(Ezekiel 34: 11-16, 23-24)
“Just do it for me, please.” Dad was patiently showing his little boy how to use a hammer to pound a nail so he could complete a small project he had been working on. His son had practiced and practiced, but he was struggling to pound the nail without bending it. The pieces of scrap wood nearby pierced with disjointed nails protruding awkwardly made it quite evident that he hadn’t gotten the hang of it yet. Frustrated and discouraged, he was ready to give up and pleaded for his dad to just pound in the nails for him so he could finish his project. “Please, Dad, just do it for me.”
It’s not just the little boy learning to pound a nail in straight who either has the desire or the need for someone else to do something for him. Pressed for time and leaving precious little margin in our over scheduled lives, we often find it more convenient just to pay someone else to do it for us. We don’t have time to whip up a dish before the get-together, so we stop at the store and pick something up. We don’t have the patience to do the research needed for the repair job so we call a guy to do it for us. No matter the product or service, you can find just about anyone to do it for you if you don’t have the time, patience, or ability to do it yourself.
In one area of life, however, we couldn’t manage the problem ourselves even if we wanted to – someone else had to do it for us. Forgiveness and our salvation required someone else to do it for us. Even with all the effort, practice, or money in the world, we could not secure these on our own. Our best efforts at holiness still resemble the pile of scrap wood showcasing nothing but bent and broken nails. To a holy God who set the bar of expectation at the highest level – perfection – even “good” people can do nothing but dislodge the high jump bar with every single attempt. Nike’s encouragement to “Just do it” won’t cut it for our salvation; instead, we need to look elsewhere and plead, “Just do it for me, please.”
On the final Sunday of the Church year, observed as Christ the King Sunday, we celebrate that we have just the Savior who stepped in to do it for us. As we do so, with hearts still beating with the gratitude of Thanksgiving, we marvel our Lord’s determination to gather and shepherd his flock. There is no reluctance whatsoever on his part; only resilience. There is no unwilling resentment; only unyielding resolve. We have complete confidence that Our Shepherd King Secures His Scattered Flock.
At the time of the prophet Ezekiel’s service, God’s people were in captivity in Babylon. Why? Because the leaders God had put in place to take care of his people had done a miserable job. They failed to rebuke and correct God’s people. They themselves failed to heed any rebuke and correction they received from God’s prophets. They failed to lead by example – many kings were even unbelieving idolaters! The leaders God had placed over his people to shepherd his flock had failed. Spectacularly. Their Babylonian exile served as a daily reminder.
I wish I could point out how much we’ve learned from that lesson of Israel’s captivity. But I can’t. It’s every bit as likely that 2,500 years later, those tasked with leading God’s people in his Church are just as capable of doing just as miserable a job – if not ever more abysmal – than those sorry shepherds of Israel’s day.
Sadly, the church today is a lot like politics – often a matter of having to choose the lesser of two evils. When a Christian is satisfied with a pastor or church that is solid on most of what the Bible teaches (but not all of it!), that ought to be a red flag. That ought to be an indicator to run away and run away fast. Why, after all, should God’s people have to settle for any approach or teaching that compromises God’s Word? Why can’t we expect a church and/or pastor to be faithful to all of it? Why can’t we expect that of our shepherds today? Indeed, we should!
Thankfully, God wasn’t content to leave the salvation of souls in the hands of heterodox leaders. No, God was the originator of the “if you want something done, do it yourself” approach. That was what he was promising his people through Ezekiel.
Even though his people had turned away from him, God was not one to cross his arms and turn his face away from his wayward people. No, he’s one to do something about it. And the solution he promised didn’t involve enlisting the help of someone else; he was his own solution. He promised to take it upon himself to come to the rescue of his people. God’s heart for mankind, the crown of his creation, beats with such unparalleled passion that he couldn’t possibly risk leaving the outcome in anyone else’s hands but his own. Only in taking care of the matter himself could he guarantee success. Only in taking complete ownership of the responsibility of the salvation of souls could man’s eternity be secured.
