Jesus wasn’t the Good Customer Service Rep…

(This is the sermon I preached for Sunday, May 3, 2020. You can find the entire service at www.ststephenlc.org and view previous services at www.ststephenlc.org/sermons.)

I’m not a big fan of Good Shepherd Sunday. There I said it.

When we say Good Shepherd Sunday, what often happens is that many people get this image in their head of a calming, soothing Jesus, holding a perfectly clean shining white lamb over his shoulders, with a smile on his face, who walks so carefully as to not unwittingly step on a bug in his path. A Jesus who wouldn’t possibly say or do anything that would make anyone upset. Certainly not a Jesus who would challenge our beliefs about money, our political beliefs, our stuff, and our responsibility towards others and the rest of creation. A Jesus that takes care of all of our needs and desires — all we have to do is ask and he’ll give us whatever we want. It’s precious moments Jesus. Too many turn Jesus the Good Shepherd into Jesus the Good Customer Service Rep.

There’s a term for this in theological studies — Eisegesis. Eisegesis is a subjective method of interpreting Scripture that introduces our own opinions into the original writings, focusing more on your own ideas and viewpoints, rather than what is there in the text and the context. We see this play out in a variety of ways in our culture. Just read anything Jesus says and all of a sudden people are making definitive declarations about whether Jesus would be a Democrat or Republican based on the text — as if…