The Lamb as Our Shepherd

4th Sunday of Easter – C                                                                   LSB #’s 435, 540:1-4; 540:5-6
Text – Revelation 7:17
 
For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, & He will guide them to springs of living water, & God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. 
 
THE LAMB AS OUR SHEPHERD
 
 
In the Ozark mountains there’s a well-worn riddle that begins, “What makes more noise than a pig  stuck under a fence?”    The too obvious  answer is, “Two pigs  stuck under a fence.” 
What have you been squealing about  these past few days?   Have you gotten anyone to join you  in your squealing?   As the saying goes, “Misery loves company.”  People of like minds love to gather & complain about the injustice of their lives.   However, few of us would choose to brag about the complaining we do. 
What would we learn  if we put a body camera on any of us for seven days?   I’m sure we’d be surprised  by the amount of squealing we do.   The effects of sin in this life often leave us  like pigs  stuck under a fence.   We need someone to rescue us,  & while shepherds are normally associated with sheep,  if you are a pig stuck under a fence,  you need a shepherd too. 
Unlike those in the Left Behind tradition, our denomination does not view Revelation as a book  primarily about predicting an earthly future.   In Revelation,  we see John painting a picture  for people who are like two pigs  stuck under a fence.   John writes  for people who cannot rescue themselves.  He writes for people waiting until the shepherd rescues them. 
St. John’s vision was penned  not to decipher our surroundings  but to help Christians in his day  as they struggled in difficult times & culture.   From Rome on down,  life was hard with ungodly values promoted  by society.   Take heart, John says, for this, too, shall pass,  & God will hold His own  in His hand.   Chapters 4-7 have as their theme – the Church  in tribulation. 
During these chapters, six seals have been opened & they’ve introduced horrifying scenes
that could have melted John’s heart like wax.  There’s been revealed the red horse of slaughter,  the black horse of poverty & injustice,  the pale horse  of Death.  Now, between seal number six & seven, there’s an interlude.  John gets to take a breather & he sees two scenes,  both of which are meant to bring comfort. 
It’s not that John  doesn’t know about suffering in this life.  He’s seen His Lord & Savior brutally tortured & then nailed to a cross.  He’s aware that all his fellow Apostles have suffered death for proclaiming the name of Jesus. 
Since the Son of God is  the Truth,   Christianity  is not a Pollyanna religion that reveals only the glories of heaven.   Revelation was written to set those glories of heaven  in an honest context,  one that also reveals the trials & tribulations of this red, black & pale horse life  that we experience.   St. Paul writes of that in the reading from Acts 20:
“And now, behold,  I am going to Jerusalem,  constrained by the Spirit,  not knowing what will happen to me there,  except  that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city  that imprisonment & afflictions  await me.”  (20:22-23 ESV)   Prior to his conversion, St. Paul was one of the people administering to Christians  imprisonment & affliction.
It takes a strong sense of the glories to come  to travel from city to city  knowing that imprisonment & affliction is waiting at each turn.   It would be cruel & inhumane to knowingly send people on a mission  without warning them of the dangerous context.   That’s why these words of Jesus are so well known:
“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace.  In the world you will have tribulation.  But take heart; I have overcome the world.”  (John 16:33 ESV)   There are plenty of earthly shepherds offering to guide us through this life.  Jesus promises  that in Him  we will have peace  no matter our circumstances of trial & tribulation.  He is offering to be our shepherd in a world that is very twisted & inhumane.   Yes, there is plenty  in this life  to complain about.   On account of that, John offers the words of the sermon text: “For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, & He will guide them to springs of living water, & God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”  (Revelation 7:17 ESV)   
No earthly leader can wipe away every tear.   Many Christians despise president Trump even though  they have never met him.  Some refuse to acknowledge that he is their president.  An equal number of Christians despised  president Biden  even though  they had never met him.   Some of them  refused to acknowledge that he was their president. 
Many of the negative opinions toward our earthly leaders  are the fault of those sinful human beings.  However, many of those negative opinions are also the fault of the sinful people who hold those negative opinions.   After all, it was the official church of Jesus’ day  that condemned Him to death.  Religious people are anything but  immune from sin. 
St. John, in this book of Revelation, is painting a picture of a very  different leader – a Lamb who is the perfect shepherd.  Everyone in heaven loves & worships this shepherd because He sacrificed His own life  in place of theirs.   John’s Gospel gives an overview of leadership that is qualitatively different  than any earthly leader or US president  could ever supply:
“My sheep hear my voice, & I know them, & they follow me.  I give them eternal life, & they will never perish, & no one will snatch them out of my hand.”  (John 10:27-28 ESV)    In this life there will be tribulation,  but even now,  not even Satan can snatch us out of the hand of our Lord & Savior.  In the next life,  Satan will have zero ability even to tempt any of God’s children. 
Today, when you feel like a pig stuck under a fence,  instead of squealing,  you can say a prayer.   Then your Shepherd will guide & comfort you,  even if He doesn’t release you immediately.  We never have to go it alone, though Satan often tempts us with that depressing thought.  Life here  always involves tribulation – not the least of which we experience as the internal battle between our sinful & saintly natures.   Life in tribulation is not easy.  It hurts.  Tears result.  The struggle, the agony of life in tribulation, must not be minimized, even though Jesus is already our shepherd even now. 
In heaven,  you will never find yourself stuck under a fence.  Misery will no longer love company  because there’ll be no misery for anyone.   There’ll be no squealing in heaven.  There will be an endless, uncountable crowd  yet God will tenderly give individual attention to gently wipe away any tears from every saint’s eye.  
The text from Revelation lifts our eyes off of the trials & tribulations of this life to a scene too glorious for words.  This was written to encourage Christians who were suffering persecution in the days of St. John two thousand years ago.  The Holy Spirit is still working through this text  today  to encourage you & me in our struggles & challenges. 
There is a better & far more glorious day  to come,  & it is a gift to us from our heavenly Father. 
“After this I looked, & behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes & peoples & languages, standing before the throne & before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, & crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, & to the Lamb!’”  (Revelation 7:9-10 ESV)
Amen. 
 
Christ,  the Word of God incarnate,  Lord & Son of Abraham;  Christ, the radiance of the Father,  perfect God, the great I AM;  Christ, the light,  You shine unvanquished,  light & life You bring to all;  light our path with Your presence,  grant us grace to heed Your call.    Christ, our good & faithful shepherd,  watching all Your lambs & sheep;  Christ, the gate that guards the sheepfold,  never failing vigil keep.   When we stray, Good Shepherd, seek us,  find us,  lift us,  bear us home;  Lamb of God, our shepherd keep us;  let us hear Your voice alone.  Amen.  LSB 540:1, 4.