
Easter 4 – Good Shepherd Sunday
05/12/25 • -1 min
Rev. Dr, Les Martin
Good Shepherd, Watanabe Sadao (1977)Easter 4 – Good Shepherd Sunday
Rev. Dr. Les Martin
Psalm 23, Revelation 7:9-17, Luke 10:22-29
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.
John 10:27
In the Name of the Living God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen
The book of Revelation is a kaleidoscope of images that keep changing and changing. The appearance of Jesus has also been changing: in chapters 1 through 4, we have Jesus the priest, teaching John and his 7 churches. In chapter 5, Jesus appears both as the Lion of Judah and the Lamb that was slain, the one who conquers by his own defeat. Today, in chapter 7, on this Good Shepherd Sunday, we hear that the Lamb is also the Shepherd of his people.
The idea of God as a shepherd was deeply embedded in the living faith of Israel, as seen in numerous Old Testament passages. It may be an unusual portrayal in our day and age, but it was electrifying for those who, after the resurrection, remembered how Jesus had spoken of himself: as a shepherd. For us, it is enough to remember that a shepherd is a person who tends, herds, feeds, or guards flocks of sheep. He leads them, and the sheep come out after him.
Another image looms large in our Revelation reading today: a gathering of people so vast that no one could possibly count it. Who are these people? Chapter 7, verse 4 has told us that 144,000 have come out from the tribes of Israel- eschatological Israel is much bigger. In John 10:16, Jesus had said that he had other sheep that he would bring into the fold, so that there would be one flock, one shepherd. Here, we see them: gathered from every nation and tribe and people and language, they retain their beautiful diversity but acknowledge only one allegiance. They have come out, leaving behind the identities and situations that once demanded their loyalty. No tribe, no country, no politics, or custom holds sway with them any longer, they answer only to the the voice of the Shepherd.
Where have these people come from? The elder answers John the Divine that ‘These are the ones who have come out of the great suffering.” We do well to take an expansive view of what this means. The 5th-century Archbishop Caesarius of Arles teaches us that:
These are not, as some think, only martyrs, but rather the whole people in the church. For it does not say that they washed their robes in their own blood but in the blood of the Lamb, that is, in the grace of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. As it is written, “And the blood of his Son has cleansed us.
All who have gone through the valley of the shadow of death with only the Shepherd as their comfort are here. All who have found themselves at his table- but have also found it set in the midst of their enemies are here. Martyrs, yes, but also the the poor in spirit, the grieving, the meek, and those tired of corruption, those who are merciful in an ugly world, pure in a perverse world, peacemakers in a world of war, the persecuted, the insulted, those gossiped and lied about- all are here.
Why are they here? Because of the Lamb, who is their Shepherd. It is he who has called them out of the great suffering. The garments of their lives have been stained in the world of sin and death. The sin and death done unto them, done by them. Washed in the blood of the Lamb- washed in Baptism- they suffer no more and are now before the throne of God, serving him day and night in his temple as a kingdom of priests.
What are these people like now? The short answer is this: they are just fine. Having endured the valley of the shadow of death, now all that they have suffered is past. Hear the words of the prophet Isaiah:
You will say to the prisoners, ‘Come out,’
and to those who are in dark dungeons, ‘Emerge.’
They will graze beside the roads;
on all the slopes they will find pasture.
They will not be hungry or thirsty;
the sun’s oppressive heat will not beat down on them,
for one who has compassion on them will guide them;
he will lead them to springs of water. (Isaiah 49:9-10)
There is perhaps one final question we need to consider as we reflect on our Revelation reading today: What difference does it make for you and me? Or, more plainly, so what?
Let’s start with some Greek: the Greek word “ekklesia,” meaning church, is derived from two other Greek words “ek” (meaning “out”) and “kaleo” (meaning “to call”). The church, then, is “the called out ones.” The church is the sheep who are called out and led by the Shepherd.
