The Shepherd-Who is the True Pastor?

In a historic sermon preached on the third day of the second Zurich Disputation, Zwingli set forth his understanding of the ministry in a lengthy message that is timeless in the application. Excerpts from this sermon are found in the "From the Archives" section of this magazine. In this article Dr. Fritz Büsser discusses the central thrust of Zwingli's understanding of the nature of the ministry as aticulated in "The Shepherd" sermon.

FRITZ BÜSSER Dr. Fritz Büsser is Professor of Church History and Director of the Institute of Reformation Studies at the University of Zurich in Switzerland. This article is adapted from an address given by Dr. Büsser in commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the birth of Zwingli | posted 1/01/1984 12:00AM

The crucial event marking the visible start of the Reformation in Zurich can be traced to the First Zurich Disputation on January 29, 1523, where the mayor and members of the city council decreed “that Master Ulrich Zwingli (may) continue to preach the Holy Gospel and the true divine Scripture as he has done until now for as long a time and to such an extent until he be instructed differently.”

At the Second Zurich Disputation, held October 26–28, 1523, practical reforms of the church had already been discussed which arose out of Zwingli’s biblical preaching which had been officially approved in January. Some of the reforms were adopted, notably the abolition of the images and of the Mass.

During this Second Disputation, Zwingli gave special emphasis to two themes: The absolutely central importance and primary authority of the Scriptures as the Word of God, and the nature of the ministry, which may be understood as our human answer to this Word.

On the third day of the Second Disputation, Zwingli delivered his lengthy message, “The Shepherd,” which actually carried the full title, “How one can recognize true Christian shepherds and also the false, and moreover how one should behave in regard to them.” This sermon was delivered to a large and mixed audience of council members and clergy from town and country, a company of probably about 900 people.

Before looking at the thoughts expressed, we must remind ourselves that his hearers were most acutely aware of this bewildering historical context in which they lived. Vast changes, spiritual and material, were pressing on all sides in almost apocalyptic proportions. In such a world, Zwingli posed the question of how can one recognize the good shepherds as distinct from the counterfeit? And of what does their ministry consist?

His exposition on the good shepherds deals sequentially with the three ministries of revelation, reconciliation, and revolution, and at the same time with the three primary Christian virtues of faith, hope and love.

The first ministry, which the good shepherd Jesus Christ was the first to perform, but which also the Church, the pastors and all of us are called to perform, consists in the ministry of revelation, that is in the ministry of the proclamation of the gospel. What that means, Zwingli explains himself in his sermon in the following way: “Based on it [i.e. the Word of God] the shepherd is to bring his charges to an understanding of their infirmity. If they understand that and perceive that they cannot be saved out of their own power, then he should point them to the grace of God so that they let themselves trust fully in it. For God has given us for a certain assurance of his grace his only begotten son, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have forever a certain entry to God.” [Cf. Rom. 5:2]

Recognition of misery and sin, grace and trust, and thankful discipleship, these three parts of Evangelical-Reformed proclamation are not only found as a summary of the Christian faith in the most well-known book of faith of the Reformed Church, in Question Two of the Heidelberg Catechism, but already forty years earlier in Zwingli’s description of the good shepherds given at the Second Zurich Disputation!

This ministry, he says, demands self- denial, and should the need arise, one is even forced, as in marriage, to leave mother and father. This ministry demands courageous confession and steadfastness. It demands opposition against all external and inner temptations. In this ministry exemplary discipleship of Christ is at stake; it is a question of the cross, struggle and death.