H. Michael Brewer
Crescent Springs Presbyterian
7 May 2006
WHERE’S THE CATCH?
John 10:11-18
A woman calls me on the phone to make a pitch, and I say, “I don’t buy things on the phone.” She
says, “I’m not selling anything.” So I’m curious and I give her a couple of minutes. Turns out she can
make me a really good deal on magazine subscriptions.
“I thought you weren’t selling anything,” I say.
“I think of this as a service I can offer you, sir.”
Uh-huh. Click!
A guy approaches me on a Cincinnati street after dark. “I just need directions,” he says. So he
asks how to get to the bus station, and then he asks for a few bucks to help him get back to Omaha.
I’m waiting in line to get registered for a Presbytery meeting and a minister I barely know grabs my
hand, says how glad he is to see, and we chat about the weather for a few minutes. Then he hands
me a piece of paper and says, “This is the motion I’m bringing to Presbytery today. I really hope I can
count on your support.”
And then there’s that helpful Nigerian gentleman who keeps emailing me, the one who needs my
help to move twenty million dollars into the U.S. I can keep ten percent of the money for my trouble if I
will just send him the information he needs to access my bank account.
We’ve become suspicious, and rightly so. Everybody wants something from you or me.
Sometimes it seems we are only valued for what others can get from us. So we learn to look for the
catch, we watch for the hook hidden in the bait, and we try to remember that there is no free lunch.
No wonder we have such a hard time with grace. It seems too good to be true. Salvation as a free
gift? God’s love unearned and undeserved? Just have faith? There’s got to be a catch. There’s bound
to be some fine print.
I guess even in Jesus’ day, people had trouble with grace. So when Jesus compared himself to a
shepherd, he had to spend a while explaining what he meant.
“I know you’ve met plenty of people who claimed to be your shepherd, and it turned out they were
only in it for themselves. All those who came before me were thieves and bandits. They grabbed
whatever they could lay their hands on. They came to steal and destroy and to suck you dry. But I have
come to give you life. I’m not like the money-grubbing preachers, the crooked politicians, the scam
artists. I’m not like those false shepherds. I am the good shepherd.
“When the wolf draws near, the false shepherd runs away. When the lion stalks the flock, the hired
hand saves himself and leaves the sheep to be slaughtered. But I am the good shepherd and I lay
down my life for my sheep.”
What was shepherding like in biblical times? We catch the flavor of it in the twenty-third psalm.
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. The good shepherd makes sure the flock is not in want. He
anticipates their needs and provides for them.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters. Pasture and
water were essential for the health of the flock, especially water. Notice that the shepherd is careful
about what water he provides. It is still water, calm water. That’s because rushing water was
dangerous. A sheep might get its wool waterlogged, be dragged down and swept away by rushing
water.
He restoreth my soul. The good shepherd cares not only about the sheep’s outward health, but
also about its peace of mind, its inward well-being, its contentment and happiness.
He leadeth me in paths of righteousness. This line could be better translated. It really says, “He
leads me in the right paths.” There are a lot of wrong paths in life, aren’t there? Paths that lead to
pitfalls, paths that lead to treacherous slopes or swamps or dead-ends. Most of us know from
experience how easy it is to wander down the wrong path and how very hard it is to find our way back
later. The good shepherd leads the sheep down the right path, the safe path, the path that leads to
abundant life. And when that path leads through the shadowy, frightening valley, the good shepherd is
right there beside the sheep every step of the way to comfort them and bring them through.
This is what Jesus offers to us, to be our good and faithful shepherd. Is there a catch? Surely the
shepherd wants something from us.
I suppose he wants our love, but let’s be clear. The shepherd doesn’t need our love. He doesn’t
need our love in order to be affirmed or fulfilled or made whole. The Father and the Son already enjoy
such infinite and immeasurable love within God’s own heart, that frankly our feeble and fickle love can
add nothing to that. When we love Christ, it benefits us, not him. In loving Christ, we are fulfilled, we
find our purpose, we transcend ourselves. Does the shepherd want us to love him? Yes, for our own
good.
Does the shepherd demand our obedience? Yes, and I think you know that, too, is for your own
good. I was in a video store a few days ago and I heard woman say, “Jenny, where are you?”
A little girl’s voice said, “I’m over here.”
“I need you to stay with me, Jenny. I need to be able to see you.”
“No!”
“I’m counting to two and you’d better be here.”
Jenny waited until the last possible second and then skidded into place just as her mom said
Two. I can imagine other conversation with Jenny.
"Jenny, don’t go into the street.”
“Jenny, you have to come when I call you.”
“Jenny, put your helmet on when you ride your bicycle.”
Jenny probably thinks her mom is a dictator who just has to be the boss. And we parents do fall
into that sometimes, but at the end of the day it’s not about being in charge or getting your way or
winning the argument, it’s about the safety and welfare of the child. That’s why we have rules. That’s
why parents insist on obedience most of the time.
And that’s exactly why the good shepherd requires our obedience—so that we will thrive, so that
we will grow, so that we will remain safe. What’s in it for the shepherd? There’s nothing we can do for
the shepherd that he cannot do even better by himself.
What does the shepherd want from us? Does he want our trust? Yes, he does—so that he can
take care of us. Jan went to visit her parents last weekend to help them work on cattle. Among other
things, they were putting in ear tags that keep flies and insects away from the cattle. The tags go in
using an ear-piercing gun, and I suppose it hurts a little. The cows that accept the tag have an easier
time than the ones who get feisty and fight it. By resisting, they just make it harder on themselves.
My father-in-law decided not to tag his bull, Don, who has a bit of an attitude. So Don got his shots
this spring, but no insect tag. So tell me, because Don won’t let anyone get too close, who does that
hurt? My father-in-law? Nope, it hurts Don, who will have flies swarming around his eyes and nostrils
all summer long.
Does Christ want our trust? Of course, so that he can give us what we need. There is at least one
great difference between cattle and sheep. One drives cattle, one leads sheep. Jesus says, “(The
shepherd) calls his own sheep by name and leads them out… He goes ahead of them and the sheep
follow because they know his voice.” (John 10:3-4)
Trust keeps the sheep following the shepherd. Trust keeps the sheep from getting lost. Trust
keeps the sheep from taking the wrong path. Trust keeps the sheep from wandering away and facing
the wolf alone. Christ wants our trust, not because he needs it, but because we do.
That’s grace for you. It flies in the face of everything we’ve learned in the school of hard knocks.
Grace is a good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep. Grace is a Savior who asks our love,
obedience, and trust so that he can take better care of us.
Grace. Some people think it’s too good to be true. Me? I think it’s too good not to be true.
Soli Deo Gloria!