When something isn’t the real thing, you know it. Genuineness comes through and so does a phony. It’s easy to spot a poser. Take a look at this scene from a movie and guess which person isn’t a real beauty pageant contestant. 

Show short clip from Miss Congeniality in which several contestants
all say “world peace,” then Sandra Bullock’s character answers,
“tougher penalties for parole violators [long pause] and world peace.” 

Sandra Bullock’s character in Miss Congeniality was not the real thing. She was an FBI agent trying to convince people she was a beauty pageant contestant. But she didn’t know how to walk the walk or talk the talk, much less how to handle her hair and make-up issues. She was a counterfeit beauty queen. 

I should know, because I too am a poor substitute for the real thing. I’m not a phony. Instead, my job here at King of Peace is largely that of stand in. I’m surely not a stunt man or a body double—just a stand in. I am the proxy who holds the place of the real star of the show. 

My job title is one clue to that role. I am called, among other things, the pastor. A pastor is, of course, the minister charged with the care of a congregation. Pastor. The term actually means shepherd—one who tends sheep. And on the Fourth Sunday of Easter the readings are always those devoted to Jesus as the Good Shepherd.  

So, Jesus is the Good Shepherd. I am not even the so-so shepherd. I am the stand in. The one here taking the public role of the shepherd while the actual work of tending the flock is done by the real shepherd, Jesus.  

The idea that both the leader of a congregation and God are shepherds of the people is quite ancient. There is a passage from the Prophet Ezekiel about this and these words from Ezekiel are particularly important for understanding our Gospel reading for today. Ezekiel wrote of the leaders of Israel as shepherds saying, 

Then this message came to me from the Lord: "Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds, the leaders of Israel. Give them this message from the Sovereign Lord: Destruction is certain for you shepherds who feed yourselves instead of your flocks….Though you were my shepherds, you didn't search for my sheep when they were lost. You took care of yourselves and left the sheep to starve. Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord. This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I now consider these shepherds my enemies, and I will hold them responsible for what has happened to my flock….I myself will search and find my sheep. I will be like a shepherd looking for his scattered flock. I will find my sheep and rescue them from all the places to which they were scattered on that dark and cloudy day….I myself will tend my sheep and cause them to lie down in peace, says the Sovereign Lord. I will search for my lost ones who strayed away, and I will bring them safely home again. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak. (Ezekiel 34:1-2,8-10,11-12,15-16) 

The spiritual leaders of Israel were to shepherd God’s people and instead they tended only to themselves. God’s judgment was harsh on these stand-in shepherds who were nothing more than phonies. It makes one wonder why anyone would take the job of pastor, knowing that God’s judgment is harsh on those who pretend to the role without fulfilling it.  

For me, I can be a pastor because I know it is not based on my own worthiness. I try to do well, but I can find myself getting just as rude to a telemarketer. I do my best, but I find myself with little patience. And on and on. I’m not perfect. Fortunately, that was not part of my job description. The role I have is exemplified by the clothes that I wear on Sunday. First, I put on a white robe, called an alb. It’s just like the ones worn by the other servers at the altar. The color white represents purity and the early Christians robed themselves in bright white robes at their baptism. It was not a sign of their worthiness or perfection. Instead, it was an outer sign that they had been in the words of Colossians, “Clothed in Christ.” Those being baptized can wear white because of Jesus’ purity and holiness, not because of their own. The same is true for those of us standing at the altar on Sunday.  

Next I put on the stole, a sign of my office as a priest and finally a chasuble, the poncho-like outer garment. Both of these show that my role here is what matters more than me and say my own clothing preferences. I dress for the role of priest in the colors of the season and in the symbols of the Christian faith.  

My job as priest does not place me over the congregation, but it does place me in the center of the congregation. I am in the midst as ringleader, a role in which I am still just the stand in. The one truly at the center of our life as a congregation is Jesus. The one who is both the gate and the shepherd. Jesus is the one who knows you by name and whose voice you are to come to recognize before all others. 

I have gone to the trouble of talking about the role of pastor, because Jesus words in this 10^th chapter of John are, like the words of Ezekiel, directed at shepherds who have not been doing their job. If we were to read this passage in its context, we would have just read of Jesus healing a man born blind. In the words immediately before our reading for today we read this,

Then Jesus told him, “I have come to judge the world. I have come to give sight to the blind and to show those who think they see that they are blind.” The Pharisees who were standing there heard him and asked, “Are you saying we are blind?” “If you were blind, you wouldn't be guilty,” Jesus replied. “But you remain guilty because you claim you can see.” 

