for “greener” Greek philosophical pastures).
[8] John 9:18-23,  The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight, until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight and asked them, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?” His parents answered, “We know that this is our son and that he was born blind. But how he now sees we do not know, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself.” (His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue.) Therefore his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”
[9] Like the Sadducees in the day of the Gospel of Saint John did.
[10] Luke 13:34
[11] John 10:10
[12] John 10:14-15
[13] John 10:28
[14] Ephesians 6:4 (Here Saint Paul says this to Father’s but Mother’s can also exasperate their children)
[15] 1 John 1:8
[16] Malachi 4:2
[17] Psalm 23:3
[18] Luke 15:1-7
[19] Theological Theses 26, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther, “The Heidelberg Disputation” 1518.

Photo Credit: Main photo of grafic alteration of Jesus as Good Shephered from Pictorial Aids to Sunday School Blackboard Exercises "The Good Shepherd" published by B. B. Chamberlin, 128 West Fourth Street, Cincinnati, public domian, found in Googel image search using Creative Commons licenses setting.