"Two men were called on, in a large classroom, to recite the Twenty-Third Psalm. One was a published orator trained in speech technique and drama. He repeated the psalm in a powerful way. When he finished, the audience cheered and even asked for an encore that they might hear his wonderful voice again.
"Then the other man, who was much older, repeated the same words--'The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want...' But when he finished, no sound came from the large class. Instead, people sat in a deep mood of devotion and prayer.
"Then the first man, the orator, stood to his feet. 'I have a confession to make,' he said. 'The difference between what you have just heard from my old friend, and what you heard from me, is this: I know the Psalm...but my friend knows the Shepherd'."
Hold that thought for a few minutes, if you will.
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The Messiah is called the "Lamb of God" throughout the New Testament. This may seem a peculiar label to those who aren't familiar with biblical idioms, but to those who know their Bible, it is a cherished title for the beloved Messiah, Jesus Christ.
Prophetic pictures and references to the coming Lamb of God are scattered throughout the Bible's Old Testament. Indeed, many Bible scholars believe that the entire Bible (66 books written by 40 authors over a period of approximately 1,600 years) tells the story of Jesus Christ. Every story, every genealogy, every number, every page, every detail speaks of our Lord and Savior.
Amasingly, Sheep are mentioned in the Bible more than 500 times, more than any other animal. The prominence of sheep in the Bible grows out of two realities.
*Sheep were important to the nomads and agricultural life of the Hebrews and similar peoples.
**Secondly, sheep are used throughout the Bible to
symbolically refer to God's people.
So we have three common threads running throughout the Bible...The Mesiah, the Shepherd and Lambs.
In Revelation 7:17 this morning, it was read "For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; He will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
Here we see the confusing yet beautiful metaphor of Jesus Christ, both a lamb and a shepherd at the same time!
This is a great mystery. How can one be a lamb and a shepherd at the same time? What we do know about the mystery, is that Christ deserves eternal praise for coming to Earth as “the Lamb of God” to take our punishment upon Himself.
He, the almighty and everlasting God who was separate from us on account of His holiness, chose to humble Himself and become like an innocent lamb, so that He could establish a relationship with us. Now, He is both our passover lamb, yet still our God, King, and Shepherd...If that make sense, as I hope it somehow does.
In our new testament reading (John 10:22-30) this morning, it was a winter day in December and it was the time of Hanukkah -- the Festival (or Feast) of Dedication -- at Jerusalem. The Jews were pressuring Jesus to tell them that He was their long-awaited Mesiah.
“Why then did the Jews reject Jesus as Messiah?” The short answer is, he wasn’t who they were looking for. They did not know a Good Shepherd when they were looking at Him.
The long answer is a bit more complicated because it requires us to then ask the question, “Who then were the Jews looking for in the Messiah?”
And then the follow-up question, “What if they were wrong in who they were looking for?”
While not all that common, these are all good questions to ask around the Easter season because the events of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ are at the heart of the Christian faith. We Christians believe, of course, that Jesus is the long-awaited Messiah.
So then, ironically, most Gentiles, believe the Jewish Messiah has come, while Jews themselves, for the most part, do not believe it. But then again, the world is full of similar ironies...isn't it.
For example, here’s another irony – the greatest promoters of the Hebrew Scriptures are Christians who translate, print and distribute the whole Bible, both Old and New Testaments, everywhere around the world. In the process, as a consequence, more people are introduced to the teachings of the Jews through Christianity than through any other means.
The Jews have Christians to thank for that.
And the ironies could continue. But even though it’s an interesting line of thought, let’s get back to the questions I raised earlier about the Jews rejecting Jesus as Messiah.
We do not often reflect on this question, do we. We know that the Jews did not believe that Jesus was who he said he was. We know that they persecuted Him and were ultimately responsible for His being put to death.
But, why did they reject him? The answer is found throughout the New Testament in many different passages. There is one verse in particular, however, that gives us a clue as to why most Jews, during the time of Christ, rejected him as their Messiah.
In Luke 1:68-79, the prophecy of Zechariah, John the Baptist’s father, pretty well summarized the Jewish hopes and longings in respect to the coming of the Messiah. I won’t cover the entire passage, but only call attention to two verses, 71 and 73, “That we would be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us,” and “To grant that we, being rescued from the hand of our enemies.”
These verses describe the Jewish prayer for the coming of the Messiah. They deal mostly with the deliverance of the Jews from their enemies. And at the time of Christ, the Roman Empire was the greatest enemy of the Jews. Israel wasn’t a free nation; it was occupied by Rome. The Jewish hope was for the Messiah to come and free Israel from the Romans.
The Jews were looking for a political deliverer. Even God was inspiring Jews during the time of Christ to hope and pray for a political deliverer.
Is this a contradiction? If Jesus came as a spiritual messiah not a political messiah, then how could God the Father inspire Jews to continue looking for a political deliverer? Isn’t that a conflict of interest on God’s part?
