Dying for the sheep.

[DMHanke71]

“…the truly innovative motif in Gospel shepherd traditions: the shepherd’s intention to die for his sheep… The contrast between Jesus and others is drawn sharply: life for the predator entails death for the flock; life for the flock requires death for the shepherd. It is now clear that the shepherd in John’s gospel is also a sacrificial lamb.” (216)

This paradox was central to how Jesus saw himself as a shepherd. And, as Laniak repeatedly explained, Jesus expected his followers to shepherd like he shepherds. Thus, leading sheep will also entail dying for sheep.

What are some ways that our shepherding as pastor is also dying for those we lead?

We die for our sheep by choosing a different measure of compensation. We recognize that our salaries will come from gifts that people give to God and the work that He is doing through our church. Often our salaries will be public. They will almost always be lower than the median of our church community. As pastors, we recognize that there are brands of automobile that are off-limits to us. Our homes must be hospitable, clean, but not ostentatious. Now that I have been at my church for over 15 years, I am offered a generous number of weeks off each year and I know that I can never take all of that time away, because of my responsibilities to the sheep. We die for our sheep by having a different standard of compensation than what they use for themselves.

We die for our sheep by saying things from the pulpit, in our newsletters, and in our media platforms that they need to hear, but might not want said. We speak up for those who are marginalized, who feel like they have no voice, who wonder if they are seen. We point out idols that will always fail and disappoint us. We call for obedience to what the Scriptures teach about human sexuality and marriage even though fewer and fewer people want to believe it or practice it. We call for justice for the oppressed. We remind people that our eschatology determines our ethics and this short life is not the only life or even the most important life that we get. We die for our sheep by saying things they need to hear.

We die for our sheep by doing the hard work of reading and study when we would rather be meeting with people and pastoring their needs. It takes discipline to choose the study over the restaurant or coffee shop. If we labor on the things we will teach and preach, we will be able to have a wider impact with our words. But sometimes it’s more fun to have a cup of tea and talk about how life is going. We die for their gain when we choose to do the hard work of thinking clearly about ‘bridging the world and the Bible.’

I appreciated the way Laniak picked up this theme of dying for our sheep in the shepherding motifs of Revelation. “Self-sacrifice and authoritative rule both describe the Lamb…” (240) As shepherds we follow the lamb. “To follow the Lamb means to be, like him, a pure and blameless sacrifice.” (242) “Following the Lamb ultimately leads beyond death to an eternity serving the Lamb.” (243) We are shepherds who die for our sheep just like our shepherd died for us. This was Jesus’ instruction to Peter as He commissioned him to be a model shepherd. “Jesus was asking him both to follow him as Shepherd (feeding his sheep) and to follow him as sacrificial lamb.” (243)

It is both the honor of our calling and the crucible that most deeply shapes us. We die for our sheep so that they can follow their Good Shepherd.
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David Hanke
restorationarlington.org