One of the problems in looking at Revelation- as a result of how our culture reads it, I think- is that we see it solely in terms of the future. We can read this lesson and say “Oh, look what happens for those people. Good for them.” We forget, beloved, that those people we see in Revelation chapter 7 are the church – those people are us....
Rev. Dr, Les Martin
Good Shepherd, Watanabe Sadao (1977)Easter 4 – Good Shepherd Sunday
Rev. Dr. Les Martin
Psalm 23, Revelation 7:9-17, Luke 10:22-29
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.
John 10:27
In the Name of the Living God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen
The book of Revelation is a kaleidoscope of images that keep changing and changing. The appearance of Jesus has also been changing: in chapters 1 through 4, we have Jesus the priest, teaching John and his 7 churches. In chapter 5, Jesus appears both as the Lion of Judah and the Lamb that was slain, the one who conquers by his own defeat. Today, in chapter 7, on this Good Shepherd Sunday, we hear that the Lamb is also the Shepherd of his people.
The idea of God as a shepherd was deeply embedded in the living faith of Israel, as seen in numerous Old Testament passages. It may be an unusual portrayal in our day and age, but it was electrifying for those who, after the resurrection, remembered how Jesus had spoken of himself: as a shepherd. For us, it is enough to remember that a shepherd is a person who tends, herds, feeds, or guards flocks of sheep. He leads them, and the sheep come out after him.
Another image looms large in our Revelation reading today: a gathering of people so vast that no one could possibly count it. Who are these people? Chapter 7, verse 4 has told us that 144,000 have come out from the tribes of Israel- eschatological Israel is much bigger. In John 10:16, Jesus had said that he had other sheep that he would bring into the fold, so that there would be one flock, one shepherd. Here, we see them: gathered from every nation and tribe and people and language, they retain their beautiful diversity but acknowledge only one allegiance. They have come out, leaving behind the identities and situations that once demanded their loyalty. No tribe, no country, no politics, or custom holds sway with them any longer, they answer only to the the voice of the Shepherd.
Where have these people come from? The elder answers John the Divine that ‘These are the ones who have come out of the great suffering.” We do well to take an expansive view of what this means. The 5th-century Archbishop Caesarius of Arles teaches us that:
These are not, as some think, only martyrs, but rather the whole people in the church. For it does not say that they washed their robes in their own blood but in the blood of the Lamb, that is, in the grace of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. As it is written, “And the blood of his Son has cleansed us.
All who have gone through the valley of the shadow of death with only the Shepherd as their comfort are here. All who have found themselves at his table- but have also found it set in the midst of their enemies are here. Martyrs, yes, but also the the poor in spirit, the grieving, the meek, and those tired of corruption, those who are merciful in an ugly world, pure in a perverse world, peacemakers in a world of war, the persecuted, the insulted, those gossiped and lied about- all are here.
Why are they here? Because of the Lamb, who is their Shepherd. It is he who has called them out of the great suffering. The garments of their lives have been stained in the world of sin and death. The sin and death done unto them, done by them. Washed in the blood of the Lamb- washed in Baptism- they suffer no more and are now before the throne of God, serving him day and night in his temple as a kingdom of priests.
What are these people like now? The short answer is this: they are just fine. Having endured the valley of the shadow of death, now all that they have suffered is past. Hear the words of the prophet Isaiah:
You will say to the prisoners, ‘Come out,’
and to those who are in dark dungeons, ‘Emerge.’
They will graze beside the roads;
on all the slopes they will find pasture.
They will not be hungry or thirsty;
the sun’s oppressive heat will not beat down on them,
for one who has compassion on them will guide them;
he will lead them to springs of water. (Isaiah 49:9-10)
There is perhaps one final question we need to consider as we reflect on our Revelation reading today: What difference does it make for you and me? Or, more plainly, so what?
Let’s start with some Greek: the Greek word “ekklesia,” meaning church, is derived from two other Greek words “ek” (meaning “out”) and “kaleo” (meaning “to call”). The church, then, is “the called out ones.” The church is the sheep who are called out and led by the Shepherd.
