Given by Christ Jesus to Be a Shepherd of His Sheep

“Thank God,” Dr. Luther once remarked, “even a seven-year-old child knows what a shepherd is and does.” He feeds and tends the lambs and sheep, and he guards and protects them from predators and other dangers. He puts himself in harm’s way, in order to keep them safe.

That is what the Lord Jesus does for His whole Flock. And that is likewise exactly what a Christian pastor is and does. He feeds and tends the sheep of the Good Shepherd in the good green pastures of His Word, His Law and His Gospel, unto repentance and faith in His forgiveness of sins. And a pastor leads the sheep beside the clean and cleansing waters of Holy Baptism to the Table of the Lord in His Kingdom, all the while defending the flock against false doctrine, idolatrous practices, and all the assaults and accusations of the old evil foe. A pastor invests himself in this work, he spends his body and life for the well-being of the flock placed under his care.

If that sounds like a big job and a daunting task, that’s because it is. And as it is true that each and every Christian is called to bear the Cross and follow after Jesus, it is all the more the case that His pastors, the ministers of His Word, are called upon to serve and to suffer for His Name’s sake. Nor should anyone ever suppose that we can do or manage any of this on our own, by our own reason or strength, education, ingenuity, or what not.

None of us can be a sheep of the Good Shepherd — far less a shepherd of His sheep — by any efforts of our own. Those who attempt to do so are hirelings at best, or, as Jesus says today, they are thieves and robbers. But we are sheep because the Shepherd has called us by name with His Voice of the Gospel. And Pr. Harrison is here given to be a shepherd of the Lord’s sheep in this place, because he enters through the Door into the Sheepfold — in the Name and stead of Jesus.

So, what does this mean for us?  It is a bit confusing on the surface of it, and even the disciples did not understand the Words of our Lord when He first spoke them. But the Key, of course, is Christ Jesus Himself, His Cross and Resurrection. He is the Good Shepherd, and He is the Door by which His sheep and His undershepherds enter in and come and go in peace and safety, faith and love.

As the Good Shepherd, He lays down His Body and Life in death upon the Cross, and then He takes it up again, in order that His sheep might have abundant Life in Him forevermore. This is why He has come — to bear your sins, and the sins of the whole world, in His own Body on the bloody Cross, that you might die to sin and live to righteousness in Him. By His wounds you are healed, and by His bodily Resurrection from the dead you have Righteousness and Life.

Thus has He become the Door, and by your Holy Baptism in His Name you have entered through His death into His resurrected Life in the presence of His God and Father. Even now, living under the Cross in the midst of sin and death, awaiting the Resurrection and the Life everlasting, you live and abide in the House of the Lord, as a sheep of His pasture, in the communion of His Church:

In the Apostles’ Teaching and Fellowship, in the Breaking of the Bread, and in the Prayers of the Church, you live and abide under the care of your Good Shepherd, Christ Jesus, the Chief Pastor and Archbishop of your soul and body, heart, mind, and spirit.

It is by and for this Ministry of the Word and Sacrament that men like Pr. Harrison enter through the Door of Christ Jesus into His Sheepfold, not only to live and abide as one of the sheep, but to serve and care for the lambs and sheep, to feed and tend the flock in the Name and stead of Jesus.

As the sheep are called to learn from Jesus and follow His example, to live and love as He does, so are the pastors of the sheep called to preach the Word of Jesus, to speak with His Voice, to administer His Gifts, and to do what He does for the life and health of His Church in His Name.

Such pastors have beautiful feet, as we have heard, because they are sent to go, to bring and deliver His Word of the Gospel — and in their going, in their preaching and teaching, Christ Jesus Himself is actively present and at work to forgive sins and to grant His beautiful Life and Salvation.

This is not a self-chosen office and work. A man may well aspire to become a pastor and bishop, but it is the Lord who calls, ordains, and sends a man into that Office of the Holy Ministry, albeit through the agency of His Church on earth. Pastors and congregations identify and encourage young men to give themselves for this work. The seminaries train and prepare them, examine them, and then, along with the Council of Presidents, they certify and place them. Churches extend Calls, and those who already serve in the Office ordain new men to that Office and install them in it. But, again, it is the Lord our Good Shepherd who is ever at work throughout this process to bring a man through the Door into His Sheepfold to be a pastor — a shepherd — of His own dear sheep.

