The Lord is a Shepherd: Gethsemane

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0:00 Of course, we know that that cross, that emblem of faith, that has become an emblem, was an instrument of tyranny and to keep people in line from powerful forces in the world, has been redeemed by the people of faith to be this symbol of hope, love, even salvation. So for us, we know that the mark of the cross is like the fullness.

0:33 If you want to see what love looks like, you look at the cross. If you want to see what mercy looks like, you look at the cross. If you want to see what purpose or forgiveness or hope, all of the fullness of God is found on the cross. And we've been thinking about another image of God. We've been thinking about this image of God as the shepherd, which is why we've been reading that Psalm 23 is our call to worship. And last week we looked at this section in Jeremiah because as I thought about where my adventures were over the last several weeks,

1:09 I realized that what I need from God these days is I need like a Psalm 23 experience of God. I need God to be the one who leads me to quiet pastures by still waters. I need to know that when I feel in the valley of the shadow of death that I'm only passing through, that I pass through the valley of the shadow that's into a banquet feast in the presence of my enemies,

1:40 I need a Psalm 23 experience of God. So a couple weeks ago we went and looked at Psalm 23 and since then we've been pulling out little places in the scripture where the notion of shepherd is used to understand or describe the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of creation and life, and then of course the God of Christ in the church. And today I want to look at a section in Matthew's account of the gospel right towards the end

2:10 is where the end of Matthew's account of the gospel is where we're going to look, Matthew chapter 26. Matthew is the first book in the New Testament so it's like little more than three quarters through a paper copy of the scriptures if that's where you're using one of those this morning. It goes to Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, before we do before we get into that scripture, let's pray together. Hey Lord, thank you for the chance to be your church this morning.

2:43 We can feel in ourselves a capacity to love you, to trust you and Lord we know that that is enlightened and initiated by you. So at the same time Lord that we feel a capacity to distrust, to fear you, we feel a capacity towards unbelief, we ask for that you would move towards us this morning, that your kindness would draw us into you,

3:19 that your love for us would awaken a love response towards you this morning, that we would be able to be sheet in your flock following behind finding the pastors that you have for us now and forever. We ask it in Jesus' name, amen. Matthew chapter 26, looking towards the end of the chapter verse 31 is where I want to start. Well, no, I don't want to start at 31. That's where we're getting to.

3:50 I want to start at verse 26 just to give us a little context, Matthew chapter 26 verse 26. Now they were eating, as they were eating Jesus took bread and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples and said, Take any, this is my body, and to the cup and when he had given thanks he gave it to them saying, Drink of Dolly, this is my blood of the covenant which has poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins and I tell you all about me. This meal, this is like the meal that like inaugurates communion which our people have been celebrating for thousands of years

4:27 together because Jesus when he did it this first time said, Keep doing it until I come again and in that first generation of the church in the first century we found that this meal had the capacity to actually give an experience of the forgiveness of sins and had the supernatural capability to tie people together as the body of Christ on earth. So we've been celebrating this meal ever since this first time but I want you to think for just a second about this first meal. Remember that by this time Jesus has been saying and doing enough things that he has aggravated the authority structures of the church that he is

5:04 upsetting the religious system and they're not happy with them because the religious system has an alliance with the political system that keeps everything in order. Keeps money going the right way keeps military off their back. The religious system has an alliance with the political system that keeps everything in a certain order and Jesus comes into the middle of it, upsets the religious system and completely dismisses the political system. So the authority structures in the religious system are frustrated that Jesus in Jesus at this time of the supper has walked directly into the center of the religious system.

5:41 Into Jerusalem at the time of Passover you can't get closer to the heart of the religious authority in the world in Israel in the first century. Walk right into it and does it kind of surreptitiously right? No. He walks in with a parade right? And the religious structures come to him and say, hey man get these people to calm down. They're claiming that you are the deliverer and Jesus for the first time sells the religious authorities.

6:11 I can't get these people to calm down man. If they don't cry out the rock to it because I'm the one for whom praise is determined or danged for this moment. Right? He stirred everything up. He's gone and turned over the tables at the temple, cast out the people with the whip, thrown, opened up and set all the little birds out, set loose the lamps so that they are the sacrifice of the lamps that are being sold at a marked up price. Like he's a catastrophe and then quietly, yes he retreats to an upper room with his twelve closest friends.

6:52 To celebrate this Passover meal. That's the context of this meal. Like the world is swirling around them. They are hopeful and afraid at the same time. There is comfort in the ritual and camaraderie among deeply situated friendships. And in the context of that hidden away in an upper room alone, Jesus does something new.