Ezekiel prophesied as much. “For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep’” (Ezekiel 34:11-12a). Appreciate how the Lord speaks here! He says “I myself.” The Lord himself doing a thing makes a difference.
It’s one thing for a friend with expertise in a certain area to offer advice or share some videos explaining how to tackle a repair or DIY project. You’d certainly be appreciative of such an offer. But you know what you’d appreciate even more? If he offered to come by tomorrow and just fix it for you! He knows what needs to be done and he knows how to do it, so rather than insert some middle man or risk you not getting it right, he comes and personally takes care of it for you.
Your Shepherd-King himself claims the responsibility of searching for his scattered sheep and shepherding them as they are brought into his flock. After all, remember that Jesus is not the hired hand, but the Good Shepherd himself (cf. John 10).
The Lord also referenced the intimate, personal nature of his relationship with us: “I will look after my sheep.” “My” sheep he calls us! We are his! We belong to him, and he doesn’t hesitate to claim it! Embrace that identify before you go seeking it anywhere else only to be disappointed. You are his sheep. You belong to him. Rest in the safe security of that identity.
Ezekiel then spelled out exactly how God would carry out that intimate, personal relationship with those he desired to save. “I will place over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he will tend them; he will tend them and be their shepherd. I the Lord will be their God, and my servant David will be prince among them. I the Lord have spoken” (vs. 23-24). At the time Ezekiel was prophesying, David’s story had already played out. His life, his rule over Israel, and his death were already part of the history books. So who was Ezekiel speaking of here when referencing David?
When you hear the echoes of “Hosanna to the Son of David!” shouted as Jesus rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, the lightbulb goes on. They sang their hosannas to “the Son of David” because they were acknowledging Jesus to be the fulfillment of the greater David. This offspring of David would usher in a reign that would never come to an end. Yes, Jesus is the promised David, God dressed up in humanity so that he himself could establish and maintain the personal, intimate relationship with his own sheep by dwelling among them.
While we wait for that Son of David, Jesus, to return on the Last Day, he still secures his scattered flock – through his Church. The church I serve at has as its tagline, “Seeking the Lost and Serving the Found.” By embracing that mission, we are acknowledging that our Shepherd-King carries out his work through us. We are called to gather the sheep outside the pen into the sheep pen. We are called to gather those wandering away from the Shepherd and his Church, either literally as they disengage or become uninvolved with the life of the church. But we are also called to gather those wandering away spiritually, whether neglecting the Bible and sacraments or being swayed by false teachers. Ether way, Jesus enlists our gifts to aid him in carrying out this important work.
How do we know it’s important? Because we know the price tag he already placed on each soul that he has redeemed. Our King didn’t conquer with an elite army. Our King didn’t conquer with a spectacular special weapon. Instead, our King conquered by offering the perfect peace offering to guarantee victory: himself.
Our sacrificial King won the battle not by littering the battlefield with the dead bodies of his enemies, but by offering up his own dead body to pay the price for our sin. The Bible describes Jesus’ sacrifice this way: “’He himself bore our sins’ in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; ‘by his wounds you have been healed.’ For ‘you were like sheep going astray,’ but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls’” (1 Peter 2:24-25).
The sacrifice made by our Shepherd and Overseer provides the backbone for every other promise that God has made to us, including each of those laid out in Ezekiel’s words. If Jesus has firmly secured our salvation, there is no reason to doubt all other promises that flow from that mighty act of sacrifice.
Our Shepherd-King will search for and look after his sheep. He will rescue them and gather them together from all over the earth. He will tend them. He will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak. He will see justice carried out. He will do all of these things, just as he promised.
“Just do it for me, please,” the little boy pleads to his father. He obliges because he loves his son.
“Just do it for us, Lord,” we beg of the Father. He obliges because he loves his sons and daughters. He established his kingdom by shedding his own blood, and he continues to rule over and sustain his kingdom by that same blood, offered in the sacrament and the food of his Word to feed his sheep. So as we close out another church year and start a new one with the season of Advent, let us rejoice in our King who did it himself so that he could secure his scattered sheep for himself and for eternity.