So, today, that is what He is doing with you — and for you — Pr. Harrison, for the sake of His dear sheep in this place, for their life and health and strength in Him. And as He is the One who stations you here in His Name, so shall He be and abide with you here in this Vocation and Office. He loves you, as He loves all His pastors; and He loves all His lambs and sheep entrusted to your care.

Along with that, the same Lord Jesus has given you the added benefit of a faithful colleague in this particular pasture, so that you will labor in love for the lambs and sheep alongside Pr. DeBlieck. It is a blessed thing when brothers in arms live and work together in unity, in common cause, not for their own benefit or glory, but for the benefit and blessing of the Lord’s own beloved flock.

Now, then, as the Lord Jesus in His Ministry lives and works, dies and rises, in accordance with the Word and Will of His Father who sent Him, you also are called and ordained to live and work, to bear the cross, to suffer and even to die, in submission to the Lord Jesus Christ who sends you.

So proceed in faith, hope, and love. And do not despair when it may seem that nothing is working or going well; nor fall into the trap of supposing that all of this work depends on you. Simply do what you are called and given to do, knowing that your labors in the Lord are not in vain. He will accomplish His purposes in you, and through you, and for you, all to the glory of His Holy Name.

Lay down your life in love for Christ Jesus and His sheep, in the sure and certain confidence that He will raise you up again, as surely as He daily and richly forgives you all your sins and cleanses you from all unrighteousness by His own Resurrection and the power of His indestructible Life.

You know the work you are given to do, not only because you have been taught and trained by the Church, but also because you are first of all a sheep yourself, and you live as a sheep of the Good Shepherd solely by His grace alone, by faith in His forgiveness of all your sins. You know and understand the challenges and hurts, the weaknesses and fears of this body and life. But you also know and love the sweet comfort and peace of the Gospel, the solid confidence and strength of Holy Baptism, and the forgiveness and fellowship of the Lord’s Altar. And here you are given, not only the duty and responsibility, but the blessed privilege of serving God’s people with these Gifts.

At its heart, the most basic work of a pastor — as we have prayed with the Psalmist this afternoon — is to proclaim the righteousness of the Lord in the great assembly of the Church, in the midst of the great congregation. That is to preach and teach the Gospel of Christ Jesus, and thereby to speak of His faithfulness and salvation, unto repentance and faith in His free and full forgiveness. By the preaching and hearing of this Word of Christ, the Lord Himself obtains faith in the heart, where and when it pleases Him. And as the heart thus believes, so does the Lord put a new song upon the lips and tongues of His dear people, a hymn of praise to the glory of His Holy Name. Blessed are the pastors and all the people of God who live by such faith in His precious Gospel!

Dear saints of University Lutheran Church, hear and heed the Voice of your Good Shepherd in the preaching and teaching of this man, Pr. Harrison, who is here and now given to you by the Lord to be your pastor in His Name, alongside Pr. DeBlieck. Receive the ministry of these men of God in faith and love. Listen to them and learn from them. Allow yourselves to be challenged by them, that you might grow in wisdom and maturity, in the grace and knowledge and fear of the Lord.

And wherever either of your pastors may stumble and misstep at times, be patient and kind, love them, and forgive them, even as you also hear and receive the Lord’s forgiveness of all your sins through the voice and ministry of these dear men. For it is ever and always the case that pastors and laity alike depend upon one and the same Lord Jesus Christ, the great Good Shepherd of the sheep. Everything depends on Him. So, do not be afraid, but rely on Him and rest yourself in Him.

Do not listen to strange voices, but flee from strangers and follow Christ Jesus the Lord by giving attention to His Word and availing yourself of His means of grace. And as often as you go astray, return by repentance and faith to the Pastor and Bishop of your soul. Indeed, He comes to you here to give you His abundant Life, and He will not fail, nor shall He ever leave you or forsake you.

Risen from the dead, never to die again, He lives and reigns to all eternity as your gracious God and Lord, your Savior and your Shepherd. And as He lives and abides with you here in peace and love, so shall you live and abide with Him — in His own Holy House — forever and forevermore.

In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The Safety and Security of Your Good Shepherd

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. 

Living as a Little Lamb of the Good Shepherd

The Lord is your Good Shepherd, and with Him all good things are yours, for His goodness is not an abstraction, it is His faithfulness in action.  Not only is He intrinsically good, He is also good at what He does.  He acts in love to meet your needs, and all His works are noble, right, and true.

He is not like the hirelings that you tend to enlist and rely upon.  They cut and run just when you need them most, because they do not care about you, they care only about themselves; and they are just as needy, just as scared, and just as flawed and helpless in themselves as you are in yourself.  But the Lord your God is not like that.  He needs nothing, but He gives everything to you in love.

A sheep without a real shepherd is in real trouble, like a newborn infant without a Mom or Dad, because there are so many needs, so many dangers, and so many enemies in this body and life.  The wolf is on the prowl.  The lion, also, seeking whom he may devour.  And the serpent lies in wait.  But if those predators don’t get you, then your own hunger will.  A sheep needs food and drink to survive.  If that isn’t provided for you, or if you aren’t content with what you’re given, then your searching and scavenging for what you want and need is liable to get you lost.  Alone in the dark, in unfamiliar territory, in places where you don’t belong, you’re going to get hurt or worse.

But your Shepherd, who is faithful, good, and true, is not a hired hand who runs away from danger; nor does He let you wander into it.  You are His own sheep, and He cares for you.  He is not working to make a living at your expense.  He rather lays down His own Body and Life to protect and save you, to give you life and preserve it, and to keep you in safety and perfect Peace.

He saw the wolf coming — and He ran — but He did not run away, He raced to help you.  He heard the lion’s roar, the serpent’s hiss, the big bad bear’s deep guttural growl, and He took His stand and set Himself between those predators and you.  He did not simply holler at them or chase them off.  Nor did He fight them, tooth and claw, as one might expect.  But He dealt them a far more deadly and permanent defeat, in such a way that they are no longer able to hurt you anymore.

The Good Shepherd lays down His Life for the sheep.  But what does that accomplish, if the wolf simply waits until the Shepherd is dead and gone, and then proceeds to snatch and eat the sheep?  Heroic sacrifice, great!  But what’s the point, if it only postpones the inevitable?

No, the Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep, so that He may takes it up again; and in His rising from the dead He obtains and establishes the life of all His sheep in Himself forever.  This is the great Mystery of His divine and essential goodness, which He exercises in human flesh and blood like yours, that you should have Life with God in Him.  Such is the special authority of His faithfulness and love in His keeping and fulfilling the commandment of His God and Father.

So this Shepherd, in sheep’s clothing, defeats the wolf at its own game.  He shuts the lion’s mouth and crushes the serpent’s head by giving Himself as a tasty little Lamb into their sharp teeth.  They cannot resist this prize.  They can’t believe it is so easy!  But they are in for a surprise.  For this Shepherd is the Sacrifice that ruins their appetite once and for all.  He is not a hunter who kills the wolf with knife or gun, in order to open it up and bring Granny and Little Red back out.  No, He allows Himself to be chewed up and swallowed, in order to burst the belly of the beast from the inside-out.  That is what His dying and rising have done, and He has left your enemies undone.

The predators still prowl for a little while now, and they can act all fierce and scary, but they are toothless, and they have terrible tummy troubles.  They have no stomach for you, who belong to the Good Shepherd.  For not only does He gather you close to Himself and stand over you to guard and protect you by the power of His own indestructible Body and Life; but He also feeds you with Himself, so that He abides in you with His own Flesh and Blood, and you also abide in Him.

As you are thus fed with the Meat and Drink of your Good Shepherd, the wolf, the lion, and the snake, and even the big ol’ bear should know better than to eat you.  Oh, to be sure, they still eye you hungrily and greedily — more so than ever — you know how it is when you aren’t allowed to eat what you want!  They salivate over your body and soul.  But whenever they try to snatch you and swallow you down, they get a taste of that Shepherd who abides in you, and they become ill.  They cannot hold His Liquor.  They cannot digest His Food.  And they cannot have His little lamb.

