What is the difference between a hireling and the Good Shepherd? Put simply it is this: For the hireling, the sheep are expendable, while the Good Shepherd makes Himself expendable for the sheep. The hireling has no attachment to the sheep except insofar as they are a source of income. If the sheep have to be sacrificed to save his life, so be it. Not so for the Good Shepherd, for He is willing to do the unthinkable. He lays down His life for the sheep.

When the hireling sees the bare teeth of the wolf and hears its hungry growl, he deserts the flock. Better to run than be mauled or killed by a ravenous wolf. Better to sacrifice a sheep or two - even the whole flock - than to risk life or limb for animals who aren't worth that much anyway. Sheep are replaceable and human life is not, so goes the pragmatic logic of the hireling. "After all," he reasons, "the sheep don't belong to me and my boss would never expect me to die trying to protect them." So when the wolf encircles the flock, the hireling retreats. The sheep are left without defense and become easy prey for the wolf. Their legs are not fast enough to run away from the predator and their teeth are no match for the strong jaws of the wolf. They cannot save themselves, and so, the wolf enjoys a mutton dinner.

But the Good Shepherd is different. He is the Good Shepherd. He is not merely a shepherd who does the good things that shepherds are expected to do like grazing the sheep, making sure that they have fresh water, tending their wounds, and protecting them from rustlers and wild animals. Jesus is our Good Shepherd in the way of Good Friday. He lays down His life for the sheep. Our Good Shepherd puts Himself in between His sheep and the open jaws of that very hound of hell, satan himself. Jesus throws Himself into satan's teeth. His body is mauled and His flesh is torn by the very predator who seeks to feed on us.

But when Satan sinks his teeth into the Lamb of God, he bites into the One who will break his jaw. He bites into the flesh of the Good Shepherd who came to destroy the work of the devil. By His death our Good Shepherd defeats death and the devil. Jesus is that Good Shepherd. He is God in the flesh. He is God come to seek and to save the lost.

In the Old Testament God so often describes Himself as a shepherd. You heard that description again today in the Old Testament Reading from Ezekiel where God promises that He will depose the false shepherds of Israel who scattered the flock and fed off the sheep. God says: "Indeed I Myself will search for My sheep and seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock on the day he is among his scattered sheep, so I will seek out My sheep and deliver them from all the places where they were scattered on a cloudy and dark day." David, who himself was a shepherd, confesses in that most beloved of Psalms, Psalm 23, "The Lord is my shepherd." Jesus is that shepherd. He is the shepherd who comes to be with His sheep. To feed them, to lead them, to comfort them. Yes, He does all of this. He feeds us with His own body and blood at the table He prepares for us in the presence of all our enemies - sin, death, and the devil himself. He leads us with His words that are spirit and life. He comforts us with His presence as He gives us His name in Holy Baptism. Standing behind everything that our Good Shepherd does for us - the feeding, the leading, and the comforting - is His cross. The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.

Jesus was no wimpy hireling. He was no whining coward who ran away when that old evil wolf came seeking to condemn and destroy you with your sin. Our Good Shepherd died, as one of our hymns puts it, "for sheep who love to wander." He did not wait for us to find our way out of the wilderness and back to the sheep pen. He came to us in this world of sin and death and He redeemed us by dying on the cross in our place. Such is the love of the Good Shepherd for His sheep.

We often use the traits or characteristics of animals as metaphors for characteristics of human beings. He is as strong as a horse. She sings like a canary. He is as wise an owl. These are said as compliments. Of course, it cuts the other way, too. She is as fat as a cow. He is as dumb as an ox. And what do we say in reference to sheep? He is as smart as a sheep? No, you are more apt to hear something like, "They are as stupid as sheep." Sheep are notorious for getting themselves into trouble, for straying away, for ending up lost and confused, subjected to danger and unable to take care of themselves.

Jesus pays us no compliment by calling us sheep. But that is, in fact, what we are. By nature we walk away from the Good Shepherd right into the jaws of death. We have, as the Scripture says, like sheep gone astray. It is no temporary disorientation. It is separation and alienation from the God who alone gives us life. Like dumb sheep, we graze in contentment not realizing that the wolf lurks around ready to attack. Then when he does attack we foolishly run our own way as though we had the ability to escape his grasp. We think that we can find food, only to starve because we refuse the fare that the Good Shepherd has set before us. We are poisoned with the putrid and stagnant water of worldliness with its passing fads that we think will quench our thirst, all the while refusing the streams of living water to which the Good Shepherd beckons us.

The Good Shepherd still calls and gathers a flock by His Word. He says, "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me." Martin Luther gave us a beautifully simple definition of the church in the Smalcald Articles: "...thank God, a seven-year old child knows what the church is, namely, holy believers and sheep who hear the voice of their Good Shepherd" (Tappert, 315). The church is where the Good Shepherd. Where His voice is sounding in the pure preaching of His Word and in His Baptism and Supper, there you will find the sheep that belong to Jesus. If you look to the characteristics of the sheep, you will be deceived or disappointed. They can be mangy and flea-bitten, not a pretty sight. Our focus is not on the sheep but the Shepherd. It is not Good Sheep Sunday but Good Shepherd Sunday. Keep your ears attune to the voice of the Good Shepherd, for He alone has the words of eternal life.

Some of you will be graduating and facing new challenges. A good number of you will be gone for the summer. For others of us, our various callings will soon take us to new places. Whether leaving or staying, we walk as sheep who hear the voice of the Good Shepherd in sermon and sacrament. His promise is this: "And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand." Amen.

The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen.