How safe and secure are you feeling these days, little lamb of Jesus? How well are you sleeping at night, and how peaceful are your days? Are your heart and mind at ease, or anxious and afraid?
Aside from whatever particular concerns may be weighing upon your own situation — whether in your own head; in your home, within your household and family, or in your other relationships; in your mortal body of flesh and blood; on the job, or in your neighborhood — aside from all of that stuff, which presses upon you so close at hand, the national news doesn’t help much, does it?
Wars and rumors of war have rarely been more prevalent than they are right now, especially as the media makes them feel all the more imminent. Political divisions, societal conflict, rancor, and harsh rhetoric are pervasive and increasing, along with the cost of pretty much everything. And all of this on top of the fact that we are all still recovering from the burdens of the past two years.
In truth, there is nothing new under the sun; but there are times when all the darkness and dangers seem to accelerate, and whatever safety and security you may have imagined are shaken to pieces. That is a good thing, actually, because it tears down your idols and shatters your false gods, lest you put your faith in mortal leaders and rulers and seek your salvation upon this perishing planet.
But now, take heart, little lamb! Let repentance return you from the highways and byways to rest yourself in Jesus. He is your true Savior and Good Shepherd, who guards you and protects you, who leads you and guides you, and who holds you in the palm of His hand forever and ever.
Your dear Lord Jesus loves you, and He knows you; not just your stats, your history and pedigree, but He knows you, your heart and mind, your body and soul, with an intimacy that goes beyond that of a husband for his wife or a mother for her child. It is the loving knowledge of the One who created you; who formed you in the womb and fashioned your frame; who numbers the hairs on your head and all your days; who became like you, and bore your sin, and suffered your death and damnation, in order to raise you up from death to life, to recreate you in His Image and Likeness.
In His steadfast love and faithfulness — in His divine grace, mercy, and peace — He lays down His Life for you and all His sheep. And with His Voice He calls you by name to follow Him.
So, that’s all great and wonderful! But, if you stop and think about this, it does raise a couple or three questions and concerns. For one thing, it’s all very noble and heroic, to be sure, but if the Shepherd lays down His life and dies, who’s left to care for the sheep? What’s to become of them? That situation is all the more urgent and compelling and seemingly precarious, given the call of the sheep to follow their Shepherd where He leads — since He is going to His death on the Cross.
Already you are surrounded, as He was then, with loud and demanding voices, both inside and out, competing with His own gentle Voice of the Gospel. If He is the Christ, your Savior and Good Shepherd, then why doesn’t He tell you plainly? Better yet, why doesn’t He show you clearly? But instead, He confronts you with His Cross, which crucifies not only Him but you, as well. And apparently without any care or concern, He permits the savage wolves to harass His little flock.
Honestly, the Words and promises of Christ Jesus appear to stand in contrast with — and even in contradiction to — the actual experience of His Christians and His Church in the world. And to begin with, His own experience in the world, especially His death upon the Cross, does not appear to be very comforting or reassuring. The fact that He is crucified makes Him rather dangerous!
The “theology of the Cross,” as we call it, is the hidden and mysterious revelation of the one true God in the hurt and humility of His Christ, the Crucified: First of all in Him, and then also in His Church, and so now in you. But this theology of the Cross, because it is a divine Mystery, can only be understood and received in faith by those who belong to Christ Jesus and bear His Holy Spirit.
The Word of the Cross can only be recognized and believed by those who are the sheep of this Good Shepherd, Jesus; which comes about by His Voice of the Gospel, that is, by the preaching of His Word and by His Holy Spirit. But you can neither hear nor comprehend His Word, except by the preaching of His Word; and you cannot receive or bear His Holy Spirit, except by His Holy Spirit. That is a circle, which you cannot break into, but which the Father lays upon you in love.
Everything has already been accomplished and established for you by Christ Jesus Himself, the beloved and well-pleasing Son of the Father. He and His Life, in His own human Flesh, His Body and His Soul, are safely and securely in the Father’s hand. Knowing and trusting His Father, He lays down His Life for the sheep; and so does He take it up again by faith in His God and Father.