Nor will those great and greedy enemies of man be permitted to maul or manhandle Belteshazzar, who is baptized into Christ Jesus, signed and sealed by His Cross in heart, mind, body, and soul.

Now, if abiding with your Good Shepherd and staying close to Him depended on you and your own efforts and faithfulness, you should already realize that would not work.  As it is, you wander and stray, you get yourself hopelessly lost, caught in some thicket, or broken and bleeding at the bottom of a deep dark hole.  Often as not, those deadly predators don’t even have to go looking for you, because you’re out there chasing them down.  That’s not as it should be, but as it is.

Even so, the Good Shepherd cares for His sheep.  He truly does.  As surely as He laid down His Life for you and took it up again, so does He care for you in every way.  Not only has He defeated your enemies, but He still keeps you safe from them.  So has He called you by His Voice of the Gospel to live as a sheep within His fold.  Here He feeds you with the green grass of His Word, He refreshes you with the living waters of His Spirit by His forgiveness of all your sins, and He provides you with all that you need — although He does not give you everything that your fleshly appetites crave and desire, lest you make yourself sick with your gluttony, drunkenness, and lust.

He guards and keeps you under His protection, so that you are able to graze freely and safely on the good Food that He provides.  And with His Rod and Staff He guides and governs you in the good way that you should go, which is the way of Life — within His green pastures and alongside the streams that flow from His Cross, from His innermost being, from His Font, Pulpit, and Altar.

It is by and with these means of His Grace, by the Ministry of His Gospel, that He actively knows you and loves you and bestows His own divine, eternal Life upon you in body, soul, and spirit.  For His knowing and loving are not so much intellect and emotion as they are activity and gift.

He has known you in love by His becoming like you in every way — true Man of flesh and blood forevermore — who has also experienced all your suffering and temptation, all your sin and death.

And He knows you and loves you now by giving you Himself, His Body and Life, His Word and Holy Spirit, by the preaching of His Word and in the administration of His Holy Sacraments.  To give Himself to you in this way is the knowledge of intimacy, the way the Bridegroom knows and loves His Bride; which goes beyond the honeymoon to the sharing of life together as one Flesh.

Your Good Shepherd knows you that well.  What is more, He knows you in the way the Father knows the Son in the Holy Spirit, in the divine Love of the Holy Trinity.  Therefore, do not ever suppose that He does not understand or care about you.  Rather, listen to His Voice of the Gospel, and learn to know Him in the preaching of His Word, even as He knows the Father in Himself.

We often recognize a father in his sons, because his sons have received and made their own what was their Dad’s.  All the more do you know God the Father in His Son, Jesus Christ, who is of one and the same divine nature.  And as you know the Father by His Son, so do you know the Son by the Word that He speaks to you, by the good Gifts that He gives to you, and by the Life and Love that He bestows upon you by His Gospel.  Not only do you know Him in this way, but you also become like Him, begotten of God by His grace, a son of God in Christ, through faith in His Name.

As the Good Shepherd has become like the sheep, so do you, His sheep, become like your Good Shepherd, because He is ever and always with you, protecting you and providing for you in love.

Do not be afraid.  Even if you are given up as a sacrificial lamb, know that your Good Shepherd has already gone before you, and He also now goes with you, through the valley of the shadow of death into the glorious Light of His Resurrection and His Life everlasting.

If you are commanded by God and called upon to lay down your life for your neighbor within your office and station in life, know that your God and Father will raise you up again, as surely as He has raised Christ Jesus from the dead.  For His Resurrection is your resurrection and your life in Him, come what may.  He laid down His Life for you, and took it up again, in holy faith and holy love, that you should not perish but have abundant Life in body and soul, now and forever, in Him.

His Resurrection is your resurrection, not only when you are faithful and true, but also when you have fallen and totally blown it; not only when you suffer patiently for doing what is right, but also when you suffer the consequences of your own faults and failings.  That is the whole point.  That is why your Shepherd has not only chased off the wolf, the lion, the serpent, and the bear, and kept them all at bay, but He has knocked out their teeth, shut their mouths, and broken their jaws.

