St John 10:11-16/Ezekiel 34:11-16/1 Peter 2:21-25
In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.
When Christ announces that He is the Good Shepherd and the Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep, He is teaching us that He is the only One to whom His disciples can look for help and protection against sin, death, and the devil. He calls these things that would devour and scatter His little flock “the wolf.” And He teaches that He alone can help the sheep because the sheep are His; they belong to Him.
And the Good Shepherd contrasts Himself with the hired hands. Now, according to Dr. Luther, these are not to be mistaken for false preachers and pastors. Rather, the hired hands are all who came before our Lord’s incarnation. Yes, even Moses and all the prophets.
You see, they were servants of the Lord, to care for and tend His sheep, but they did not own the flock. And no matter how much they preached and taught, neither Moses nor the prophets could stop the wolf form devouring and scattering the flock.
So because this was the situation, because the Law and Prophets cannot save, the Son of God Himself took on our flesh and blood from the Blessed Virgin Mary in order to fulfill the prophecy of Ezekiel: Behold, I, I Myself will search for My sheep and seek them out. I Myself will be the Shepherd of My sheep.
Thus He came among us as One of us. He who created us in the beginning; for all things were made through Him and without Him was not anything made that was made. He came to those who were His own by virtue of their creation. And even though we had fallen into sin and become the prey of the devil, sin, and death, He came to redeem us, to buy us back, to lay down His life for us, so that He might not merely be our Creator, but also our divine Redeemer, our Savior, our Shepherd.
And so, dear children, you sing, “I am Jesus’ little lamb, Ever glad at heart I am; For my Shepherd gently guides me, Knows my need and well provides me, Loves me every day the same, Even calls me by His name.” But all of this is only in Him.
Whoever hopes to survive the onslaught of the devil, our own sinfulness and death, has no other help or hope. In the end, either the Good Shepherd will have you or the wolf will. There is no other option.
So hear the voice of your Shepherd, beloved in the Lord. Here, in the green pastures of His Church, is the viva vox Jesu, the living voice of Jesus. And He comes to you. He comes not to take from you, but to give to you. He laid down His perfect life in place of your forfeited and imperfect one. He says to the Wolf, “You cannot have that one. She is mine. You must have Me instead.” And so He gives His life into death to destroy your death. And so He places His sinless soul over you to protect you from the terrifying teeth of the wolf.
Thus when the wolf comes howling at you and tries to frighten and alarm you, you must not listen to what it says. Do not hear the Law and its accusations. Pay no attention when the devil tries to throw your sins in your face, saying, “You deserve death and hell.” For you can respond, “Yes, indeed I do. But I have One who laid down His life for me and destroyed your power.” Christians, to the Paschal Victim! Offer your thankful praises! The Lamb the sheep has ransomed: Christ who only is sinless.
Hear Him, the beloved Son of the Father. Listen to Him, your Good Shepherd who laid down His life for you. For He waged war against that Wolf and won long ago.
It is the voice of your Good Shepherd who speaks in His Word to calm you. “Do not let the sin you struggle with or the thought of your death or the devil’s accusations frighten you. I have forgiven all your sins by My death; I have destroyed death’s power over you by My rising; I came, the Shepherd in sheep’s clothing, in order to lead the devil captive and I descended into hell and took the keys of hell and death so that Satan could never again have any right or claim on you. You are Mine, My very own.
“Mine because I made you and doubly Mine because I redeemed you. Did I not wash you in the streams of life-giving baptismal water? And mark you with My cross as My own dear possession forever? You are My lamb and I am your Good Shepherd forever. Every need of yours I can and will provide. My goodness never fails.”
This is the voice of the Good Shepherd that the sheep hear. And they soon learn to know when it is His voice – for He speaks only through His Word – and they learn to flee from anyone who comes to them speaking something else. Any voice that invites them to fear the wolf, to run from God in panic over sin and guilt, or from fear of death or the devil; any voice that calls them to look inside themselves or trust in their own potential or strength or emotion. From these the flee. They know that any voice urging such things is NOT the voice of their Shepherd.