7:22 It's beautiful. Take this, this is my body, this is my blood. Right? Take and eat. It's beautiful. And he's clearly heavy in the moment. And he says, I'm not going to do this again until the kingdom of God is here. Until the reign of God is here. Of course he'll eat in that upper room again with them in his resurrected body. Right? Just a couple of days after this. And when they had sung at him, I love that.

7:52 When they had sung at him together, there's something about singing together. You're going that for a while. But when they had sung at him, they went out to the Mount of Olives and then Jesus said to them, you will all fall away because of me on this night. For it is written, I will strike the shepherd and the sheep of the flock will be scattered. But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee. And Peter answered him, though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away.

8:23 And Jesus said to him, truly, I tell you this very night before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times. And Peter said, even if I must die with you, I will not deny you. And Peter gets a really bad rap for this. Maybe appropriately, like he's very adamant. Look, everybody else may fall away from you, but I won't. Everybody else may deny you and get afraid, but I won't. Even if I have to die, I won't fall away from you. And Jesus tells him, yeah, man, you're going to.

8:53 Like before the crock crows three times, you'll deny me. Right? But look at the last little phrase here. And all the disciples said the same. All of them said it. Not just Peter. I think that's important. Peter always is speaking first. It looks like when you follow the story of Jesus and these twelve young men closely, it looks like Peter was the oldest. It was a common habit for rabbis to have one disciple who was a little bit older than the rest.

9:24 This might be the first who was going to take over, you know. And then when Jesus says, you're the Christ and when Peter says you're the Christ and Jesus says, on this rock, I'll build my church. Right? When the temple taxes paid, they pay it for Jesus and for Peter. When Peter gets called out of the boat, it's because he's the one who's going to step first. He's the oldest, but he's not alone. He speaks for the whole group. And so when Peter said, I'll never fall away, even if I have to die, they all agree. Yeah, us too.

9:54 And then, of course, what? Like in that very garden where they're speaking, they all leave. Bonner. I was looking back at this passage because of this quote in here, right above it, in verse 31, then Jesus said to them, you will all fall away because of me this night. And I thought, well, that's interesting.

10:24 Jesus says you'll fall away because of me. Is Jesus just taking the fall for them? Like, is taking responsibility for them? And then I looked at that next phrase, for it is written, I will strike the shepherd and the sheep of the flock. And the sheep of the flock will be scattered. And I pressed Jesus. It must be written somewhere, though I didn't know where.

10:55 So I had to look it up. There's little footnotes in my Bible that says here's where Jesus was referring to. And he's quoting from the prophet, Zachariah. Member prophets are the people who speak on behalf of God. They get God's words and announce it to the world. Zachariah, speaking on behalf of God, says this phrase that Jesus then quotes.

11:25 God speaks through Zachariah, awake, oh sword, against my shepherd, against the man who stands next to me to close the Lord. Strike this shepherd and the sheep will be scattered. I will turn my hand against the little ones. And so the larger context of what God is doing in Zachariah is the people of God have ended up in their aimlessness and confusion. When the world, the political and the religious systems are making weird alliances and swirling around and they don't know what to do,

11:59 they set up little idols that look like God's to them. And God says this, these idols are false shepherds. They'll never get them into the green pastures. They'll keep taking them to one bear in place after another. And my little sheep will follow these false shepherds from one bear in land to another, keeping, hoping around the next valley, around the next corner, over the next river, will find a green pasture and they never will.

12:33 So God through Zachariah says, I'm going to strike the one shepherd that they're following and they'll all scatter. And then from there I'll call again and the ones who hear my voice will come to me and they'll call me God and I'll call them my people. And Jesus says that what God is doing in your semany is the same thing he said he would do through the prophet Zachariah, Israel. And he's striking the shepherd that they are following to see who is following God and who is following an idol.

13:12 And this drew me for just a minute until I thought of Judas. God bless Judas. I don't know what happened to him. I hope it worked out for him. But the way the story goes for me and you is that Judas led the religious authorities to Jesus in order that they could arrest him quietly and have him killed. Now most scholars and theologians think that Judas was a zealot and thought that by bringing armed guards to Jesus he would incite a revolt and Jesus would come and kick off the wrong religious authority.

13:58 Then the wrong political authority and established a kingdom. Judas had remade Jesus in the image that he wanted. Judas in the time of confusion, religious confusion, political confusion, all swirling had lost track of the shepherd and crafted something that looked like for God.

