Easter 3
Jn
10:11-16
4/19/26
On Good Friday an F-15E Strike Eagle
was shot down while flying a mission over Iran. Both the pilot and the weapons
system officer ejected. The pilot was rescued relatively quickly. The weapons
system officer managed to evade capture. He climbed a ridge line and hid
himself in a mountain crevice.
And with that, the race was on as
Iranian forces sought to capture the Air Force colonel. If they could do so, it
would be huge propaganda coup. They would be able to torture, interrogate, and
broadcast images of the American in order to humiliate the United States and
use him as leverage in negotiations.
The U.S. military set into a motion
a massive operation in order to rescue the airman, whose call sign was Dude
44. Armed forces members who face the
possibility of being behind enemy lines and captured go through a training
called SERE school – Search, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape. As some of you
know, my son recently graduated from SERE school. He couldn’t tell us much
about the training. But one message he received there was clear: We will come
and get you. No one is left behind.
Those who took part in the mission
were willing to risk their life in order to rescue Dude 44. Air Force A10
Warthog pilots and Army helicopter pilots flew in the midst of ground fire that
damaged their aircraft. Special Forces soldiers fought to protect the pilot.
Air Force Pararescue Jumpers helped to extract him – a force whose motto is,
“That others may live.”
This complete dedication to the
mission, and a willingness to lay down one’s own life to save another is what
we find in Jesus’ words this morning. Our Lord describes himself as the Good
Shepherd. He says that he is the shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep.
Our text this morning finds Jesus in
Jerusalem as he contends with the Pharisees.
He has just said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those
who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” Our Lord described the nature of his mission.
He was here to give spiritual sight to those who were blind in their sin. But
those who thought they saw – who thought they had God all figured out – would
find themselves blind in unbelief.
Some of the Pharisees near him 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. In their rejection of Jesus, they thought they
saw matters correctly. But Jesus said that in their rejection of him, they were
blind as they remained in the guilt of their sin.
Jews like the Pharisees are
rejecting Jesus. So in this chapter Jesus uses the metaphor of a shepherd to
describe his action, and the response of those who are being saved. At the
beginning of this chapter he says, “The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his
own sheep by name and leads them out.
When
he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him,
for they know his voice.”
Jesus called you by name. He did it in Holy Baptism as the pastor said
your name and poured water on you with the words, “I baptize you in the name of
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” Through the work of his
Spirit, Christ has called you to faith. This recognition of the Good Shepherd’s
voice is not something that you worked in yourself. Instead, it was God’s action
to save you. Earlier Jesus said, “No one can come to me unless the Father who
sent me draws him.”
When we hear language like this, it
is natural that our minds begin to turn to the question of those who don’t
believe – those who think they see yet are blind like the Pharisees. But this
is to ignore the reason that Jesus speaks these words to us. It is meant to comfort you.
Now there is no doubt that God wants
to save all people. He learn in chapter three, “For God did not send his
Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might
be saved through him.” God’s purpose in Christ is to save all. And there is no
doubt that Christ died for all. John says in his first epistle, “He is the
propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of
the whole world.”
The only answer you will find in
Scripture for why people don’t believe is their own sin and fallenness. We know that people are able to harden their
own heart against the Gospel. We also know that like Pharaoh, God can harden
people in this condition as they set themselves against God.
But what we need to realize is that
language about hearing Jesus’ voice – the voice of the Good Shepherd – is not
meant to give an answer to our question about why some and not others. That is
in fact an answer that only God can understand. Instead, this language is meant
to comfort you with the knowledge that God has called you to faith.
You hear Christ’s word and believe him because God has called you as his
own. Jesus says later in this chapter, “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.”
Jesus describes himself as the
shepherd whose voice the sheep hear. He is the one whom they then follow. So
what is this shepherd like? Our Lord says, “I am the good shepherd. The good
shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” Jesus calls himself the “good” shepherd, and
then explains whey he is good. He is good because he lays down his life for the
sheep.
In our text, Jesus contrasts the
good shepherd with the hired hand. The one who does not own the sheep has no
investment in them. Watching the sheep is simply a job – it is a way to get a
paycheck. And so when there is a threat like a wolf, he abandons the sheep. He
doesn’t care about the sheep.
