“Shepherd, Lord, & Judge”

Ezekiel 34:11-24
For thus says the Lord GOD: I myself will search for my sheep, and will seek them out. As shepherds seek out their flocks when they are among their scattered sheep, so I will seek out my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places to which they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land; and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the watercourses, and in all the inhabited parts of the land. I will feed them with good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel shall be their pasture; there they shall lie down in good grazing land, and they shall feed on rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord GOD. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with justice.
As for you, my flock, thus says the Lord GOD: I shall judge between sheep and sheep, between rams and goats: Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture, but you must tread down with your feet the rest of your pasture? When you drink of clear water, must you foul the rest with your feet? And must my sheep eat what you have trodden with your feet, and drink what you have fouled with your feet?
Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD to them: I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. Because you pushed with flank and shoulder, and butted at all the weak animals with your horns until you scattered them far and wide, I will save my flock, and they shall no longer be ravaged; and I will judge between sheep and sheep.
I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd. And I, the LORD, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them; I, the LORD, have spoken.

Today is the last Sunday of the liturgical calendar year and it also happens to be the church’s newest holiday– Christ the King Sunday. It was created as a church holiday in 1925, after the end of World War I as Christians in the West were reckoning with the destructive forces of nationalism and facism. Christ the King Sunday is a time in church life to examine our earthly ideas of power in contrast to Jesus’ promised kingdom of God. Where do we believe that true power lies and how does that inform how we live our lives? This was an important conversation for the church to have in the 1920s as the world reeled from the gruesome aftermath of the The Great War– the war that Europeans thought would be the war to end all wars. 100 years later, the world does not look quite as different as we might hope. Nationalism is on the rise in countries around the globe, including our own, and we too, have to grapple with our own ideas of true power and authority. We’re coming up on another election year, god save us, and we will be inundated with talk of what real power looks like, of what it means to elect someone to the most powerful office in the world, and certainly, there will be discussions of what a Christian response will be. So I believe that Christ the King is a fitting way for us to end the liturgical year as we reflect together on where true power lies in this world.

Today, we’re taking a look at the book of Ezekiel, who was a prophet in exile in Babylon. Ezekiel has wild, vivid visions and prophecies about the future of God’s people and he speaks boldly to the leaders of Israel who are not leading the people well. He shares God’s fury with the “false shepherds” of Israel– the leaders who have been feeding themselves instead of feeding the sheep. The leaders who cared for their own interests instead of the interests of the vulnerable followers they were called to lead.

Those of you bible scholars out there, or at least people who have listened to more than a few sermons in your day, probably have your minds whirring with other passages about shepherds. It’s a metaphor that is commonly used in scripture– from David who rose from a shepherd boy to the king who would proclaim, “the Lord is my shepherd.” Perhaps you think of Jesus, who says that he is the Good Shepherd in John 10. But this passage from Ezekiel is far less familiar to most of us. If you’re like me, the first time you read it you probably thought something like, “wait, was this here the whole time?!” It is. The bible often uses shepherds as a metaphor for Kings and even for God, which might make us wonder if the Shepherds at Jesus’ birth are more than just lowly guests…

We don’t have many interactions with shepherds these days. My grandparents had sheep when I was kid, but I didn’t interact with them much when I visited their farm. Honestly, my closest interaction with sheep comes in the form of the occasional internet rabbit hole looking at videos of border collies rounding up sheep and moving them from one pasture to another. Have you seen these before? It’s absolutely mesmerizing to watch. The dogs are so skilled at moving these sheep and they love their jobs as sheep dogs! But dogs aren’t the owners of the sheep, they are just the hired, canine help. 

In today’s scripture passage, God says, “I myself will search for my sheep, and will seek them out. As shepherds seek out their flocks when they are among their scattered sheep, so I will seek out my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places to which they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness.” This image must have felt so comforting to the Israelite people in exile and captivity. So badly, they must have longed for someone to come and take care of them. Someone to make them feel safe and secure. God is promising that the heartache they’re feeling will not be a “forever” kind of heartache. The trauma they’re experiencing on such a wide scale won’t be a “forever” kind of trauma. God will be like a shepherd to them, leading them to streams of clear water and mountain sides of lush grass for grazing. God will be with them. The heartache of exile is not forever.

But then, God the Shepherd changes God’s tone and tactic. It is not just comfort that God is providing– it is judgment and justice as well. God says that they, “shall judge between sheep and sheep, between rams and goats.” God goes on, “Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture, but you must tread down with your feet the rest of your pasture? When you drink of clear water, must you foul the rest with your feet? And must my sheep eat what you have trodden with your feet, and drink what you have fouled with your feet?” It seems as though the Israelites have not been content with what they have, they also have to make sure no one else can get close to having what they have. It’s like today when lifesaving medicines get patented to ensure that the primary aim of the medicine is to line stockholders’ pockets, not get treatment to the most people possible. It’s not enough for you to get full, you must also make sure that others still go hungry, to prove how much better off you are. 

This is what makes God most angry of all– hurting others to protect yourselves. I am not surprised, therefore, that Jesus’ last parable in Matthew is the one that Dauna read today. The famous “sheep and the goats” passage.” I was raised in a church that focused on the forward nature of prophecy– how the Old Testament was prophesying about things that would come to pass in Jesus’ birth, life, death, and resurrection. It was always so focused on looking forward that I wasn’t taught to look at how scripture might have formed Jesus. As a good rabbi and teacher, Jesus certainly read Ezekiel and I would guess, he thought over and over what it meant for God to be Israel’s shepherd. For God to get in the dirt and the mud and get right up with the sheep because if the hired hands weren’t going to do it right, then God was going to get in there and do it himself. Perhaps God’s anger at the injustice in Ezekiel 34 made its way into Jesus as he told the disciples what the day will be like when the Son of Man will come in his glory. He will not be just the Good Shepherd– he will be the judge who separates the faithful from the unfaithful. He will rule with power and with justice.

I love that this is where the lectionary year leaves us– with the image of God the True Shepherd, fed up with corrupt leaders who abuse their power over the vulnerable they are called to serve. The image of a God who says, “I myself will search for my sheep and seek them out.” The God of Ezekiel is a God who is ready to come and save God’s people. It’s not just the Christmas decorations around us that make us hear the tones of Advent in God’s words, is it? Good news is coming, friends. The God of the Universe is making God’s way to us and our waiting will pay off. But I’m getting ahead of myself because Advent’s not till next week! For now, hear this good news– God will seek the lost, and will bring back the strayed. God will bind up the injured and will strengthen the weak. God will feed them with justice. God is true to God’s promises– now and all days– and that is always good news.