So where, dear lambs, does our Good Shepherd’s voice speak? Where can you be sure it is Him? Why it is here, in His Word read and preached. It is there (font) in which your Shepherd says, Out of Me shall flow rivers of living waters. It is in the blessed gift of Holy Absolution, spoken to the individual lamb, that soothing voice of the Shepherd that says, I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, I will strengthen the weak. I forgive you all your sins.
And where does our Good Shepherd’s lovely voice ring out more clearly, more sweetly for you, than at the Table He prepares for you in the presence of your enemies? For this Sacrament is the Gospel.
What sin can accuse the one who trusts and receives the Blood of Christ? For this is the Blood that atoned for the sin of the world! Our Good Shepherd spilt it in your place. Given to you it marks you as His, blood-bought and paid for.
What death can attack the one who trusts and receives the Body of Christ? This is one Body that death will never forget. Death took hold of that Body once but could not hold onto it. Rather, death was shattered by it. “This joyful Eastertide Away with sin and sorrow! My love, the Crucified, Has sprung to life this morrow.” And when that Body enters your body, death groans because it has lost its hold on another!
I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to My voice. So there will be one flock, one Shepherd.
And that’s where you and I come in, so that all He said first to the Apostles applies to us. We are the other sheep that He was speaking of; Gentiles not originally of the fold of Israel, but led into the joys and privileges of Jesus’ flock by hearing the Voice of our Shepherd and following where He leads.
Where is that? What does St Peter say? To this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in His steps. Reviled, suffered, threatened, bearing the judgment of sin, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed. You follow Him through suffering and death, through the Cross and the grave, on into the resurrection and life.
Here lies the true and only unity of the Christian Church – the one flock under one Shepherd – that we are all but little sheep who hear and know the voice of our Shepherd, and that we have no other Shepherd but Him alone, our Good Shepherd, the One who laid down His life for us. For you all were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls, even Jesus Christ.
“Who so happy as I am, Even now the Shepherd’s lamb? And when my short life is ended, By His angel host attended, He shall fold me to His breast, There within His arms to rest.”
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.
When Christ announces that He is the Good Shepherd and the Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep, He is teaching us that He is the only One to whom His disciples can look for help and protection against sin, death, and the devil. He calls these things that would devour and scatter His little flock “the wolf.” And He teaches that He alone can help the sheep because the sheep are His; they belong to Him.
And the Good Shepherd contrasts Himself with the hired hands. Now, according to Dr. Luther, these are not to be mistaken for false preachers and pastors. Rather, the hired hands are all who came before our Lord’s incarnation. Yes, even Moses and all the prophets.
You see, they were servants of the Lord, to care for and tend His sheep, but they did not own the flock. And no matter how much they preached and taught, neither Moses nor the prophets could stop the wolf form devouring and scattering the flock.
So because this was the situation, because the Law and Prophets cannot save, the Son of God Himself took on our flesh and blood from the Blessed Virgin Mary in order to fulfill the prophecy of Ezekiel: Behold, I, I Myself will search for My sheep and seek them out. I Myself will be the Shepherd of My sheep.
Thus He came among us as One of us. He who created us in the beginning; for all things were made through Him and without Him was not anything made that was made. He came to those who were His own by virtue of their creation. And even though we had fallen into sin and become the prey of the devil, sin, and death, He came to redeem us, to buy us back, to lay down His life for us, so that He might not merely be our Creator, but also our divine Redeemer, our Savior, our Shepherd.
And so, dear children, you sing, “I am Jesus’ little lamb, Ever glad at heart I am; For my Shepherd gently guides me, Knows my need and well provides me, Loves me every day the same, Even calls me by His name.” But all of this is only in Him.
Whoever hopes to survive the onslaught of the devil, our own sinfulness and death, has no other help or hope. In the end, either the Good Shepherd will have you or the wolf will. There is no other option.