One of the problems in looking at Revelation- as a result of how our culture reads it, I think- is that we see it solely in terms of the future. We can read this lesson and say “Oh, look what happens for those people. Good for them.” We forget, beloved, that those people we see in Revelation chapter 7 are the church – those people are us....
Previous Episode

Easter 3 – Who Can Open the Seals?
Rev. Doug Floyd
Adoration of the Mystic Lamb from Ghent Altarpiece by Hubert and Jan Van Ecyk (1432)Easter 3 2025
Rev. Doug Floyd
Revelation 5
John is weeping. He is not simply choked up. He is trembling. He is grieving. He is writhing with the grief of all creation because no one was found worthy to open the scroll.
Why weep over a sealed scroll?
Joseph Mangina writes, “If the scroll remains locked under its seven seals, there is finally no redemption, no relief for history’s victims, no salvation for the Jews, no hope for the Gentiles.”[1] Imagine a world with no justice. No hope of redemption. No righting of wrongs. Nothing but blind power and destruction.
If we look around our planet today, we see many places where it seems that justice took the last train out of town. A trail of broken lives in the shadow.
I was in college when Bono belted out,
“I can’t believe the news today
Oh, I can’t close my eyes and make it go away
How long, how long must we sing this song?
How long? How long?”[2]
He is crying out in the midst of the troubles, the bloodbath between Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland: specific the bloodbath in 1972 when British Soldiers fired on unarmed civilians. As the song progresses, he joins his grief to the grief of the nations,
“And it’s true we are immune
When fact is fiction and TV reality
And today the millions cry (Sunday, Bloody Sunday)
We eat and drink while tomorrow they die (Sunday, Bloody Sunday)
The real battle just begun (Sunday, Bloody Sunday)
To claim the victory Jesus won (Sunday, Bloody Sunday)
On Sunday, Bloody Sunday, yeah
Sunday, Bloody Sunday”
Again and again the refrain echoes,
How long, how long must we sing this song?
This is the kind of grief we hearing in the Revelation 5.
The Revelation of Jesus Christ tells the story of a world gone wrong. We read about the Horseman of the Apocalypse: Pestilence, War, Famine, and Death. These dread judges have been riding over the world since Cain killed Abel. The earth cries out under the shed blood.
Bono has joined his voice with John, who weeps before the throne. Sin and death encircle our planet. The nations reel under the weight. If we pay attention, we hear these cries all through Israel’s history. The prophets speak of the horrific fall of the nations. Their grief is so great that they even lament for Israel’s enemies.
Jeremiah cries out, “Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!” [3]
Bob Dylan sings,
“I was born here, and I’ll die here against my will
I know it looks like I’m movin’, but I’m standin’ still
Every nerve in my body is so naked and numb
I can’t even remember what it was I came here to get away from
Don’t even hear the murmur of a prayer
It’s not dark yet, but it’s gettin’ there”[4]
Artists help me feel my way into the ache of Revelation 5. We must come face to face and heart to heart with this grief before we can continue reading. The Scripture tells the story of the absolute collapse of humanity under the weight of sin and death. Israel reveals to us, our brokenness and exile into the land of shadows.
I make a habit of reading the news of the world, so I can pray for the nations. It is painful. Where is justice? Where is love? Why do so many people suffer? And why do I live in this land of abundance?
Even as John encounters the Lord of glory, he has seen some of his closest friends and relatives killed for the Gospel. It keeps happening. Todd Johnson, Professor of Global Christianity and Missions at Gordon Conwell estimates that 70 million Christians have been martyred over the last two thousand years.
Now get this: over half of those martyred, over half, were killed in the 20th century.
Is our world getting better? Unthinkable.
We join our tears and our cries with John. Who can open the scroll?
One of the elders speaks to John and to us, “Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.” [5]
The conquering King has arrived. He will set the world to rights. As John hears this voice of the elders, now he sees: 6 And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.[6]
The Lion of Judah is the Lamb ...
