Laid Down

Fourth Sunday of Easter
St. John's Lutheran Church, Alexandria, VA
John 10:11-18 (Psalm 23; Acts 4:1-22; 1 John 3:11-24)

“Laid Down”

Lay it down.

Have you felt weary? Weariness is more than just being tired. It’s different from the fatigue that you would feel at the end of a long day. It’s longer-lasting than the drowsiness that sneaks up on you after a big meal. Weariness comes when you’re drained and worn out, dried up or run down. But weariness doesn’t come out of nowhere, does it? There’s always something that comes before. Sometimes that something is a struggle. Sometimes that something is a desire.

A couple of weeks ago, North Korea launched a missile that many observers believed to be a test of their nuclear attack capabilities. If you’ve followed any of the news reports around that launch, you’ve heard that it seemed to be a pretty complete failure. I suppose that the leaders of North Korea would say – should they ever admit to working on a weapons program – that they’re looking to defend their nation and guard their people from the threats of the outside world. It’s all about the struggle for self-preservation and they’re just looking to even the odds. That claim might not hold water in view of the immediate needs of the North Korean populace, yet still time and resources are poured into that grasping for power on the international stage. Most every country is the same, though, as each one seeks self-preservation. That struggle leads to conflict and, sometimes, war. The struggle for self-preservation makes for a weary world. Lay it down.

We don’t need to look beyond our borders for other causes of weariness. Just this past Thursday night, the NBC comedy “30 Rock” went live. Since they needed to do two shows, one for the eastern time zones and another for the western ones, they changed up some of the elements after the first broadcast. At a certain point early in the show, a celebrity made a cameo appearance while interacting with the characters on set. The East Coast broadcast brought on someone that I recognized pretty easily, Sir Paul McCartney. The West Coast show featured an altogether different kind of celebrity, Kim Kardashian. (I must admit that I don’t know much about the Kardashians – I had to look up just which one she was.) Ms. Kardashian’s fame, as far as I can tell, comes from being famous. And while I haven’t quite comprehended just how that works, the desire for this kind of fame seems to have become very much a part of our culture. People desire recognition and so pour time and resources into self-promotion in the hopes of getting to a better place in life. But once they attain even a bit of that through such means, what next? The desire that fuels self-promotion can’t truly be satisfied by what it seeks. It ultimately leaves the seeker longing and lacking fulfillment: weary. Lay it down.

Have self-preservation and self-promotion lead you to weariness in your life? You’re probably not looking to be famous – and I hope you don’t feel the need to test missiles in your backyard! Even in small ways, though, each of us feels the tug of the desire that other people would recognize just how great we are. Each of us knows the effects of the struggle for self-preservation, whether it’s trying to just stay afloat in school or at work, keeping up with the chores around the house, or just managing your health on a day-to-day basis. In our world, you have you watch out for yourself, because who else is going to care enough to do that for you? Who else would step up to defend you against harm or say that yes, you are worth their time and effort? If you need someone like that, you’re in the right place. Lay it down.

This weekend marking the Fourth Sunday of Easter is known as Good Shepherd Sunday. The day takes its name from our Gospel reading in John 10 where Jesus calls himself the good shepherd. Why is he “good?” He’s willing to lay down his life for the sheep under his care. It’s not that this shepherd is suicidal. He’s not just going to throw himself off a cliff and leave his flock undefended. No, this good shepherd is one who stands and defends the helpless, even sacrificing himself to wipe out the force that threatens them, because they are worth that much to him. And that’s just what Jesus has done: he laid down his life for a world in need. But what’s more, Jesus goes on to tell us that he will lay down his life so that he may take it up again. You see, the resurrection was part of God’s plan all along! Jesus laid down his life for you, and Jesus took up his life for you. He is the good shepherd who continues to care for his sheep.

Each of today’s Scripture readings points to the nature and implications of Jesus’ love for us as our Good Shepherd. Peter and John point to it as they speak to the ruling Council. Those rulers and elders knew all about self-preservation and self-promotion. That’s what led them to arrest and crucify Jesus, since they didn’t want him disrupting things with the Romans or endangering their authority with the people. And now his disciples were doing the same, telling everyone that Jesus had risen from the dead. They obviously didn’t care about self-preservation, and they were promoting Jesus as God’s promised Messiah. They couldn’t refute the disciples, though, since the once-lame beggar that they had healed was there, walking and jumping up and down praising God! The members of the Council had to lay down their charges and let the disciples go.

Later in his life, that same apostle John sent the letter we read to Christian congregations to encourage them to live in love as people of the resurrection. Jesus, John wrote, laid down his life out of love for us. This love is more than a feeling. It is action and not just emotion. Love, true love, is self-giving. The Good Shepherd’s love is the opposite of self-preservation and self-promotion. Jesus laid down his life and set aside his glory as the eternal Son so that you and I and the world might live. This self-giving love between the Father and the Son makes salvation possible, nothing else. We have nothing to lay down before God but our burdens and sins, our weariness. He picks all that up and puts it on the cross with Jesus. The Father sent His son to lay down his life to save us and to take it up again to lead us.

One of the most familiar and reassuring of the psalms, Psalm 23 speaks to just how good the Good Shepherd is to us. With God as your shepherd leading you through life, you do not lack. Rather than pouring time and energy into self-preservation and self-promotion, you can look to God’s provision for what you truly need. Jesus calls you to rest in his care, in faith and trust. In those places in life where you know weariness on your own, the Good Shepherd calls you to turn and rest in him. He who laid down his life for you will lay you down besides the waters of stillness and rejuvenation that flow from him. Jesus, the Good Shepherd, restores us to life. Jesus, the Good Shepherd, leads us in life. Jesus, the Good Shepherd, accompanies us through life. He feeds us with better food than we could ever make for ourselves. He even pursues us as his flock when we’re straying off on our own. He lays us down.

Today, the apostle John reminds us that those who would live in the self-giving love of the Good Shepherd – people known as Christians – are meant to live out God’s love for one another. That is who we are as members of Jesus’ flock. Rather than running ourselves down in the work of self-preservation or drying up our energies in the never-ending cycle of self-promotion, you and I can lay down our burdens in order to lift up our fellow believers. Our focus turns from “self” to “other.” Here at St. John’s, one of the ways that we live that our is through our ministry of Congregational Care, which includes the Helping Hands fund through which we who have can give to those in our fellowship who are in times of need.

What burden are you carrying today? What has led you into weariness in your life? Lay it down. Your Good Shepherd is here for you now and always. Rest in faith and trust. Lay down in his care.

Amen.