Jesus, the Shepherd-King

“Jesus, The Shepherd-King”

Jesus, the Good Shepherd: Part 7

(Selected Scriptures)

The Greenhouse ~ 25th Sunday after Trinity ~ Christ the King Sunday

Jesus is King. Today on the Church calendar we celebrate Christ the King Sunday. Christ, as you may know, is the Greek word for the Hebrew term messiach, Anointed One, which the Hebrew people used to speak of the king, especially the King they were awaiting from the family of David. So Christ the King is a double emphasis on Jesus’ kingship. Why is it appropriate that the emphasis on Christ’s Kingship fall on the last day of the Church’s liturgical year? Because, in short, Jesus is King is the shortest but most accurate representation of the gospel.

Many in American churches have reduced the gospel to individual salvation of souls. Certainly individuals are saved, and certainly each person’s soul is of infinite value because each person is uniquely created in the image of God. But the gospel is bigger than me, or you, or any individual soul—even millions of individual souls. God began something in creation—a dwelling place of God with humanity in which we could share in His overflowing goodness and love. Sin entered the world through human rebellion, and the consequences were, and remain, catastrophic. And yet, using a word coined by J. R. R. Tolkien, God brought the eucatastrophe, the good, unexpected turn in the story. God Himself became man. Salvation is possible, the redemption of all creation is possible, because God the Son entered into the creation that He fashioned in the beginning and redeemed it. And the gospel—literally meaning good news—that was announced by Jesus Himself, then the apostles after Him, was that the promised King had come. Jesus says in Mark 1:15a, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near.” What time? The time when all God’s promises of restoration and redemption through the king would find their realization in the Messiah. What kingdom? The Kingdom of God, the one in which God will dwell with man, and that kingdom has come near because the king is here. The gospel, the true good news proclaimed by Jesus and the apostles, is that the problems with the world are being undone because Israel’s King, it turns out, is Lord of the whole world. “Jesus is King” answers everything that is wrong with the world because He is everything that is right with it.

We could go on for hours about how the Scriptures anticipate the Messiah in the Old Testament, the Gospels show Jesus to be that King, and Acts, the Epistles, and the Revelation show the impact, both now and in the future, of Jesus’ Kingship. But today we don’t have hours, so I’ll attempt something slightly less ambitious. For six weeks we have been exploring “Jesus, the Good Shepherd,” through Psalms 23 and selected Scriptures. Today I want us to focus briefly on “Jesus, the Shepherd-King.”

As we saw several weeks ago, Ezekiel 34 prophesied against Israel’s shepherds (their kings and leaders[1]) for failing to care for the flock. Rather than feeding and tending the flock, they abused them, committed injustice against them, and left them scattered. God declares that He will be their Shepherd: “Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out” (Ezek 34:11b, ESV). The link between God, shepherd, and king here is fairly clear, but the clarity is borne out throughout the Old Testament, especially in passages like we read in Psalms 95:1-7. Psalms 93-100 are often grouped together by scholars and recognized as Kingship Psalms—“YHWH reigns” is a repeated refrain. Here in the midst of these Kingship Psalms emphasizing YHWH’s reign comes Psalms 95:1-7. Verse 3, for example, declares: “For the Lord is a great God, a great King above all gods.” Then in verse 6 we see the proper response to God as King: “Come, let’s worship and bow down; let’s kneel before the Lord our Maker.” These verses lead us to the reason for worship, proclaimed in verse 7: “For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, the sheep under his care.” We are the people of His pasture, the sheep under His care. The Lord is our shepherd (echoing Psalms 23). 

All that we have explored over the past six weeks about the Lord Jesus as our shepherd applies to the manner in which He is King. He is not a king who oppresses His people; He is not a king who manipulates His people; He is not a king who uses His people for His own gain. Rather, He is a King who leads, guides, protects, and shepherds His people. And more than that, He does not do so from afar, but from among them. He is present with them. As we saw last week in Revelation 7:15-17, this Shepherd-King is also the Lamb on the throne, and “he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence” (v. 15) and “the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water…” (v. 17, ESV). To speak of Jesus as Shepherd is to speak of Jesus as King; and to speak of Jesus as King is to declare that He is the kind of King who shepherd His people as one of them. The Son of God does not merely rule from the heavens, but “the Word became flesh and dwelt (tabernacled) among them.” (John 1:14).

But Jesus does not just dwell among His people. He is not merely a lamb who leads among the sheep. He is also the sacrificial lamb, the Passover Lamb whose death can bring life to us. In John 18, Jesus has an exchange with Pontius Pilate that highlights the different kind of Kingdom Jesus leads.

36 “My kingdom is not of this world,” said Jesus. “If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight, so that I wouldn’t be handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.”

37 “You are a king then?” Pilate asked.

“You say that I’m a king,” Jesus replied. “I was born for this, and I have come into the world for this: to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”

38 “What is truth?” said Pilate.

First, notice that Jesus differentiates His Kingdom from the kingdoms of the world—my kingdom is not of this world. In one sense, we know His Kingdom goes beyond this world. And yet, the rest of Scripture is clear that His Kingdom is for this world. Jesus’ point here is not to say His Kingdom is only in Heaven, but rather that His Kingdom is of a different kind entirely. It is the kind of Kingdom where the King is the Shepherd who lays down His life for the sheep.

Second, speaking of His role as a King, He says He has come into the world to testify to the truth. “Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” Notice how closely this parallels Jesus’ words in the “I am the Good Shepherd” passage of John 10.

2 The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought all his own outside, he goes ahead of them. The sheep follow him because they know his voice. (vv. 2-4, CSB)

He continues:

14 “I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father. I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 But I have other sheep that are not from this sheep pen; I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. Then there will be one flock, one shepherd. 17 This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life so that I may take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have the right to lay it down, and I have the right to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.” (vv. 14-18, CSB)

Jesus has already told His disciples the truth that He now reveals to Pilate, but Pilate is not prepared to hear it. He is steeped in the kingdoms of the world. Those kingdoms are about attaining and retaining power. Jesus reverses this pattern. The Kingdom of God is about the King leading His sheep as their Shepherd, and He will lay down His life for the sheep. As it turns out in God’s providence, Jesus, the Good Shepherd, is put to death for the sheep because He claims to be a king, and another king is a threat to the Romans. The Shepherd dies for the sheep precisely because He is their King, indeed, the King of the whole world. And yet, He is raised on the third day, which means that our King, the King of the whole world, the Shepherd-King, lives and reigns today. Christ the King. Jesus Christ, the Shepherd-King. This is the gospel. This is the good news we receive, cling to, proclaim, and live out every day.

Finally, these truths are why the author of Hebrews, at the end of his beautiful letter about Jesus as our Great High Priest, gives a benediction that explicitly titles Jesus “the great shepherd of the sheep” (Heb 13:20b, ESV). In much the same way as the author of Hebrews, as we conclude not a letter but rather the Christian year, let us be reminded that Jesus Christ is King, and Jesus is the Great Shepherd of the Sheep. Amen.

[1]Recall that the shepherd was a common metaphor/image in the ancient Near Eastern Cultures around and including Israel referring to kings.

Feature Image: Good Shepherd Mosaic, Sacred Heart and St Margaret Mary, Aston. Accessed https://loandbeholdbible.com/2019/07/07/i-am-the-good-shepherd-john-101-21/.