Jesus is the good shepherd. He is
the good shepherd because he does not abandon the sheep. Instead, he loves and
cares for them as those who are his own. Christ says, “I am the good shepherd.
The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”
Those who took part in the mission
to rescue Dude 44 were dedicated to saving him. However, almost none of them
knew this individual. They didn’t know whether he was a great guy or a complete
jerk. All they knew was that there was
an American service member in danger and so they were going to do everything in
their power to save him.
Jesus did everything to save us. He
lay down his life. But unlike those who took part in the rescue mission in
Iran, he knew exactly what kind of people we were. St Paul told the Romans, “For one will
scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would
dare even to die—
but God
shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for
us.”
Jesus knew that we are sinners who
reject God all the time. We put our interests ahead of God. He gets the
leftovers of our time, attention, and money. After we have looked out for
ourselves, then maybe there is some left over for him. We put our interests
ahead of our spouse, family, and neighbors. I am going to take care of me
first, and then others can have some of what is left.
Jesus knew that we are like this. In
fact, Jesus lay down his life because we are like this. Paul told the Romans, “for all have
sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Jesus lay down his life because our
sin meant that we were not able to have life with the holy God. We had been
created in God’s image for this purpose. But sin took away our ability to know
God as he wants to be known, and to live perfectly according to his will. Instead, as sinners who sin we were storing
up wrath for ourselves on the day of wrath and revelation of righteous judgment
of God. Because of sin our lives could not escape the final earthly consequence
of sin – death.
Jesus Christ lay down is life for
the sinful sheep who wander from God. He lay it down for you when he died on
the cross. God laid on him the iniquity
of us all – he made Christ to be sin for us.
He condemned your sin in Christ as he suffered and died.
Because of love for the Father, and
love for us, Jesus carried out the mission given to him. He lay down his life
for the sheep in order to redeem us – to free us from sin. But immediately after our text Jesus goes on
to say that death on a cross was only one part of the saving work the Father
sent to carry out. He says, “For this reason the Father loves
me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again.
No
one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have
authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up
again. This charge I have received from my Father.”
During this season of Easter we
rejoice that on the first day of the week the tomb was empty. When the women
went to the tomb, instead of the body of Jesus they encountered angels who
said, “Why do you seek the living among the dead?
He
is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still
in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful
men and be crucified and on the third day rise.”
Because of Jesus’ death and
resurrection we now have life. We have life with God through the forgiveness of
our sins. We have resurrection life because Christ is the firstfruits of our
resurrection. Baptized into Jesus’ death
and receiving the body and blood of the risen Lord, we know that we will be
raised as well.
In the verse just before our text Jesus says, “I came that they may
have life and have it abundantly.” Christ gives the abundant life of fellowship
with God restored. He gives the abundant life that has no end for already now
we have eternal life. He gives the abundant life that we will experience as
full resurrection life when he returns in glory and raises us up.
And that abundant life found in Christ already now is present and
active in us through the work of the Spirit. This life demonstrates itself in
love. At the Last Supper Jesus, said, “A new commandment I give to
you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also
are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my
disciples, if you have love for one another.”
The life of service directed towards others is the presence of
Christ’s love in us. It is the abundant
life lived in Christ through the work of the Spirit. As John said in his first letter, “By this we
know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay
down our lives for the brothers.”
In our text Jesus says, “And I have other sheep that are not
of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my
voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.” Christ points
beyond Israel and the Jews because God had promised Abraham that in his seed all
nations would be blessed.”
The Spirit borne voice of the Good Shepherd continues to sound
forth through the Gospel. Jesus says in this chapter, “The sheep hear his
voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out, When he has
brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for
they know his voice.” His voice continues to call sheep to follow him – sheep
who receive forgiveness and life as they are joined together with the body of
Christ.
This morning we hear that Jesus is the good shepherd who lay down
his life for the sheep. Although we were spiritually blind, dead, and enemies
of God he did this for us to give us forgiveness. And then after he lay down
his life, he took it up again. This charge he had received from the Father. He
accomplished it so that all who believe in him have abundant life – eternal
life that will be resurrection life.
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