A Shepherd For The Dark Valley Of Death
The following is posted with family permission. May the Lord give to the family of Marie Hickman and to all who mourn, comfort in their grief and a sure confidence in the Lord's loving care.
Texts: Psalm 23:1-6 and John 10:11-16
Grace
and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Sheep
tend to be fairly helpless animals. They
don’t have fangs or claws or a mean spirit where they will lash out and
attack. They are powerless to defend
themselves from hungry predators. Thus,
there is a great deal of comfort when we see a shepherd next to the sheep. In a sense the shepherd is heroic. They tend to the sheep. They protect the sheep. They lead the sheep to shelter, good food and
fresh water. They typically have
ownership and investment of the sheep.
The sheep know the voice of the shepherd and there is trust.
There
is a reason why the scriptures constantly use this metaphor and there is a
reason why Jesus chooses this illustration in John chapter 10. You see, Jesus calls Himself the good
shepherd, “I… I am the good shepherd.” Therefore, if Jesus is the good shepherd, we
obviously are what? We are His
sheep. Jesus chooses this illustration,
not only because it is used in the Old Testament, but because it is a fitting
image of our relationship with Him. It is a picture of being under His
protection and authority.
Indeed,
there is great comfort to being a sheep of Jesus. Consider the great comforting words of the
twenty-third Psalm where it states that the shepherd makes us lie down in green
pastures, leads us beside still waters, restores our soul, and leads us in
paths of righteousness for His name sake.
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Marie Hickman |
But
what do we make of this ‘sheep-shepherd’ relationship when we are obviously here
in this sanctuary due to Marie walking through and into the shadow of death,
the darkest of all valleys? Otherwise
stated, it is comforting to hear that the shepherd provides for our daily
needs, but what happen when sheep like Marie and sheep like you and me face the
dark valley of death?
There
is a temptation for us when looking at the wolves and the dark valleys of
danger in life, especially looking into the finality of death, to believe that
we can survive and make it on our own.
We can advertently and inadvertently assume the role of the shepherd
ourselves. We think to ourselves, “I can handle this. I have a pretty good grasp on things. I have been around the block a few times.” The problem with this is that if we are the
shepherd, and if we are in charge of our own life, that means that everything
is dependent upon us. If we are the shepherd
that means that the pressure of life and all that goes with it is on us. When the wolves come, it is up to us to fight
for ourselves. When the grassy food runs
dry, it is up to us to find more food.
When we need to find safe land to graze, it is up to us to find it. When it comes time for rest, we can’t totally
rest because we will always have to sleep with one eye open to make sure that
we won’t be attacked.
Dear
friends, we don’t have what it takes to be the shepherd. We can’t defend ourselves from the Evil
One. We don’t have the wisdom to find
the green pasture land and we certainly are unable to die for our own
sins. We do not have what it takes to
walk through the valley of the shadow of death on our own and by our own
strength. It is too dark; it is too
deep.
You,
who have ears, hear this. The good news
of the Gospel though is that we can take comfort and rest in the fact that we
are sheep and that Jesus is our shepherd.
He is our shepherd—the good shepherd.
There is no doubt about it that we falter and run in the midst of
attacks—that is when we try to be shepherds; false shepherds run as well when
the going gets tough; however, Jesus shares in our Gospel reading from today that
when the wolves come, He will not run and He will not forsake you. Furthermore, in Matthew’s Gospel, the
twenty-eight chapter, Jesus says that He will never leave you nor forsake you, that
He will be with you to the end of the age; He will journey into the shadows of
death and will certainly be with you in the valley of death. Yes, we belong to Jesus and that is the
reason why He lays His life down for you.
He lays down His life for the safety and welfare of His flock—for you,
for me, and for Marie.
You,
who have ears, listen to the good news of the Gospel. Jesus holds us tenderly in His arms, protecting
us from everything that would destroy us.
In fact, when sin, death and devil come charging at us like a pack of
hungry wolves to devour and steal us away, to confine us to the hell we
deserve, our Shepherd says, “Take
me. Take me instead. For I am the Good Shepherd. You will not touch them nor have any
authority over my sheep. They belong to
me. I have promised to keep them safe. Take me instead, for I will gladly give
myself to you for the sake of my sheep.”
Jesus
truly lays down His life for the sheep—sheep like Marie. He did this on His own accord. He did this because He is the good Shepherd; He
did this so that He might take His life up again. He did this because He has a
furious love for His sheep.
Yes,
we belong to Jesus; we are sheep and He is our Shepherd. He leads us through the Word. We are sanctified by the Holy Spirit through
the Word. He washes us in our baptism. He feeds us in His Holy Supper. He rebukes us through the Law. He mends our wounds through the Gospel.
My
friends, due to the Shepherd’s death, resurrection, forgiveness, and embrace,
we can say of Marie that Christ died for Marie, a sheep. To the death that He died for her sin and
ours, He joined her by Baptism, and He joined her to His life that is stronger
than the little death of our mortality.
Thus, just as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the
Father, even so Marie should also walk in newness of life. Yes, Marie, too, is in a newness of life
brighter than we can imagine. Jesus is
her staff and stay; all the accusations of the Law are left behind, with no
shadows of death, no deep valley of pain, no threats of wolves, but life
unimpaired in the arms of Jesus’ rest.
The
sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, that neither death nor
life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers,
nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to
separate us—that is you and that is Marie—from the love of God in Christ Jesus
our Lord and Good Shepherd of the sheep.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, your Good Shepherd. Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, your Good Shepherd. Amen.
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