His death upon the Cross is the Sacrifice that atones for His sheep, and for the world, in order to rescue them from the wrath of God, from sin, death, the devil, and hell; to save them, indeed, from the real savage wolves that would otherwise devour them, not only here in time, but for eternity.
And in the Resurrection of His crucified Body of flesh and blood, He Himself becomes the true, divine, eternal Temple of God in heaven and on earth, both now and forever and ever. So it is that His Cross and Resurrection are the true “Feast of Dedication” (that is, the true Hanukkah), which heretofore had celebrated the recovery and restoration of the “old” Temple in Jerusalem.
Jesus is the true Solomon. He is the true Son of David, the Lord’s Anointed, the Wisdom of God in the Flesh, who reigns in love, with equity, justice, and righteousness in the midst of His City of Peace. And with His Liturgy of the Gospel in Word and Sacrament, He is the true “Portico” of the Temple — that is to say, His one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church in heaven and on earth — wherein He spreads the Tabernacle of His own Flesh and Blood over His people, in order to shelter and protect them from the cold of winter and the heat of summer, from hunger, thirst, and pain.
You “see,” then, how, as in the beautiful 23rd Psalm, the Shepherd and His green pastures merge and coalesce with the Lord and His House and the cornucopia of Meat and Drink at His Table.
For Jesus Himself is not only the great High Priest, but also the Sacrifice and the Temple of God, as well as the sacrificial Meal, the Holy Communion of the Peace Offering that He has offered. And so, too, He is not only the Lord, your Good Shepherd, but His own Body is the Sheepfold, in which you are kept safe and sound, even as you eat and drink at His Table and rest in His Peace.
It is, again, by His Word and His works that He calls you to Himself, to follow Him — through death into Life, into the green pastures of His Paradise, and to His Table in His House forever.
By the Voice of your Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ — by the preaching of the Gospel of His Cross — and so also by the fruits of His Cross — by the water from His wounded side, and by His Flesh and Blood, given and poured out for you and for the many — His God and Father pours out the Holy Spirit upon you, and unites you with Christ Jesus unto Life everlasting in body and soul.
So it is that you are among the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand. You are held in the palm of His hand, as Christ Himself is always in His Father’s hand, even when He is crucified, dead, and buried. Therefore, no one and nothing shall ever be able to snatch you away from Him.
His Cross is the Rod and Staff by which He guards and guides you; not simply as a past historical event, but as the Gospel that is daily being preached to you for the forgiveness of all your sins. He guards and protects you against the accusations of the devil and the condemnation of the Law, by the preaching of His Cross as your Atonement and His Resurrection as your Righteousness, Life, and Salvation. So does He guide and bring you to His Father by this preaching of His Gospel.
The Good Shepherd causes His Voice to be proclaimed and His works to be administered in the Ministry of those whom He calls, ordains, and sends in His Name and stead. So we heard in the case of St. Peter last Sunday, and so now today in the case of St. Paul and the pastors of Ephesus. And so it continues in the case of your pastors, as it has and ever shall be done; so that, here within His Church, you are gathered around the Lord Jesus in His Temple, around the Lamb of God upon His Throne, to worship and adore the Crucified and Risen One, and to have Life in Him forever.
As you belong to Him — because He loves you, and He knows you by His grace, and He has given Himself for you, and He has risen from the dead and lives and reigns to all eternity — so shall you also follow Him, even through the valley of the shadow of death, and even from out of the grave, into the Resurrection of your body and the Life everlasting of your body and soul with Him.
That, dear little lamb of Jesus, is your safety and security, come hell or high water against you. For Christ Jesus Himself is your Sabbath Rest, even now in this poor life of labor; and He is your perfect Peace forever, such as this world could never give. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid; for you are in Christ, and you shall not perish forever, but shall have eternal Life.
In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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