John 21:15-19
15 When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?”
“Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”
16 Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”
He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.”
17 The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”
Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. 18 Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” 19 Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, “Follow me!”
I have been asked to preach an ordination sermon later today for my friend MaryBeth, who is a pastor at Signs of Life Fellowship, a deaf church here in Staunton. So I’ve been practicing my ASL and spending a lot of time thinking about the subject of ordination. I was ordained for ministry back in November of 2007, and since then have utilized all aspects of that designation: marrying, burying, and of course, tax breaks. That’s right, pastors don’t make a lot of money, but we get to keep most of what we get!
But from where do we get this practice of ordination? And is it still relevant today? I want to share with you some of the things I’ve learned about ordination and what that means to the 21st-century church.
To ordain literally means to put something in the correct order. This can be a little misleading, because this is not to suggest any kind of hierarchy, as if an ordained Christian is some sort of super Christian. My wife and family can attest to that. To order something in this sense means to sort it. I was ordaining my socks earlier today, as I was looking for a matching pair. I’m halfway kidding, and I don’t mean to cheapen the concept. One thing, person, or group is being separated out from the rest. When we ordain a person for ministry, we are setting that person aside from the rest, noting a particular gifting or calling upon their life.
The most thorough examination of ordination in the Bible is found in the Old Testament. In Exodus 28 God tells Moses to set aside Aaron and his sons as priests for the Hebrew people. God then spends about a million chapters describing the work of the priests, sacrificing animals and performing other religious acts in the Tabernacle, and later in the Temple. That’s what the priests do, and not just anyone can do that work. This is work that God has ordained them to do. So Moses is to mark Aaron and his sons as set apart from the others. They have a unique calling, which requires a unique service. We find the details of that service in Leviticus 8. In verses 22-24 we read, “[Moses] then presented…the ram for the ordination, and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on its head. Moses slaughtered the ram and took some of its blood and put it on the lobe of Aaron’s right ear, on the thumb of his right hand and on the big toe of his right foot. Moses also brought Aaron’s sons forward and put some of the blood on the lobes of their right ears, on the thumbs of their right hands and on the big toes of their right feet.”
This is gross to our modern-day ears. But blood was a common part of the sanctification and purification rituals of the Hebrew people. It was used to show God where the Hebrew people lived during the Passover, and blood was used in the atonement or forgiveness rituals of the people. Later in Leviticus we will find a very similar service used when a person with leprosy is healed and pronounced clean. The blood seems to be a symbol of forgiveness for sins, purification of impurities, and also a commissioning for future responsibilities.
So why the ear, thumb, and toe? The Bible never tells us, and that can be both fun and frustrating. It is fun because we can be creative and try to guess why God would choose for these parts to be bloodied. It is frustrating because some people will come up with some theories that are really out there!
The interpretation that I like goes a little something like this. The ear is a symbol of hearing, the thumb/hand a symbol of work, and the toe/foot a symbol of travel. Essentially, the ordination ritual involving the ear, thumb and toe is saying, May God bless you in the understanding of his word. May God bless you in the work that you do. And may God bless you wherever you go.
The smearing of blood is only one of three symbols often associated with ordination. The others are the laying on of hands and anointing with oil. When the person is prayed over with the laying of hands, anointed, or sprinkled with blood, they are being consecrated, set apart from the others for a particular ministry.
Make no mistake, this doesn’t make the person better than the rest of the group. Again, this isn’t about a hierarchy of regular Christians and super Christians. This is a way to recognize the special call and gifting that this person has received for a specific ministry.
The priesthood in the Old Testament differed from what we pastors do today. The priests were the liaison between God and the people. Only the priests could make the sacrifices on the part of the people. Only the priests could enter the Holy of Holies, the most exclusive part of the Jewish Temple. That is a lot of power and responsibility placed on the shoulder of the priest.
But in the New Testament we find a different story. We read that at Jesus’s crucifixion the curtain dividing the Holy of Holies from the rest of the Temple was split in two, symbolically stating that God could not be contained in a room, but was everywhere and available to all people. 1 Peter 2:9 reminds us, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”
That “you” is the plural. You all are a chosen people, you all are a royal priesthood. This was written for the entire church, not just the priests. And the book of Hebrews speaks of Jesus as our high priest. Jesus is the one who is the bridge between us and God, breaking down any barrier that might have been there.
So do we need priests in our churches? If we are all priests and Jesus has covered the Temple responsibilities of the priest, do we still need ordained clergy?
Of course I’m going to say yes. I’m not interested in losing my job today! But the purpose of clergy is different in the church today than it was in the book of Leviticus (praise God! I don’t want to be making any animal sacrifices anytime soon).
There are twelve examples in the New Testament of people being designated for special ministries; none of them use the word “ordination,” but they do describe a special service of recognition. For instance, in Acts 6, there is a need for people to care for the poor and the widows among the disciples. The disciples instruct the other believers to “choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom.” Then in verse six we read, “They presented these men to the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.”
We sometimes refer to these seven men as the first deacons of the church. It is the deacons who care for the poor, who care for those who can’t provide for their selves or their families.
While we don’t have any official deacons in our church we do have a handful of people in our congregation who work frequently at the Valley Mission. We have people who volunteer weekly to teach and tutor in the after-school programs. We have board members for the Valley Mission and the Staunton-Augusta County Relief Association. In a way, you are serving as modern-day deacons. I think that we need to do a better job of recognizing you in this role. You have been ordained, set apart by God for this ministry, and I want to recognize that.
Barnabas and Saul are commissioned for their missionary work in Acts 13:2b-3, “The Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’ So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.”
We support a number of missionaries through organizations like Virginia Mennonite Missions, and we support church planters. We have been raising funds for Armando and Veronica Sanchez for some time now. And I am glad to announce that they officially went on the Virginia Mennonite Mission payroll on March 1. We’ve been praying for the Sanchez family, but have we recognized them as ordained by God, set aside for this ministry? Barnabas and Saul were church planters, and the Sanchez family is as well. God has ordained them for this ministry.
The ritual with blood found in Leviticus is replaced with the laying on of hands and prayer in the New Testament. But the purpose is still the same. These people are being set apart for a special ministry, called to do something that not everyone is called to do.
So what about our modern practice of ordaining pastors? I’ll answer that in a bit of a roundabout fashion.
In the tenth chapter of John’s gospel we find Jesus telling his disciples a story about a shepherd and his sheep. In this story, the shepherd calls his sheep by name, which shouldn’t surprise any of us that grew up around animals. Every cow, sheep, and pig had a name on my father’s farm. Why should this be any different? The shepherd calls his sheep by name, and the sheep recognize the shepherd by the sound of his voice. There is a relationship there; a sense of knowing and being known. There is a mutual caring for one another.
Jesus goes on to explain this story in verse 11 and then again in verses 14-15: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep…I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me—just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep.”
Jesus is himself the good shepherd. So what’s going on in our text for this morning? Our scripture takes place after the resurrection of Jesus, which means it also takes place after another event: Peter’s denial of Jesus. Recall that on the night Jesus was arrested, Peter denied even knowing Jesus. And in John’s gospel, he denies knowing him three times, just as Jesus had predicted.
I don’t think that it is by accident that Jesus asks Peter three times if he loves him, and three times, in three different ways, tells Peter to feed and care for his sheep. But wait, that’s Jesus’s job. He is the good shepherd and shepherds feed and care for the sheep. The good shepherd knows his sheep and the sheep know him. Now Jesus is passing on some of his responsibility to Peter. “Peter,” he says. “Feed my sheep.” You will now be a shepherd as well.
Or to put it another way, the work that Jesus began here on earth, Peter is now to continue. Jesus is pointing to Peter, recognizing his gifts and abilities, and saying, “Peter, feed my sheep. Peter, care for my sheep.”
I’m not sure if anyone here speaks Latin or not, but the Latin word for shepherd is also a pretty common word in our English language as well. If you were to read the Latin form of the Bible, the Vulgate, when Jesus calls himself the good shepherd the word that is used there is the one that I’m referring to as well. The Latin word for shepherd is “pastor.”
When Jesus told Peter to feed and care for his sheep, Jesus was calling Peter to be a pastor. And though Jesus doesn’t explain this metaphor, I believe that when Jesus says to feed his sheep, he is talking about teaching followers of Jesus. Through teaching and preaching, it is the shepherd’s job to provide the theological, ethical, and spiritual nourishment that the church so desperately needs. And when Jesus says to care for his sheep, he is instructing the shepherd, the pastor, to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick and bind up the broken.
Shepherds, pastors, your job is to feed and care for the people of God.
Who do we see being set aside for special ministry in the New Testament? In Ephesians 4:11 we find what is often called the “fivefold ministry of the church,” where apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers are specifically named. And in 1 Timothy 3, bishops, elders and deacons are named.
Whether we call it ordination, commissioning, blessing, or something else altogether, I think we should be pointing out the gifts of the people around us and praying a special blessing upon these people for the work that they have been called to. It isn’t just the pastor who is ordained by God, but each person who has been separated out by God through the gifting of the Holy Spirit.
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