This Sunday is Good Shepherd Sunday. Notice the progression. First we deal with the details of the Easter accounts. So, Easter Sunday we heard of Christ's glorious resurrection. Eight days later we gathered again and heard about what happened when Christ showed Himself to Thomas eight days after the resurrection. Now that we've celebrated Christ's death and resurrection, we are in a position to understand what Jesus means when He says in John 10: 11, "I am the Good Shepherd."
What distinguishes the Good Shepherd? What are His credentials? He is the one who lays down is life for the sheep. No one else does this. Everyone else who promises to care for the sheep, are either thieves, hirelings, or wolves. Christ distinguishes Himself in that He lays down His life and then picks it back up again for the sake of His sheep.
As I was listening to another Lutheran pastor preach on this text I was made aware of this detail: because the hirelings don't care, and the wolf is intent on destroying the sheep, the sheep are scattered. Yet, notice that the sheep are still sheep. They are still God's elect children. Christ cares for them and seeks them out. However, for the time being we are still dealing with the fact that we are scattered and thus there are denominations. So on the one hand, we see that false teaching is a tragedy and it scatters the sheep, and therefore, we cannot abide by false teaching. On the other hand we acknowledge that no one denomination can boast, "All the sheep are in our fold" because it's not about us. It's about Christ who cares for His sheep.
Here is the link to the sermon that says it much better than I:
http://79456.info/axisdata/redeemer/audio/557.mp3
It's only 13 minutes, and well worth your time.
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