Jeremiah 23.1-6; Psalm 23; Ephesians 2.11-22; Mark 6.30-34, 53-56

Jeremiah 23.1-6; Psalm 23; Ephesians 2.11-22; Mark 6.30-34, 53-56

The image of the Lord as a shepherd is one of the scripture’s key images for God and goes well beyond today’s beloved 23rd Psalm. There’s Psalm 100, “We are God’s people and the sheep of God’s hand.” And Psalm 28, “Save your people and bless your heritage! Be their shepherd and carry them forever.”

The image must come from the forty years that the Israelites wandered in the wilderness yet knew that God was leading them and caring for them. Moses was a shepherd for his father-in-law Jethro’s flock before he led the people out of Egypt and to the Promised Land. Psalm 77 recounts this and says, “You [O God] guided your people like a flock shepherded by Moses and Aaron.” When Moses asks the Lord to appoint a leader to succeed him following his death, he requests someone who would guide the people so that, foreshadowing Jesus in today’s gospel, they might not be “like sheep without a shepherd.” Old Testament kings were called shepherds because their task was to protect their people from enemies and harm. When those kings failed, ancient Israel was scattered, abandoned, left exposed and hurting. In today’s first reading, Jeremiah looks to God who will raise up a new shepherd, a new king, so that no one will fear. And in a beloved passage, the prophet Isaiah speaks to people whose hope is lost. “The Lord will feed his flock like a shepherd and carry them close to his heart.” In the biblical image of the shepherd, we see God infinitely strong, infinitely protective, infinitely caring.

Writing about today’s 23rd Psalm, Rabbi Harold Kushner calls it a “compact spiritual masterpiece.” It gives an entire theology in a few lines, he says, offers more practical words about God than can be found in many books. Kushner says the more he looks at, prays, and studies this psalm, the more it says to him. “Psalm 23 comforts us with familiar words and images, but the message goes beyond comfort. It doesn’t simply offer the prospect of a future with God. It gives an honest picture of the world in the present. It is a world that is far from perfect, yet the psalm invites us to trust, to live in hope, and be thankful that, through it all, the Lord is with us.

Kushner notes how the psalm begins as the story of a journey; it begins with a pleasant, comfortable life pictured by lush soft grass and cool water. But not everything is gentle and secure—not in the psalm and not in life as we know it. Next to green pastures and still waters is the valley of the shadow of death. What is this valley? Perhaps the psalmist is mourning the death of a friend or family member; or maybe is facing the undeniable fact of one’s own mortality and death. We don’t know the exact circumstances. The familiar phrase ‘the valley of the shadow of death’ can be translated as ‘a valley of deepest darkness.’ This can be any dark night, any evil, any distress. When it comes to things that matter most to us—life, health, being loved, the well-being and safety of family and friends, the future—how often does it feel like we are finding our way through the darkness?

Now a skeptic might say, ‘If the job of a biblical shepherd is to protect sheep from harm, and if the Lord is my shepherd, he could be doing a better job of it! Why is it that I see people worn down by illness, good people fired, divorced, cheated on and cheating? Why is it that innocent people suffer and die but the wicked thrive? Where is God’s care and protection in that?’ Psalm 23 has no illusions about our world or our lives. The psalm knows we live in a world that is often frightening, violent, and evil; it recognizes enemies even at our table. To say “the Lord is my shepherd” is not to say that bad things will never happen to us. Kushner believes that the reason we love this psalm more than any of the other 149 psalms, the reason we turn to it in times of personal distress, and the reason we commit it to memory is because of its awareness that dark valleys in life are real. Yet the psalm trusts that God does not leave us to fend for ourselves in them but leads us through them like a shepherd leading a flock through the dangers of the wilderness. Life is not always green pastures or placid lakeshores, in the psalm or for us, but we do not face the turmoil of dark valleys alone. “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me.”

“God with us” is, of course, who Jesus is. Before Jesus was born, when the angel appeared to Joseph in a dream, the name the angel gave for Jesus was ‘Emmanuel,’ a name which means ‘God with us.’ After Jesus’ resurrection and before his ascension, our Lord doesn’t say to his followers, ‘It’s been a good three years but now I have to go; you’ll do fine without me.’ No, he says, “I am with you always, to the end of the age.” To speak of the Lord our shepherd, the Lord who is with us the way the 23rd Psalm does, is to speak of Jesus.

Today’s gospel reading begins with Jesus offering the disciples a chance to rest and be renewed—call it the green pastures and still waters. But the solitude they seek is elusive; the gospel quickly turns to Jesus’ care for people enduring a hard time. “He saw the great crowd and had compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd.” For people longing for healing and peace, for people walking through dark valleys of their own, Jesus comes to them, his heart goes out to them, he feels for them from the depths of his being. In their need, Jesus is ‘God with them,’ the Good Shepherd who leads them through their darkness to healing and to life renewed in him.

Jesus is our Lord and Shepherd, too, the living presence of God’s pledge in today’s reading from Jeremiah. “I myself will gather the remnant of my flock…and I will bring them back to their fold.” These words about being gathered and brought home by God call to mind Jesus’ parable of a shepherd who leaves behind ninety-nine sheep in search of the one lost sheep. When he rescues that sheep, he lays it on his shoulders, and brings it safely home. Count yourself as part of God’s flock. Because the presence of Jesus the shepherd is not only for the disciples in their need to be refreshed and renewed, not only for the crowd in the gospel reading in their need for healing, but for you when you long for God’s peace, for you when you find yourself in a dark valley. Today’s reading from Ephesians says that Christ has come for all of us, searching out everyone of us who live through times when it seems like we are sheep without a shepherd, like sheep that have wandered off feel lost. Christ, says Ephesians, “came and proclaimed God’s peace to you who were far off as well as to those who were near.” Christ did this so that you would have access to God, would know and trust that you are a member of the household of God. “We are the people that God shepherds,” says Psalm 95, “the flock in his care.”

It is no surprise, then, that the biblical image of the Lord as shepherd reaches deep into our lives, especially as we hear it and see it expressed in the spiritual masterpiece of the 23rd Psalm. If you are worried by what you lack, the psalm offers gratitude for what is yours beyond what can be purchased or possessed. “The Lord is my shepherd; I lack for nothing.” When stress threatens to wear you down, the psalm speaks of your soul restored in God. When you are anxious, suffering, or adrift in a world that is too often friendless, the psalm calls to mind God’s care for you. When you are fearful or grieving, the psalm shows the way through the darkest valleys, even death, because the Lord is with you. And when life is made bitter by unpleasant people, Psalm 23 offers a picture of reconciliation at God’s table.

Shepherded by Jesus who has compassion for you—anointed, restored, led, and safe in the house of the Lord—today you are invited to the Lord’s Table where God’s own feast is spread before you, gathered home by the Lord our Shepherd to trust, to live in hope, and to be the thankful that the Lord is with us.