So our verses about the gate and the shepherd are addressed to these same teachers who Jesus sees as blind guides leading others astray. One scholar has also noted[1] that John gives us the timing of these words as between the feasts of tabernacles and the fest of the dedication of the temple. During that time of the Jewish year, the reading from the prophet in the synagogue is the passage from Ezekiel I quoted from earlier. Jesus is working from the scripture reading of the synagogue and showing how these teachers are like the bad shepherds Ezekiel condemned, while he has come to be the promised Good Shepherd. 

Jesus knows his sheep by name. By the way, this is not just giving human qualities to sheep. Palestinian shepherds did and do know their sheep by name. While they don’t give them names like “Fluffy” or “Snowball,” the shepherds do know their sheep by name with names like “long ears” and “white nose.”[2]  

In Hebrew thought, a name conveyed the essence of a person. To know someone by name is to know them as they really are. The shepherds know very well the sheep with whom they spend both their days and nights. In the same way, Jesus knows you, each of you by name, knowing your very essence. 

There is another detail of Palestinian shepherd life important to our reading for this morning. Shepherds would sleep at the door to the sheepfold to protect their sheep. The shepherd served as the gate through which one can enter and leave the fold. This is the image Jesus presents of himself, the faithful shepherd who sleeps across the entrance to the sheep fold, putting his own life in danger to protect yours.  

God had told Ezekiel long ago,  

“I myself will tend my sheep and cause them to lie down in peace, says the Sovereign Lord. I will search for my lost ones who strayed away, and I will bring them safely home again. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak.” 

Jesus fulfills that promise. In his ministry, Jesus searched out the lost and the hurting. He saved his harsh words for those like he is addressing in the reading who he saw as the self righteous ones who were leading others astray. For them he brought judgment, naming them as those who are on the side of the one who comes to steal, kill and destroy. In place of which, Jesus says, “I have come that they may have life and have it abundantly.” 

So if I am just the stand in, the poor substitute for Jesus, then how can you be fed? It works only if I stick to Jesus’ words rather than my own. You are to listen to my words and if they ring true with the words of Jesus’ in scripture, then you know that it is Jesus’ voice you hear. When I get off just talking about things that come from Frank, you’ll know it because those are the most forgettable parts of what I say.  

You see this whole process works because what we do here on Sundays doesn’t rely on me alone, not by a long shot. We come to worship God and in that worship we encounter God in Word and Sacrament. The Holy Spirit is the one who does the real teaching.  

Here’s what I mean. An African student came to the United States to get a Masters degree at an American seminary. While there, he came to love his theology professor. So later, when the African pastor had returned home, it put him in a bind. The professor wanted to come to visit his African student. This pastor knew what would happen when the theology professor came. His congregation would want to hear this great theologian and the theology professor would want to preach. The problem was that the theology professor was just that, a theology professor, and he was given to giving talks on dense theological subjects.  

There was no way around it. The professor came to Africa and while there he preached. That Sunday, the professor took to the pulpit and his former student stood nearby to translate for the Swahili speaking congregation. The professor began, “There are two great Epistemological theories in the world today.” The African pastor paused just a beat and translated, “Let me tell you about my friend, Jesus.” And so the sermon went. The professor expounded his views on Epistemology and the African pastor told the congregation about his friend Jesus. All agreed it was an amazing sermon. 

You see, that is how the role of stand in works, or more importantly, why it works. Every preacher does their best to pray through the scripture and prepare to feed their flock from God’s word. Then despite our best efforts, we take to the pulpit and in our own ways we blow it. In essence we say, “There are two great epistemological views in the world today.” The only reason it works is that God handles the translation and the Holy Spirit whispers in your ear, ‘Let me tell you about my friend, Jesus.” 

I am a pastor. Jesus is the Good Shepherd. I preach and teach and he arranges for the Holy Spirit to translate. It is so much better this way than if I were your shepherd alone. For Jesus is the one who knows you by name. Jesus is the one who is teaching you his voice so that you never stray after another. Jesus is the one who is both shepherd and gate and Jesus came that you may have life and have it abundantly, for… 

Alleluia, Christ is risen.
The Lord is risen indeed, Alleluia. 

Amen.