14:31 He thought he needed in the moment. And no doubt all the other twelve had as well. This is why they run away afraid. They do not know who Jesus, they built up this idea of who Jesus ought to be in a moment of confusion based on their own needs and assumptions. I thought is it true, could they be making Jesus an idol? Is that even possible?

15:09 And then I thought of how careful Jesus was. All of that is misremembered. I don't do anything that I don't see my father doing first. The words I speak are words that I've heard my father say. Lord, not my will, but your will be done. He submits to the father even to death. And then Paul when he's analyzing the life of Jesus, he says that Jesus did not consider equality with God something to be grasped.

15:41 He allowed God to break him down and then when the time was right God says, come and I'll make my enemies your footstool. God lifts him back up. Even Jesus submits to God the father. And the call for the people is twelve and then the surrounding in the upper room and then the thousands of Pentecost is to see that Jesus is an emblem drawing us to God the father, the creator, the good shepherd.

16:11 And so at this moment God strikes him away. Jesus gets into it. Look at how I was trying to figure out how valid this was and I think it works. I don't think we're preaching something bad here. Look at Matthew. Go back to Matthew. Go back to the left is a little bit. Matthew chapter seven. This is towards the end of Jesus's sermon on the Mount where he's like outlining what it looks like to be a sheep.

16:47 He starts of course with the Beatitudes and works through life. Some people understand it as a second giving of the law where Moses stood and gave these ten commandments and said when you let God be the God of this people your life will look like this. And then Jesus goes up on the Mount after he comes out of the period of temptations and says when you recognize that I've come to fulfill the law not to abolish it then your life will look like this. And just at the tail end of this sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter seven verse 15 Jesus says oh hey beware of the false prophets, the false leaders, the false separate who come to you in sheep's clothing.

17:28 But inwardly our ravenous wolves. I feel like there's a lot of confusion swirling. How are we supposed to feel about a church in America that so much of it seems to perpetuate weird hatred blind eyes to racist injustices?

18:10 Blind eyes to abuses of power and in order to make interesting alliances that seem politically expedient but seem to sacrifice core values of the right. How are we supposed to decide when our futures are insecure and the weird, there's weird religious swirlings and political alliances. How do we decide who to follow? How are we faithful sheep following true shepherds not little idols that we've built up in our own image and say this is what it looks like.

18:53 I think the best truth is the truth that stands apart from me and shapes me not truth that is shaped out of me. I'd rather have truth that stands true apart from me and conform myself to it then have truth that is conformed to my experiences of life. My notions of justice, my notions of mercy, my notions of love because my notions of all those things are faulty. And if I build any image of God apart from the true God it will carry that faulty humanity inside of it and I'll never find green pastures.

19:31 I'll never find quiet waters. I'll get misdirected and lost in valleys of shadows of death and I'll never make it through. I'll go hungry when there is a seat at the sleeping table waiting for me because I built some false prophet, some false shepherd in my own image and followed in Jesus right at the tail end of a servant on the mountains.

20:01 Listen, there will be false prophets and they'll look like sheep. They'll look like fellow followers but inside they'll be wolves clothing and then he says what? They'll be wolves clothing in really ravenous wolves, verse 16. You will recognize them by their fruits, are grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles. So every healthy tree bears good fruit but the diseased trees bear bad fruit.

20:32 A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits. The first thing I thought of here was like the fruit of the spirit where Paul says love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, and strength and self-control. And I think that's appropriate. Individually, if we're trying to find out if individuals are true sheep, we'll see evidence of the fruit of the spirit in an individual's life but and I guess and.

21:02 If we're trying to find good shepherds, good people to trust in leadership, we ought to be looking for ones who the fruit look like those values we outlined. You ought to see evidence of the reign of God in their wake. It looks like justice that recognizes there is a God, that God is good, and all humanity is made in that God's image, image bearers of the God.

21:43 In the wake of a good shepherd, you ought to see examples, exemplars of love that look like, love that looks like self-sacrifice and solidarity with the disenfranchised poor and the broken. In the wake of a good shepherd, you ought to see instances and a culture of rest that is restorative and built on a confidence that God provides for us.

22:21 We don't provide for ourselves. In every instance of God, of the reign of God on earth, of the people of God, God never leaves his people without a shepherd. All you have to do right now is be alive to be confused.

22:57 All of us, we are in situations we are not equipped to handle. We do not understand appropriately the science of things that are affecting our lives and cannot predict the future of economies. All you have to do right now to be confused is be alive, but the beauty of being a sheep under the God of creation and life.

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