Sermon - Misereicordias Domini 2026 - John 10:11-16

Christ as the Good Shepherd, Lucas Cranach the Younger, 1540

Jesus is the Good Shepherd

1. The sheep go astray through sin

2. There are many false shepherds who lead the sheep astray and devour them

3. Jesus finds His sheep and  gathers His sheep together and nourishes them by giving Himself to be devoured by them.

4. We follow His example.

Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

I love this Sunday when we get to hear Jesus say: “I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.” We sing some pretty delightful hymns on the 23rd Psalm, we think of all the Good Shepherd artwork, it’s just very comforting and pleasant. Who doesn’t want to meditate on our Lord carrying us who are weak and frail. It’s a very paternal image of a big strong Shepherd carrying us, perhaps reminiscent of our childhood and seeking refuge in the arms of our parents.

But these texts are also quite humbling, because if Jesus is our Shepherd, then that makes us sheep. St. Peter said that “you were straying like sheep.” It’s pretty similar to what Isaiah says: “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned - everyone - this his own way.” No need to feign innocence, we all know it's true, we can readily identify with sheep who go astray through their sins.

We are prone to wandering away from the flock, wandering away from the Shepherd, and walking into dark sinful places. When the Shepherd comes after us, when we’re called to repentance or we’re even just called out of our sin and to receive mercy, we tend to headbutt the Shepherd and run further into our sin. When we’re lost we tend to bite the hand of the one who wants to help. It turns out that much of our need for rescue is self-induced. We’re not really victims, we’re just foolish sheep, we see an attractive sin and we wander into it and learn to love that sin, even though the sin is hardening our hearts against the God who made us and still seeks us out.

In this lost state of wandering in our sins, we dwell in darkness, and though we may be looking for help we often blindly follow after wolves and false shepherds and hirelings. Jesus talks about these hirelings: “He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.”

The notion of our rulers and leaders being shepherds is a persistent theme not only throughout the scriptures, but throughout the ancient world. The Epic of Gilgamech refers to the king of Uruk as the shepherd of the sheepfold. Hammurabi refers to himself as the shepherd of the oppressed. The Egyptian Pharaohs were often depicted as shepherds and that’s why they carried around the fancy crook. Homer refers to kings as shepherds in the Iliad and the Odyssey. Ezekiel refers to the political and religious leaders of Israel as shepherds.

But all of these worldly shepherds are but hirelings, they’re not actually shepherds of the sheep, and they care nothing for the sheep. If anything they’re like regular human shepherds, you know the kind who raise sheep in order to fleece and slaughter and devour. There are many such shepherds among us, and they only further scatter the sheep, causing them to run further into the darkness and nearer the fangs of the wolf. 

This happens in some obvious ways. Some will flee to the shepherd of a bottle or some other substance, like weed, in order to find “help” or escape from their issues. Some flee to the shepherd of an abortion clinic, thinking ending a life will “help.” Some flee to the shepherds of screens to “fulfill” their lonely or lustful desires. There are other more socially acceptable false shepherds we follow, looking to them for “help,” like political figures or influencers or other such kinds. Or, perhaps most controversially, there are false shepherds who look like Christians, look like pastors, and they lead astray by teaching a doctrine other than that which is found in scripture. Any shepherd who proclaims another Jesus than the one proclaimed in the pure word of God is of a different spirit and a different gospel. “Such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness.” 

In light of how we have gone astray on account of our own sins, and considering all of the false shepherds further leading us down the broad and easy road, it is such a mercy that the Lord God says: “Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and seek them out… I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness.” Indeed, Jesus is the Good Shepherd, unlike all of the other shepherds, and He lays down His life for the sheep.

He is no victim, but He is the willing sacrifice who laid down His life of His own accord in order that He may atone for the sins of all. He is both the Shepherd and the Sheep, He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world by the giving of His life. He laid down His life into the jaws of the wolf so that in a day of darkness, where we ought to be devoured by Satan’s maw, He has rescued us and brought us into His light. “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.”

The Good Shepherd seeks the lost, brings back the strayed, binds up the injured, and strengthens the weak. In whatever sin you have fallen into, in whatever sin you may be dwelling in right now, the Lord descended from His throne in order to find you. Jesus calls into the darkest recesses of this world, into the drunken party, the Planned Parenthood, the adultery bed, the screens of lude images, the raging spittle of a lost temper, the gossip drooling into the coffee, the lonely self-pity of the despairing. The Good Shepherd leaves no dark place unexplored and He seeks His flock wherever it may be lost. And whatever shameful misdeeds His flock has done, He lays down His life, forgives and binds up and strengthens.

In rescuing you, He has called you out of darkness and into light, and shown you the way forward, “because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in His steps.” He is the Good Shepherd, He is the bishop of our souls, and He has other sheep that are not of this fold. He must bring them also, and they will listen to His voice. There will be one flock, one shepherd. He calls and gathers these lost sinners through you, in whatever vocation you may be found.

Fellow sheep: We are surrounded by many living in darkness. They have wandered away through their sins, they have followed the false shepherds of this age, and they know not where to go. They don’t know the voice of the Good Shepherd, and they are lost. They might scream at you and cuss you out, they might snap at you and call you rude names, they might threaten you and revile your name, they might turn their back on you and walk away or even run. These people may be strangers to you, your next door neighbor, your coworker, or your kid, but they are all lost sheep whom the Good Shepherd desires to call into His flock, and they’re in front of you and need you to speak.

What do you do? You kinda just want to run away and not have the conversation with someone who disagrees with you. You kinda want to badmouth them behind their backs if not match their tone and words to their face. You kinda want to snap right back at them and put them in their place. But Christ, your Good Shepherd, suffered for you and left you an example that you might follow in His steps. “He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in His mouth. When He was reviled, He did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but continued entrusting Himself to Him who judges justly.”

What do you do with the person you don’t agree with? You treat them as Christ would treat them. We gotta get away from complaining, bitterness, and resentment against those who hate us. We have to stop mocking and reviling those who mock and revile us. We can’t lie about our enemies or sin against them in return. This doesn’t mean you act like a doormat and never stand up for yourself and the truth, because Christ didn’t do that. Christ is the Good Shepherd, and Good Shepherds don’t back down against snarling wolves or butting sheep. Neither can you back down or be a doormat, but you must speak with the words of Christ so that the straying sheep may hear the Good Shepherd’s voice and be rescued from their perils. Is that scary? You bet it is! Jesus continued entrusting Himself to Him who judges justly. Follow that example, and trust the Lord in spite of the rage you may face.

Because you can trust Him who judges justly. The wolf, Satan, who scatters the flock, will face God’s eternal wrath in hell. All those false shepherds who scatter the flock, all those evildoers who seek your harm, will be judged justly on the final day. There will be justice for God’s little sheep. He promises you “the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them justice.” Your Good Shepherd will not leave you forever. He will not permit you to suffer without end. But He has already laid down His life for you, and in the end will bring you into your own land in His kingdom, where you will lay down and rest under His mighty arms.

Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!