+ 3rd Sunday of Pentecost – June 14th, 2026 +
Series A: Exodus 19:2-8; Romans 5:6-15; Matthew 9:35-10:8
Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church
Milton, WA
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
There’s a danger they don’t warn you about when you go to the Puyallup Fair. And I don’t mean eating too many fair scones or horking down one too many elephant ears before riding the tilt-a-whirl.
What I mean is … we go the fair and see the baby goats, the piglets, and especially the little lambs and sheeps and think…aww, how adorable. They’re so cute. Cuddly. Let’s bring a few home.
And those little sheeps certainly are cute and cuddly. But that’s not all they are. Left on their own sheep do sheep things. Jump fences. Break fences. Wander off into holes. Get stuck in the same hole again and again. Sheep are prone to wander. Sometimes rather dumb. Often full of dingleberries. Smelly. Stubborn. And downright helpless.
It doesn’t take a seasoned farmer to tell you that sheep need a shepherd.
And this is precisely why Jesus comes – not to help those who will help themselves. But to help the helpless. To seek, search out, and save the lost. To eat and drink with sinners and tax collectors and forgive them. To travel the Judean countryside, in villages and cities, over hill and dale, preaching the gospel not to for the healthy, but the sick. Not to the whole and the holy, but to the broken and the unclean. To the lost sheep of the house of Israel. For lost sheep from the fields of the gentiles. For you and me.
When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
When Jesus looks over the crowds he’s also looking out over the fields of Scripture.
He saw Moses, near the end of his life, and appointed Joshua to shepherd his people out of the wilderness and into the promised land.
He saw the days of the Judges where everyone tried to be their own shepherd and do what was right in their own eyes.
He saw David taken from the fields and flocks to shepherd Israel, only to crash and burn in lust and murder and the death of his firstborn.
He saw the days of the divided kingdom, where wicked kings like Ahab led his sheep astray to feed on idols who fed, instead, on their souls, and Israel was scattered on the mountain sides.
He saw the days of the shepherd prophets of Ezekiel and Zechariah, who witnessed God’s holy flock of Israel fleeced by false teachers, food for demons, and lost in their own idolatry. Afflicted for a lack of a shepherd.
He sees us as well. Left on our own we are sheep that have gone astray. We wander into weeds and wickedness. We drink from poisonous wells of desire. We herd around our favorite idols. We smell of sin. We’re stubborn. Lost. And downright helpless. We need a shepherd.
Sometimes when you need a job done right you have to do it yourself. So that’s what God does. Because what we need only he can do. Sheep can’t rescue themselves. Feed themselves. Lead or live by themselves. Sheep need a Shepherd.
So God becomes the Shepherd all the shepherds of old have pointed to. He is Moses but greater for his mountain thunders not with the Law but with liberation and forgiveness. He is Joshua but greater for his promised land is not in Canaan, but a new creation.
He is the Judges of Israel but greater for does what is right in the Father’s eyes by going to the cross to deliver you.
He is David but greater for his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom built on his death and resurrection.
He is the Shepherd-King long foretold who comes to deliver, rescue, redeem, to seek and to save the lost.
So it’s no accident that when God comes down as our Shepherd he does it in the most unimaginable, unexpected way of all:
From you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means keast amon the rulers of Judah, for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.
He becomes the little. The lowly. The last. The helpless, yet holy infant. Jesus becomes the friend of sinners. The Shepherd whose hands heal, whose words give life, whose life is laid down, not for the sheep without blemish – there’s only one and he’s the one – but for you and me.
For while we were still sinners – stinking, stubborn, stuck in our own sheepish way, sinners – at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. For you. For me. Our Good Shepherd shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for is.
We, God’s sheep, have a Shepherd. The Good Shepherd. The Gracious Shepherd.
This is the gospel of the Kingdom of our Shepherd King: Here is rescue for you who were lost.
Here is outrageous forgiveness for undeserving sinners.
Here is healing for the sick. Resurrection from the dead. Grace and mercy for the unlovable and undeserving. Here is the Shepherd who seeks, gathers, and tends his sheep by laying down his life for you.
This shepherd speaks and you hear his voice.
This is shepherd who’s goodness and mercy hound you all the days of your life.
The shepherd who washes you clean in the holy pools of baptism.
The shepherd who opens up the pasture of his word for you to feast on his promises
The shepherd who prepares a table of his body and blood to feed you his flock
The shepherd forgives, absolves, raises you from the dead, throws you on his shoulder, and rejoicing, carries you home to his sheepfold.
This same Shepherd, also places you, not into a flock of one, that’s nonsensical. But into a church. A family. A flock. He sends the Holy Spirit, his divine sheep-dog, to call, gather, enlighten, and holy you in all of his Shepherding grace and goodness.
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