So hear the voice of your Shepherd, beloved in the Lord. Here, in the green pastures of His Church, is the viva vox Jesu, the living voice of Jesus. And He comes to you. He comes not to take from you, but to give to you. He laid down His perfect life in place of your forfeited and imperfect one. He says to the Wolf, “You cannot have that one. She is mine. You must have Me instead.” And so He gives His life into death to destroy your death. And so He places His sinless soul over you to protect you from the terrifying teeth of the wolf.
Thus when the wolf comes howling at you and tries to frighten and alarm you, you must not listen to what it says. Do not hear the Law and its accusations. Pay no attention when the devil tries to throw your sins in your face, saying, “You deserve death and hell.” For you can respond, “Yes, indeed I do. But I have One who laid down His life for me and destroyed your power.” Christians, to the Paschal Victim! Offer your thankful praises! The Lamb the sheep has ransomed: Christ who only is sinless.
Hear Him, the beloved Son of the Father. Listen to Him, your Good Shepherd who laid down His life for you. For He waged war against that Wolf and won long ago.
It is the voice of your Good Shepherd who speaks in His Word to calm you. “Do not let the sin you struggle with or the thought of your death or the devil’s accusations frighten you. I have forgiven all your sins by My death; I have destroyed death’s power over you by My rising; I came, the Shepherd in sheep’s clothing, in order to lead the devil captive and I descended into hell and took the keys of hell and death so that Satan could never again have any right or claim on you. You are Mine, My very own.
“Mine because I made you and doubly Mine because I redeemed you. Did I not wash you in the streams of life-giving baptismal water? And mark you with My cross as My own dear possession forever? You are My lamb and I am your Good Shepherd forever. Every need of yours I can and will provide. My goodness never fails.”
This is the voice of the Good Shepherd that the sheep hear. And they soon learn to know when it is His voice – for He speaks only through His Word – and they learn to flee from anyone who comes to them speaking something else. Any voice that invites them to fear the wolf, to run from God in panic over sin and guilt, or from fear of death or the devil; any voice that calls them to look inside themselves or trust in their own potential or strength or emotion. From these the flee. They know that any voice urging such things is NOT the voice of their Shepherd.
So where, dear lambs, does our Good Shepherd’s voice speak? Where can you be sure it is Him? Why it is here, in His Word read and preached. It is there (font) in which your Shepherd says, Out of Me shall flow rivers of living waters. It is in the blessed gift of Holy Absolution, spoken to the individual lamb, that soothing voice of the Shepherd that says, I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, I will strengthen the weak. I forgive you all your sins.
And where does our Good Shepherd’s lovely voice ring out more clearly, more sweetly for you, than at the Table He prepares for you in the presence of your enemies? For this Sacrament is the Gospel.
What sin can accuse the one who trusts and receives the Blood of Christ? For this is the Blood that atoned for the sin of the world! Our Good Shepherd spilt it in your place. Given to you it marks you as His, blood-bought and paid for.
What death can attack the one who trusts and receives the Body of Christ? This is one Body that death will never forget. Death took hold of that Body once but could not hold onto it. Rather, death was shattered by it. “This joyful Eastertide Away with sin and sorrow! My love, the Crucified, Has sprung to life this morrow.” And when that Body enters your body, death groans because it has lost its hold on another!
I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to My voice. So there will be one flock, one Shepherd.
And that’s where you and I come in, so that all He said first to the Apostles applies to us. We are the other sheep that He was speaking of; Gentiles not originally of the fold of Israel, but led into the joys and privileges of Jesus’ flock by hearing the Voice of our Shepherd and following where He leads.
Where is that? What does St Peter say? To this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in His steps. Reviled, suffered, threatened, bearing the judgment of sin, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed. You follow Him through suffering and death, through the Cross and the grave, on into the resurrection and life.
Here lies the true and only unity of the Christian Church – the one flock under one Shepherd – that we are all but little sheep who hear and know the voice of our Shepherd, and that we have no other Shepherd but Him alone, our Good Shepherd, the One who laid down His life for us. For you all were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls, even Jesus Christ.
“Who so happy as I am, Even now the Shepherd’s lamb? And when my short life is ended, By His angel host attended, He shall fold me to His breast, There within His arms to rest.”
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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