Sin, death, and the devil have been robbed of their power and their sting, because God’s own Law has been perfectly fulfilled and completely satisfied by the Good Shepherd Himself, on behalf of His sheep.  So the Lord does not accuse you but forgives you.  That is what His dying for you has done, and that is what His rising for you means.  There is no condemnation for you in Christ Jesus.

His rising from the dead is your comfort and your confidence in the face of every contradiction, in the midst of all your chaos and confusion.  Face to face with the big bad wolf, surrounded on all sides by voracious predators, your Good Shepherd stands fast, and He’s got you covered.  He shelters and protects you round about.  You’ve got nowhere to run, but He has come running to you, in order to be with you, to defend you, to save you, and to love you, now and forever.

When the wolf would stare you down to intimidate and frighten you with accusation, guilt, and shame, your Good Shepherd stares down that wicked wolf with the Atonement and Redemption of the Cross, with the free and full forgiveness of your sins.  So, then, even when your heart quails in fear and your own conscience condemns you, the Lord who loves you comforts and assures you with His Voice of the Gospel, and He strengthens and sustains you with Peace in His presence.  Because He is your Shepherd and He is with you, you are kept safe and secure in and with Him.

In fact, you are far better off than simply “safe and sound,” and your Shepherd gives you so much more than peace and quiet.  Not only does He spare your life and provide your basic necessities, but He brings you into His royal Palace and seats you at His banquet Table.  He actually gives you a place of honor, and He glorifies you — in the presence of His Father, the great King, on the one hand — and in the face of all your enemies, to their great shame and disgrace, on the other hand.

You shall not be given as food for your foes to consume, but the Lord here gives Himself as Food for you, so that you shall not go hungry or starve.  You shall not want for anything.  Though you have been thirsty and dehydrated, His Cup runs over with abundant Life, which He pours out for you generously, that you may drink your fill and be constantly refreshed in both body and soul.

Though you have been unholy and unhappy, the Lord your Shepherd anoints you with the Oil of gladness.  He pours out His Spirit upon you to sanctify you with His divine goodness and true joy, as He has anointed Belteshazzar in body and soul with His Spirit by water and His Word today.

Though you have been lost, alone, and afraid — and there are many days when you still feel that way — the truth is that your Good Shepherd has come for you; He has already found you, He has snatched you out of danger and from the jaws of death, and He has brought you Home rejoicing.

In reclining here at His Table you lie down in His green Pastures.  In drinking from His Chalice you rest beside His peaceful Waters.  And living here and now by the Preaching of your Good Shepherd, you already dwell in the House of the Lord, and so shall you abide with Him forever.

In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

The Pastor and Bishop of Your Body and Soul

He has come to give you His abundant Life.  He has come in the flesh to be and abide with you, so that you should abide, both body and soul, henceforth and forevermore, with the one true God and Father, and with the Holy Spirit, in and with this same Lord Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son.

It is for this eternal purpose that He has become flesh and blood, with body and soul just like your own, in order to bear your sin and be your Savior.  It is for this sacred and salutary reason that He has handed Himself over to His voluntary suffering and death; that He has laid down His own life upon the Cross, and that He has taken it up again in His mighty Resurrection from the dead.

So, too, with the authority that God the Father has given to Him over all the works of His hands, which is to say, over all of creation, the heavens and the earth and all that is in them, the crucified and risen Lord has called and sent His Holy Apostles and the servants of His Word to preach this Holy Gospel and distribute the blessed Fruits of His Cross and Passion, in order to give you Life.

He is the Door — you have heard Him say so — the Door by which His shepherds and His sheep enter into the fold, and by which they come and go in safety, peace, and rest, from this body and life on earth into the Life everlasting of body and soul in Paradise forever.

For the incarnate Son is the Way to the Father, and He has opened the Way to you and to all by His holy and precious Blood, by His innocent suffering and death, and by His gift of the Holy Spirit.

