“The Lord’s Search And Rescue”
Ezekiel 34:11-24
9-11-2022
In the name of Him who searches out His lost people, dear friends in Christ. I don’t know if they still do it, but a while ago there were catchy billboard ads posted near some larger cities. The messages were short and to the point, but what really gets your attention is that they purport to be from God. Now I’m pretty sure that God doesn’t need to buy billboard space in order to get His message out. He could send angels, as He has done in the past, which is a lot more memorable than a billboard. Even so, these roadside quotes do make a point. One of them said, “What Part Of ‘Thou Shalt Not’ Don’t You Understand? Signed- GOD. And my personal favorite was, “You Think It’s Hot Here?” Signed- GOD.
If they had these billboards back in Ezekiel’s day, there’s one that would have matched God’s message that we heard it in our Old Testament reading. It says, “Don’t Make Me Come Down There!” The tone is that of a parent in another room who hears his children fighting in the distance and gives them this warning. In this case, God had issued the warning through His prophets and it was ignored. Strangely enough, it was directed at the “shepherds” of Israel who abused their positions of authority. As a result, God’s people were like a flock of sheep who had been scattered. His people were bruised and hungry because the shepherds of Israel had not been fulfilling their duty of guiding and caring for them. Quite the opposite, these shepherds had been taking advantage of the sheep.
Now all of this is going to sound like a meaningless allegory if you don’t know the historical background. So, here’s a brief description of what was going on. The northern kingdom of Israel had been conquered and taken into captivity in 722 B.C. The southern kingdom ignored what happened to their brothers to the north and went down the same path of ignoring God’s commandments and worshiping other gods. Prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah had repeatedly warned them, but to no avail. Eventually, the Babylonians came after the southern kingdom and took many of them into captivity. Ezekiel was one of them. In 587 B.C., word came to them that Jerusalem and the Temple had been destroyed. The people were devastated and needed to know why it had happened and also what God was going to do about it. Ezekiel was commissioned by the Lord to tell them. And he uses an illustration which the people were very familiar with– the picture of sheep and their shepherds.
It was quite common back then to refer to political leaders as “shepherds” of their people. At times, this title was also applied to the religious leaders. And that makes sense, since their job was to watch over, protect, and care for the people of their “flock.” The problem was, they weren’t doing their job. Justice was supposed to be available to everyone equally. But the rich could bribe a judge to get their way. The poor were struggling to hang onto what little they had, but those with power and money were like wolves devouring the possessions of these defenseless sheep. The king and local leaders should’ve defended the poor and helpless, but they didn’t. Also, the priests should have been guiding God’s people away from the worship of false gods. But they didn’t either.
Sadly, none of the so-called “shepherds” of Israel were doing their duty. Instead, they were profiting and getting fat off the abuse of the very people God had called them to watch over. As is often the case, this kind of callous attitude then trickles down to the common folk. Not only were their leaders mistreating them, but they were also mistreating each other. That’s what’s going on in verses 17-21. When given the opportunity, they would take the best for themselves, even though it might deprive their neighbor. Ezekiel likens them to sheep who trample the good pastures, muddy up the clean drinking water so it’s unfit for others, and shove others away at the feed trough not caring who they hurt in their selfish greed.
God warned them through the prophets. In essence, He said, “Don’t Make Me Come Down There!” They didn’t listen, though. So God allowed a national catastrophe to take place. Now, sitting in Babylonian captivity, the Lord tells them that He’s not going to entrust the duty of shepherd to these worthless men anymore. Rather, He Himself is going to shepherd Israel. He’ll judge those who have gotten fat off the abuses of the people and bring justice once again. And as the Good Shepherd, He will go on a search and rescue mission for His lost sheep. In a very real way, the people of God had been scattered like sheep all over the place due to the exile. They were bruised and abused by their captors. They were scared and hungry both physically and spiritually. God was going to gather them together once again and gently care for them. He would give them a new shepherd, a good shepherd, like David was.
In the short term, God fulfilled this by slowly but surely seeing to it that Israel was released and returned to the Promise Land. In the long term, He sent a descendant of David to be their perfect Shepherd. That was Jesus, the Son of God, who identified Himself as the Good Shepherd of God’s people– a Shepherd who cared for His sheep and protected them by laying down His own life to save them. Not just to save the people of God back then, but also believers of all time.