No, there is no contradiction between wanting a political messiah and a spiritual messiah, just as long as they were not asked to fulfill these two roles at the same time.
The mistake of the Jews was that they were looking only for a political messiah, not a spiritual messiah. But Jesus did not rebuke them for thinking such things. As we know now, through the benefit of hindsight, the Jews would receive the fulfillment of their prayers for political liberation in 1948 when the modern nation of Israel came into existence.
No wonder God did not reveal the time of Jewish liberation. Because it would have been very depressing and discouraging for them to think of having to wait nearly two thousand years for political freedom!
Some things are best kept quiet.
But this only shows that God had different priorities than the Jews. So then, what was God’s priority for His people?
Jesus came to bring spiritual deliverance. John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” This is the most famous verse in the New Testament – and that’s no accident, because it perfectly summarizes the purpose of the coming of Jesus, the Messiah.
Jesus came to save people from their sins and to save people to eternal life with God. This is a different agenda than the political or economic liberation the Jews were looking for in the Messiah.
it's a simple as that.
Now, we see the crux of why the majority of Jews rejected Jesus as the Messiah – he did not fit their understanding or expectation of a political deliverer. He did not free them from the rule of Rome. Now we can also see why Jews have rejected Jesus as Messiah for over two thousand years – he never did lead them to political or economic freedom from their enemies.
If the test for the Messiah, the true Messiah, was to liberate the people of Israel from their enemies, as Zechariah prophesied, then no wonder the Jews keep on looking for their Messiah.
What they missed was the possibility that Jesus was indeed the Messiah, only he had a greater mission than simply to free Jews from their political or economic enemies.
It is good for us to take a closer look at some of these historical and biblical issues that prompt speculation and questions all these thousands of years later.
Jesus came to liberate, or free, all men and women from something more dangerous and damaging than political bondage; he came to free people from their sins and save them to eternal life. So the Jewish fixation on political freedom was actually too petty. Yes, to them it was huge. Who doesn’t long for freedom?
But their vision of freedom was too narrow. They only considered the confines of political and economic freedom. Jesus came to set them and others free from the more important bondage to sin and resulting judgment of sin and damnation.
The Jews were preoccupied with a temporary bondage and the longing for temporary freedom on earth, but Jesus came to liberate them from the eternal bondage of sin and hell.
Ironically, indirectly, Jesus did bring political deliverance to the Jews too. Acts 1:6-7, “So when they met together, they asked him, ‘Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?’ he said to them, ‘It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.’”
As I mentioned before, the disciples were still trying to push the traditional Jewish messiah expectation even after the resurrection of Christ. But Jesus told them that as far as political deliverance was concerned, the details of that weren’t something or them to know.
He said that only God the Father in heaven knew such details.
Instead, they were to carry out the spiritual agenda of Jesus and not worry about the politics of bringing about a free Israel.
It is important for us to understand that we celebrate the events of Easter not because God liberated the Jews from their enemies, but because God liberates men and women from their sins through the Jesus Christ.
The Jews traditionally thought that their biggest problem was that they were not free politically or economically, but Jesus taught that the biggest problem of the Jews, and all people, was bondage and servitude to sin. Jesus came to liberate people from sin and the consequences of sin, judgment and ultimately eternal damnation in hell.
Every bit as significant, just before the supreme crisis of His life, Jesus stressed to his followers the necessity of definite service to the poor and down-trodden. This is a basic teaching which no Christian can ignore. Jesus showed us that by true service to our fellow man we can manifest love to God.
"Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it to me."
And, what about you and I today? Do we have material and economic blessings, but you sense something is missing?
Are you materially well off today?
Do you eat every day?
Do you have housing and transportation?
Do you have all the basic economic necessities?
Sure you do!
But it’s not enough, is it? There’s something more that’s needed. That something is a relationship with God, which comes only through Jesus Christ, the one who sacrificed and died for us.
I do not need to stress the importance of embracing the Savior Jesus on this the Fourth Sunday of Easter. He is most deserving -- and we most assuredly need him...
Society should not make the same mistake the Jews have made. A spiritual Savior is what is needed in everyone's life today -- economic or political salvation is not enough. If only we were more effective in getting that point alone, across to young people in the 21st century...
Just something a little different for us to think about and to take away with us this morning. We are forever Lambs putting our faith, our very lives, in the hands of our Mesiah, the Good Shepherd.
As Jesus told the crowd of questioning Jews at the Festival of Dedication in Jerusalem: "My sheep hear my voice...I know them, and they follow me."
Like that old classroom speaker, folks, do you know that Shepherd today as well as He knows you?...I am sure that you do! That is why we are worshipping together this morning, isn't it. We are a congregational flock, following the one who leads.
We hear His voice...He calls us by our name...He leads us...We follow Him. His rod and his staff comfort us...
As faithful followers, we have accepted His teachings of God's love and man's brotherhood.
May your waters be always still, dear friends...and your pastures forever green. -- Amen
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