His shepherds are first of all called to follow after Him by repentance and faith in His Cross; and they, in turn, are thus given to bear the Cross to and for His Church in all their life and ministry.  They are called and sent to care for His lambs and tend His sheep with patience, perseverance, compassion, and the free and full forgiveness of sins in His Name, with His own authority.

So are His lambs and sheep called by name, each one, through this Ministry of the Holy Gospel, to die and rise with Him in repentant faith, and thereby to follow after Him and live with Him.

So, hear and heed His Voice.  Recognize the tone and timbre of the Word of God in the preaching and teaching of His Law and His Gospel.  And by the same token, flee from strangers and strange voices which preach and teach another word, an alternative or contrary word, or any other way.

Listen to the Voice of your Good Shepherd, and follow in His footsteps.  Live and walk after His example.  Bear the Cross and suffer patiently within your own place by faith in His Resurrection.  When you are picked on, laughed at, forgotten, or left out, do not lash out or give up, but trust in Christ.  When you are reviled and hurt, do not revile in return, but pray for your persecutors, and forgive those who trespass against you, just as you are daily and richly forgiven by Christ Jesus.

The rod and staff of His Cross are a discipline, to be sure, which guard and keep you away from danger.  But they also guide and keep you on the path of life, because it is by and from His Cross that He provides you with lush green pastures, clear and clean water, and His own abundant Feast.

He Himself has borne your sins in His own Body on the Cross, so that you might die to sin and live unto righteousness in Him.  And it is by and with His Cross that you are signed and sealed in Holy Baptism, and named with His own Name, that you should be His own dear sheep, and He your great Good Shepherd, the true Pastor and Archbishop of your body and your soul forevermore.

The sacred example of His own life, death, and bodily resurrection, for you and for all people, is now embodied in the life and ministry of His Apostles and the undershepherds who follow after them, even to this day and place.  It is likewise given to you in the Fruits of His Cross and Passion, that is, in the means of His grace and forgiveness, in the ways and means of His life and salvation, in particular His Holy Baptism and Holy Absolution, the preaching of His Holy Gospel, and the Holy Communion of His Body and His Blood, given and poured out for you and for the many.

These gifts of God in Christ Jesus are the green pastures in which you safely graze as a sheep of the Good Shepherd, and they are the sheepfold in which you rest secure in His Salvation.

By your Holy Baptism into His Cross and Resurrection you enter through the open Door of Christ into the Temple of the Lord.  In His Holy Supper you feast at His Table, well spread with Meat and Drink indeed.  And in the gracious Peace of His Holy Gospel you abide in His House forever.

Here then, little flock, sing to the Lord, your great Good Shepherd and your God.  Make a joyful noise to this Rock of your Salvation.  Come into His presence with thanksgiving, and praise Him with Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, rejoicing in His Spirit by faith in His Word.

Oh, come, let us worship and bow down!  Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.  Let solemn awe possess us, even now, in the teaching and fellowship of His Apostles; in the Breaking of the Bread, which is the giving and receiving of His Body and His Blood; and in the prayers of His Church.

For He is your God, and you are His own sheep.  You are in His hand, and He brings you to these pastures in grace, mercy, and peace, that you may have abundant Life in Him.  There is forgiveness with Him, that you may fear, love, and trust in Him above everything else in heaven and on earth.

As you thus enter into this gracious and glorious presence of God by such faith in Christ Jesus, by His Cross and Resurrection, and by the free and full forgiveness of His Gospel, so also go out to your neighbors in love, living the divine Life of the same Lord Jesus Christ in your body on earth.

His shepherds and His sheep alike follow after Him, and so shall you also be like Him.  For by His Cross you die with Him, and in His Resurrection you rise and live with Him and share His Glory.

His Christians hold all things in common with His Holy Apostles, and therefore with Him, and with His Father and His Holy Spirit.  And as this Holy Triune God is Himself a Holy Community of Persons, so does the Church abide in Him as a lively fellowship of holy faith and active love.

Do no harm to your neighbor, therefore.  Do not steal, kill, or destroy his body and life, his good name and reputation, his marriage and family, or anything else that is your neighbor’s.  Do not enter by “some other way” into any place where you do not belong.