I hope you can already see the application to us. Sadly, many of the same conditions of Ezekiel’s time exist today… specifically in the Christian Church among God’s flock. The Lord has called Pastors to watch over and lead His people. St. Peter refers to them as shepherds overseeing God’s flock on behalf of the Chief Shepherd, Jesus Christ. And yet, there are still spiritual shepherds who neglect and abuse the flocks God has entrusted to their care. For example, it’s disgraceful when a Pastor uses his position to coerce sexual favors from a parishioner. But it happens. It’s also shameful how some Pastors use God’s Word in order to “fleece the flock” of their money. You’ve probably seen reports on how the leaders of some of these huge TV and radio ministries live lavish lifestyles while the people sending them the money are barely scraping by on their meager paychecks.
In a more subtle way, though, there are those shepherds who lead God’s flock astray through the false doctrine they preach. Some of it is a silly distraction but some of it is down-right poisonous for the soul. What else do you call it when a Pastor (I hesitate to give him the honor of that title) dresses up as a drag queen to deliver the children’s sermon during a worship service? The Lord’s sheep are starving for the truth but being fed deadly garbage. God’s flock should be able to come to Church and be fed by His pure Word and Sacrament. The Pastor’s job, as Christ’s under-shepherd, is to faithfully set before you what God has supplied. How dare I, or any Pastor, mess with that? God is love, but I also fear His righteous anger. And I don’t ever want to hear Him say that I’ve been abusing or misleading His sheep in any way, shape, or form. I pray regularly that God will make me a good and faithful shepherd to you.
Like in Ezekiel’s day, God’s flock today is sometimes scattered because of lazy or abusive shepherds in the Church. But that’s only one side of the coin. As Isaiah says, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way...” (53:6) In other words, we are sheep who love to wander. We’re like a little kid in a department store who gets so distracted by the toys that he’s oblivious to the fact that Mom and Dad have moved on. We get distracted by the sinful lusts that our world entices us with. Or we get distracted by the worries and troubles of this life. The next thing we know, God seems far away. We feel lost and don’t know how to get back to Him. An elderly member in my previous congregation used to say, “I’m God’s lamb who’s caught in the brambles.” How true. We are the wayward lambs who are bruised and hurt spiritually due to the predicament we’ve gotten ourselves into.
Thankfully, though, God doesn’t give up on us wandering sheep. No, God says in verse 16 of our text, “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.” You see, God didn’t just say, “Don’t Make Me Come Down There!” Rather, He took matters into His own hands. The Son of God said, “I will personally go down there to search for my lost sheep and rescue them.” And that’s what He did. He came humbly to this earth, lived a perfect life, and then died on the cross to rescue His flock from their lost condition of sin. The Good Shepherd laid down His life to save His sheep.
Friends, Christ still searches for and rescues His lost sheep today. And He does it through His Church here on earth. That is to say, He uses us for this vital mission of salvation. So, how are we doing at that? Look around you. Seriously, go ahead and look around you. There are people missing who used to worship here with the rest of God’s flock at Zion. They may have been gone a short length of time, or perhaps for years. Have you reached out to them? Have you even noticed that they were missing? If we’re totally honest, we have to admit that quite often we’ve been content to just sit on our hands and do nothing. Christ calls us to search for those lost souls who have never believed in Him before. But He also calls us to search for those who once believed and have wandered away from the Lord. They may have been raised in our church or some other denomination, but they strayed from the flock and became inactive. Why haven’t we sought them out? We need to confess the sinful attitudes that have prevented us from doing so and ask God for forgiveness.
Sometimes those lost folks feel as though they’ve gotten tangled up in such a messy situation that there’s no way out. And they falsely assume that God can’t undo their sinful mess or doesn’t love them. God calls on us to take them the Good News that He’s searching for them and wants to rescue them, just as He has done for us. There is no sin too big for Him to forgive. The Good Shepherd loves them and wants them to join us in His flock where their souls can be healed and restored by His precious forgiveness. May the Holy Spirit inspire us to go out into our world and seek the lost. And as we do, may we rejoice that we ourselves have been rescued by our Good Shepherd who sought us out and saved us. Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria!