Pastor Mark Nieting
John 10:1-10
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It’s not MY favorite Christmas movie, but it seems to be Pam’s, and I do like Jimmy Stewart, so I’ll watch it occasionally. The title is “It’s a Wonderful Life,” and here’s the plot. George Bailey is a man whose life seems so desperate that he contemplates suicide. He had always wanted to leave Bedford Falls to see the world, but circumstances and his own good heart have led him to stay. He sacrificed his education for his brother’s, barely kept the family business going, protected the town from the greedy Mr. Potter, and married his childhood sweetheart. He’s ready to jump from a bridge when his guardian angel pops in and gives him a vision of what life would have become for the people of Bedford Falls if he had never lived. So, George realizes he does have a “wonderful life.”
What was it that George really learned? What was it that made his life “wonderful?” Why couldn’t he see it at first? In the eyes of LAST Sunday’s Gospel lesson, how were HIS eyes opened? That’s what we want to discover this morning!
Think of all the definitions of life that we’ve heard. What did Forrest Gump’s mama say? “Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get.” Author F Scott Peck of The Road Less Traveled begins his book by saying, “Life is difficult.” How about this: “Life is a bowl of cherries, sometimes we get the fruit, sometimes we get the pits.” Or this: “Life is a Rat-Race….and right now the rats are winning”.
My parents ingrained in me 3 basics concept about life: 1) life is a gift from God; 2) life is not to be wasted; and 3) the only commodity that cannot be replaced is TIME. We can always make more money; we can always buy more stuff, we can always meet new people and do new things…..but when time is gone, it’s never going to be replaced. And the older we get, the more we realize this.
But if we accept that God has both created life itself and offered us not only life in this world, but life eternal in heaven with Him, then it seems that there’s quite a bit at stake in how we approach life and living . If we take are to Jesus’ words in today’s Gospel seriously, He came so we could have LIFE TO THE FULLEST; we could have “an abundant life.” But again, what does that mean?
The tenth chapter of John, which contains today’s Gospel text, is usually subtitled “Jesus the Good Shepherd chapter.” We can summarize it this way: God the Father created the flock; owns the flock and loves every one of the sheep IN the flock. Jesus is the Good Shepherd of the flock, going so far as to lay down His life FOR the flock. That all sounds wonderful. It sounds “Garden of Eden, Green Pastures” kind of wonderful. It is and always will be God’s original design for the people He created and loves.
Adam and Eve DID have a fully wonderful life. They trusted God, walked with God, had everything they could ever want, and were designed to have it all forever. It was a life that we can only imagine.
Then sin entered into the world through the temptation of the Evil One. He promised them MORE……and ultimately delivered far LESS. He offered the temptations of power, of privilege, of possessions, of being their own gods.
Jesus calls ALL these things that tempt us THIEVES and WOLVES. They come to steal and destroy not only the WONDERFUL LIFE, but life itself.
There is a huge difference between being “happy” and having an abundant, joyful, and wonderful life. Happy is on the outside…..joy is on the inside. I might get happy when I find a new train, but that’s a long way from true joy. It’s one more “toy” to appreciate, but when we focus our lives on stuff, is it really ever enough? There’s always room for more stuff; there’s always room for more money; there’s always room for more pleasure; there’s always room for more promotions, but honestly, “He who dies with the most trains, most money, best job or most power…..is still dead.” How many of us really have “Ebenezer Scrooge” as our role model?
What is your favorite Psalm? I would guess most of us would answer “the 23rd,” right? Maybe that’s because it’s the one we hear the most; maybe it’s because we haven’t read or memorized any more of them, but it may just be the Psalm itself! How does it begin? “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want!” It’s a wonderful image…..can you picture that in your mind?
Let’s enhance the images we have of Jesus, our Good Shepherd.
First, Jesus is our “BLEEDING” shepherd. In verse 11 Jesus adds this to His self description as our Good Shepherd: “the shepherd lays does His life for the sheep.” He’s already done that for every one of us because every one of us has gone astray because of our sin. He sacrificed Himself to redeem us from our sins. When we know our sins have been forgiven by our “bleeding shepherd, we are on the way to having a WONDERFUL LIFE.
Second, Jesus is our FEEDING shepherd. He knows we need 2 kinds of food: physical food and spiritual food. In HIS prayer Jesus taught us to ask for our “daily bread,” and what we need, he provides. But He goes far beyond that: He also offers us SPIRITUAL food……His Word; His body; His blood. It’s there, in endless supply, from our FEEDING shepherd.
Third, Jesus is our LEADING shepherd. There are two things I learned about sheep: they always take the easiest path of least resistance, and they can’t see danger until it’s too late. That sounds like the Prodigal Son to me….or the Prodigal Mark or Bob or Jean or Pat. That’s why Jesus is our LEADING shepherd….and that’s why, in the waters of our baptism, God taught us to recognize the voice of our Good Shepherd, no matter what else or whom else is calling out to us.
There’s nothing a GOOD SHEPHERD wants more than for His sheep to have a wonderful life……..but AGAIN: what IS a wonderful life? What does it look like? How will we know when we have it?
Let’s paint the picture of a WONDERFUL LIFE in the Flock of our Good Shepherd. It’s knowing that we have the Creator of the Universe providing for all of our needs; giving us our daily bread. It’s knowing that He provides His holy angels and His divine presence to protect us from all harm and all danger. It’s trusting that while God is big enough to know every living thing; He is personally involved in our lives enough that He listens to our every prayer, and wants to. It’s knowing that we can make a difference in the lives of people around us because our Good Shepherd has made a difference in our lives. It’s believing that the more of His gifts we give away to bless others, the more blessed we really are! It’s knowing that while we can’t see the “big picture” of life, HE DOES; and He reveals it to us one step and one day at a time. It’s knowing that we can TRUST Him because He and He alone is trust-worthy. And it’s not fearing even death itself, because the grave couldn’t hold the Good Shepherd…..so we have nothing to fear.
I LOVE being one of His sheep. When I’m lost, He finds me. When I run away, He comes after me. When I’m hurting, He heals me. When I’m hungry, He feeds me. When I’m sleeping, He watches over me. When I’m lonely, He’s there with me. When I’m scared, He offers a gentle and quiet, “I will be with you always” in a voice I know, I trust and I love.
That is what makes LIFE WONDERFUL!