Next Episode

Easter 5 – The Revelation 19
Rev. Doug Floyd
Christ Pantocrator of St. Catherine’s Monastery, Mount Sinai (6th Century)Easter 5 2025
Rev. Doug Floyd
Revelation 19
Kelly and I were talking the other night about her job. She’s worked with the same company for many years. During that time, she’s come in contact and befriended people throughout the organization. She told she’s seen many people who once were passionate about their work have grown weary. They’ve lost their joy.
I kept thinking of a B.B. King song about the joy being gone. Then I found it. The song is actually, “The Thrill is Gone.” It’s about a love relationship gone sour. The woman has cheated on the man. Now the thrill of this relationship is gone, and he faces a life of loneliness. I told Kelly, “Well, you just gave me my sermon for Sunday on Revelation 19.”
B.B. King’s song “The Thrill is Gone” reminds me of a B.B. King collaboration with U2, “When Love Comes to Town.” And this is Revelation 19 all the way. It makes me think about the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. But more on that later.
Let me back up a bit and look at our text. Revelation 19 is a completion of the narrative from Revelation 17-18. Last week, we read from Revelation 7. Our lectionary jumps from chapter 7 to chapter 19. We miss all the weird stuff: peals of thunder, flashes of lightning, earthquake, hail, fire, blood, a star falling from heaven, locusts with the power of scorpions coming out of the smoke from a bottomless pit, two witnesses, a beast that kills the witnesses, a pregnant woman clothed with the sun, and a dragon waiting to devour the baby when he is born. We’re just getting started on the weird stuff.
Now if you are interested in the details of these strange stories, we will be exploring them in our study of Eugune Peterson’s book, “Reversed Thunder.”
We’ll jump past most of that to one last strange image. In chapter 17, we see a prostitute or the Great Whore riding a beast with many blasphemous names. The beast has seven heads and ten horns. This woman is named Babylon, and she has a perverse chalice where she drinks the blood of saints. A mockery of our communion.
The ten horns and ten kings join with the beast to devour the Great Whore. We hear the refrain,
Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great!
She has become a dwelling place for demons,
a haunt for every unclean spirit,
a haunt for every unclean bird,
a haunt for every unclean and detestable beast.
3 For all nations have drunk
the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality,
and the kings of the earth have committed immorality with her,
and the merchants of the earth have grown rich from the power of her luxurious living.” [1]
The kings and merchants and sailors and people of the earth cry out in agony at her destruction, but the saints rejoice. The Great Whore, Babylon is judged and the Bride of Christ has made herself ready for the marriage Supper of the Lamb. This gets us to today’s text in chapter 19,
“Hallelujah!
Salvation and glory and power belong to our God,
2 for his judgments are true and just;
for he has judged the great prostitute
who corrupted the earth with her immorality,
and has avenged on her the blood of his servants.” [2]
Now before we go forward, we need to go backwards. After this, hopefully you’ll see why Kelly’s story about work connects with Revelation 19.
The Great Whore is named Babylon. We recognize the name Babylon for the nation that destroyed Jerusalem and took the people captive to Babylon. The little nation of Judah is taken captive by a great and powerful war machine. Babylon makes its wealth through destruction of smaller, weaker tribal groups.
The sheer size of the city and its monuments would have been overwhelming and intimidating to the Jews. The leaders of Judah turned away from the true worship of the Lord and were seduced away by the gods of other nations. The judgment for their idolatry is captivity in a land of idolatry: Babylon. In Babylon, the captives cry out,
By the waters of Babylon,
there we sat down and wept,
when we remembered Zion.
2 On the willows there
we hung up our lyres.
3 For there our captors
required of us songs,
and our tormentors, mirth, saying,
“Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”
4 How shall we sing the Lord’s song
in a foreign land?
5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
let my right hand forget its skill!
6 Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth,
if I do not remember you,
if I do not set Jerusalem
above my highest joy!
7 Remember, O Lord, against ...
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