There Will Be a New Shepherd in Town—Lectionary Reflection for Christ the King Sunday, Year C (Jeremiah 23)

Jeremiah 23:1-6 New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

23 Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! says the Lord. ² Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who shepherd my people: It is you who have scattered my flock and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. So I will attend to you for your evil doings, says the Lord. ³ Then I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the lands where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. ⁴ I will raise up shepherds over them who will shepherd them, and they shall no longer fear or be dismayed, nor shall any be missing, says the Lord.

⁵ The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. ⁶ In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will live in safety. And this is the name by which he will be called: “The Lord is our righteousness.”

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                When you read through 1 and 2 Kings and the two books of Chronicles, you will discover that the kings of Israel and Judah, more often than not, were deficient in their leadership. There were occasionally good kings, such as Hezekiah and Josiah, but their children usually turned out to be bad leaders. Ultimately, both kingdoms, which were born out of the split that followed Solomon’s reign, would fall. First, Israel fell in the eighth century BCE, and then Judah fell in the sixth century. The northern kingdom of Israel never reemerged, and the southern kingdom didn’t really ever recover. However, there was a brief restoration of the monarchy in the second century BCE under the Hasmoneans, but they were never truly accepted because they were not of the Davidic line. Jeremiah offered rather harsh rebukes to Josiah’s successors before their fall. But he offered hope of some kind of restoration, which is what we see here. There is a rebuke of the leadership (shepherds) along with the promise of a Righteous Branch, who would “execute justice and righteousness in the land.” Of course, that promised Davidic king never appeared, even though the exile in Babylon would end with the Persian conquest of the Babylonian kingdom.  

                This passage appears on Christ the King/Reign of Christ Sunday because Christians have turned to it through the centuries to interpret the ministry of Jesus, who is understood to be both righteous and a member of the Davidic line. When we use this passage to speak of Jesus, we need to acknowledge that we are appropriating a passage that Jews would interpret very differently. Jews would not speak of Jesus in messianic terms. With that said, we can work with the passage, recognizing that this is a secondary application, such that Christians might understand Jesus to be the righteous branch who executes justice and righteousness.

                While the reference to the promise of a restoration of the Davidic monarchy plays a central role in the interpretation of this reading, the opening section that speaks to the problem of unrighteous shepherds needs to be addressed as well. It was the bad shepherds (kings) who ruled Judah that got the nation in trouble in the first place. Bad shepherds lead to bad outcomes, as history continually proves. In Jeremiah’s view, the decisions made by Judah’s shepherds (kings) —three in particular, the sons of Josiah, Jehoiakim and Jehoiachin, along with their uncle, Zedekiah, the last Davidic monarch— contributed to the chaos that led to the destruction of Jerusalem, the fall of the monarchy, and the subsequent exiles. Jeremiah tells the people that these shepherds have “scattered my flock and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. So I will attend to you for your evil doings, says the Lord.” They will, according to Jeremiah, receive their comeuppance.

                The message here is that the rulers, along with the other members of the ruling class, have failed as shepherds, which led to the scattering of the people. However, God will take on the role of shepherd, gather up a remnant of the nation, and restore them to their sheepfold. Therefore, they will be fruitful and multiply. Not only will God restore the sheep to their fold so they can flourish, but God will also raise up new shepherds. Therefore, with this new set of shepherds in place, the sheep (people) no longer will be afraid, dismayed, or missing. One would assume that when Jeremiah speaks of a new group of shepherds, whom God will appoint to care for the people, he has in mind the restoration of the Davidic monarchy, though not all exiles felt that such a restoration of monarchy was necessary. Shepherding could come in other forms. Walter Brueggemann offers this assessment of the situation: 

 But there must also have been an alternative position among exiles that believed that no monarchy was needed when God reconstituted the community. With or without a human king, Judah’s hope in exile concerns restoration of an ordered political life in which people are to be cared for, even as they have more recently been neglected. As with all these promises, this one holds together the power of God to create a newness and actual historical possibility. The new community which God gathers is regarded as a real historical possibility. [Brueggemann, A Commentary on Jeremiah: Exile and Homecoming (Kindle  p. 207), Eerdmans]. 

However, this new order would be established; it would be new, so that the people would be cared for by a new set of shepherds. This would have been received as good news, even if in Jeremiah’s time the exile would not end.