But by the Way of Christ the Crucified, do speak to and for your neighbor with the Voice of that Good Shepherd.  Give, sustain, and nurture life wherever you are called and given to do so.  Guard and protect, defend and serve the life of your neighbor, that he too may follow the Shepherd safely into His green pastures and live forever in His Name.

If you are a mother or father, love and care for your children as the Good Shepherd cares for His beloved sheep in mercy.  And if you are a child, honor your father and mother, and hear and heed their voice as that of the Lord, who speaks to you through them and serves you with their labors.

Wherever and however you have strayed from the path of righteousness, repent with all your heart, and return to the Pastor and Bishop of your body and your soul, that is, to the Lord Jesus Christ.

For His shepherds and His sheep alike find life and health and strength in Him, who is your Savior and your God.  He is the Door, the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and He has opened Himself both to you and for you, in order that you may flee from sin and death and find in Him the Food and Drink you need, and the Life and Salvation for which you have been created.

Even in the depths of that dark valley, under the shadow of the Cross, He leads you into this Life and Salvation by His own victory over death and the grave, and by the Resurrection of His Body.

It is this Body of Christ that is given to you here at His Table.  In the face of all your enemies, He feeds you with Himself, that you may have Life, and have it abundantly.  It is for this Feast that He is here!  And, oh, what transports of delight from His pure Chalice flow for you and for the many!  For He calls you by His own Name, and you are His, and He is yours, forever and ever.

In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Christ Jesus Tells You Plainly that He Is Your Good Shepherd

“Tell us plainly, if you are the Christ!”  It is not an uncommon question in the Holy Gospels.  The disciples ask Jesus much the same thing on Maundy Thursday.  And Caiaphas, the High Priest, puts this question to Jesus and demands with a solemn oath by the living God that He must tell them plainly, if He is the Christ, the Son of God.

The group that poses the question on the occasion before us this morning has already surrounded Him.  It is a hostile question, soon to be followed by the picking up of stones to throw at Him, to bruise Him, to put Him to death.  His death is coming, but this is not that Hour; it will come according to His time, according to the good and gracious will of God.  No one takes His life from Him.  He will lay it down willingly, and He will take it up again.  All of this He does for His sheep.

Often as not, though, it is His sheep who are asking Him, requesting of Him, and even demanding of Him, “Tell us plainly, if you are the Christ!”  It is essentially the question that St. John the Baptist puts to Jesus while languishing in Herod’s prison awaiting his death.  “Tell us, are you the coming One, or not?  Should we look for someone else?”  Tell us plainly, if you are the Christ.

It is more or less the question of St. Paul the Apostle, as well, when he three times prays fervently that God the Lord would remove his thorn in the flesh.  But of course, God’s response to St. Paul is a No: “My grace is sufficient for you.  My power is made perfect in weakness.”

You also ask of Jesus, that He should tell you plainly, if He is the Christ.  To be sure, you confess Him to be the Christ.  You confess His holy Name.  You confess His Creed.  You know that He died, you know that He rose, and you know that He’s coming again.  But, “tell us plainly, Jesus!”

You’d prefer to see it a little more clearly in your life.  You want to see and feel and experience that Jesus is the Christ, that He is your Savior, that He is your Good Shepherd and you His sheep.  You want to hear it, see it, and feel it plainly, instead of the hidden “glory” of the Cross.  Truth be told, you’d really like a whole lot less of the Cross and a whole lot more of the Resurrection.

Meanwhile, there is plenty in the world around you that is painfully clear and obvious.  You can hardly glance at a screen without learning of some new tragedy or outright act of terrorism.  Week after week, it’s one thing after another.  Burning buildings, crashing airplanes, mass shootings, and wicked abuse and neglect within families.  All of that seems far too plain and obvious.

The sins of your neighbor against you, they are plain and obvious.  And sometimes, when the Law has done its work, your own sins are plain and obvious, and your guilt weighs upon you, and your anxiety keeps you awake at night.  The bills are obvious.  The repairs that are needed are obvious.  Your health, and your children’s health, and your parents’ health, all of that is plain and obvious.