                It is in the context of this promise of restoration, together with the promise of new shepherds, that we hear the promise that God would raise up the righteous branch who will reign as king. The key piece here involves the branch that is righteous. The hope is that a descendant of David would rise up and take the throne. There were hopes that this would take place with the appointment of Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel, as governor of Judah by Cyrus, but the restored community remained under Persian control, with Judah being a province of the Persian Empire until the time of Alexander (see Ezra 3). Nevertheless, the vision of the righteous branch remains attractive. The hope remains present that God will make sure that the people have a shepherd(s). Then righteousness and justice will occur in the land, such that the people will live in safety. The one who brings this about, this promised Davidic king, will be called “The Lord Is Our Righteousness.” As Brueggemann notes, regarding Judah’s last king, whose fall took place in 587 BCE: 

The coming king will be genuine “righteousness” (tsedaqah), whereas the remembered King Zedekiah is not at all an embodiment of righteousness. That king bore the name; the coming king will embody the reality. The proposed name for the new king indicates a governance that brings well-being through justice. [Brueggemann, A Commentary on Jeremiah (Kindle, pp. 207-208). 

That king has yet to arrive in Judaism. Finding righteous and just leaders is challenging, as we have seen of late.

                The reading from Jeremiah promises the coming of the righteous branch who will rule over a restored Israel/Judah. We read it in the context of Christ the King/Reign of Christ Sunday. For Christians, Jesus fulfills the promise made by Jeremiah that a righteous branch will rise up and take on the role of shepherd to the people. The nature of this kingdom/monarchy is quite different from the one imagined in Jeremiah. Jesus may be David’s son, according to Matthew and Luke’s genealogies; the way he chooses to establish his kingdom and rule is quite different from earthly rulers. He doesn’t lead armies, sit on thrones of gold, or build palaces. His definition of monarch differed greatly from contemporaries, including Rome’s emperors (in his lifetime Augustus and Tiberius). Over the centuries, especially after the Constantinian embrace of Christianity (Christendom), Jesus was pictured in imperial garb as the Pantocrator or ruler of the universe. Instead of the imperial throne, Jesus exhibited his rule by dying on a Roman cross.  At the same time, he preached a message that included justice and righteousness.  

                In an age where Christian nationalism has tainted the Christian message, especially with the embrace by many Christians of Donald Trump’s message of “America First,” a message that doesn’t fit very well with Jesus’ proclamation of the kingdom of God. Support by significant numbers of Christians of Trump’s white supremacist ideology, immigrant deportation policies, and attacks on the Transgender community, to name but a few areas of concern, do not seem to fit well with the message of God’s justice. On the treatment of immigrants, we should heed the message of Pope Leo XIV, who has called for the proper treatment of immigrants. When it comes to government, we seem to be lacking good shepherds. Unfortunately, in many parts of the church, the same is true. It is not only the many scandals that keep getting reported, it is also the support for injustice that should concern us. It certainly seems that Jeremiah was concerned about such things.

                So, as we celebrate the end of the liturgical year on the Sunday before Thanksgiving, by focusing on the reign of Christ, perhaps Jeremiah offers us the opportunity to consider what makes for good leaders. At the same time, we might consider ways we can speak out against bad leaders and policies, doing so without getting completely enmeshed in partisan politics. That is, speaking out without becoming tools of a political party. As we do so, we should keep in mind that Jeremiah’s concern here is with the victims who suffer under bad leadership. Jeremiah wants the people to know that God will step in and provide the necessary leadership, while calling forth new shepherds, including the righteous branch, who will rule with righteousness and justice. How does this occur? Carlton J. “Cobbie” Palm, offers this word of wisdom:

The plan for a new future is in God’s hands always, but we must understand that it will never be God’s accomplishment alone. In the unfolding story of God’s work throughout history we see a pattern. God creates and restores on our behalf, but always, and without exception, gives the work back to us to carry forward. This is what Jeremiah is saying when he concludes with the words of God, “I will raise up for David, a righteous branch” (v. 5). This is pointing to us, calling us out of droopiness to prepare for the handover to continue and sustain the work that God has begun. We are the righteous branch. We are the participants in God’s unfolding restoration.  [Connections, p. 499].

So, as we get ready to begin a new cycle of the church year, as the world around us continues to be in disarray, how might we hear Jeremiah’s message on this Christ the King Sunday? Following Carlton Palm’s reflection, how might we participate with God in this effort to bring about justice and righteousness in the world?