And you would long for Jesus to be at least as obvious as all of that bad stuff; that He should let you know and tell you plainly, that He is with you, that He is your Savior and Good Shepherd.

The thing is, though, that He has told you.  And He continues to let you know, to make Himself known to you.  He reveals and gives Himself to you.  And He reveals the Father to you in Himself.  He makes clear to you the good and gracious will of God, both by His Word and by His works — as He has done for Benedict this morning, and for you, as well, in the Sacrament of Holy Baptism: Here is repentance and faith in the forgiveness of sins, the dying of the Cross, and the rising of the Resurrection, all tangible, sure, and certain in the washing of the water with His Word and Spirit.

To begin with, the Lord your God has made His Law plain and clear to you, especially in the Ten Commandments, but so also in your vocations and stations in life.  He sets your neighbor right there alongside of you, that you should love him and serve him.  The Law is ultimately plain and simple: Love God, and love your neighbor, for love is the fulfillment of the Law.  So, then, do it.

Honor your father and mother.  Don’t simply begrudgingly obey them when you’re little and you have no choice.  Relationships change and develop over time, as you and your parents grow older, but you never do outgrow the Fourth Commandment.  It may not be easy, but it is plain enough.

Each and all of the Commandments address your place in life and your relationships in some way or another, and the Lord has surely explained what that requires of you in clear and simple words.  So, too, His servant, Dr. Luther, has taught the Commandments plainly in the Small Catechism.  Again, there is no lack of clarity in regards to the Law of the Lord and what it means for you in this body and life.  There may well be times when parents, pastors, or teachers can be of help to you in clarifying your duties in particular cases.  But most of the time it is not so much that you do not know what you should be doing, but that it is difficult, painful, and unpleasant to carry out.

In any event, the Lord has made plain His Word in the Ten Commandments.  Why do you not keep them?  He has even left you a perfect example in His own perfect life of faith and love, even unto death, that you should follow after Him and walk in His footsteps, just as He has lived and walked on His way of the Cross.  His sheep hear His voice and follow Him.  Why do you not follow Him?  Why do you not trust your Father in heaven?  Why do you not love your neighbor as yourself?

The same Lord Jesus has also spoken the Gospel plainly to you, His forgiveness of all your sins.  For He has taken them all away.  And He offers you His own Life.  Why do you not believe Him?  Why do you worry and fret about where you stand before the Lord?  He has given Himself for you.  He has redeemed you from the curse of sin and death by His own Holy Cross and Passion, by the shedding of His holy and precious Blood.  Why do you not fear, love, and trust in Him?  Why do you question and accuse Him?  Why do you doubt?  Why are you so afraid so much of the time?

You do not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, because you do not listen to His voice.  You do not hear and heed His Word and take it to heart.  You do not follow after Him in this body and life.

And as you do not listen to His voice, as you do not avail yourself of His preaching, as you do not follow in His steps, you are no sheep of His.  That is the hard Word of Jesus this morning.  If you do not listen to His voice, if you do not fear, love, and trust in Him, then you are not His sheep.

Those are hard Words.  But Jesus speaks them in order to call you to repentance, to call you back to Himself.  Do not be unbelieving, but believe.  Listen to your Shepherd’s voice.  Hear and heed what He says to you.  He is the Good Shepherd.  His sheep hear His voice and follow Him.

Even in His preaching of the Law, He is already speaking to you in love, according to His mercy, by His grace alone.  He does not write you off and give up on you.  For all the times that you have not listened, in His faithfulness He keeps on preaching, that you might live by faith in His Word.

So it is that you are His dear sheep, and you do follow after Him in faith and love, but only as you are hearing the Word He preaches.  Not only once upon a time or for a few years way back when, but throughout your life on earth, even unto death.  For you, as for Benedict, to be a sheep of the Good Shepherd is to be a disciple of Christ Jesus, which is to live and abide in the significance of your Holy Baptism, being catechized in the keeping of all that Christ has entrusted to His Church.

Holy Baptism is a profound gift of God, it is His good work and gracious blessing.  But it is not a one-shot deal that you leave behind you in the past, nor an insurance policy that sets your free to live a reckless and self-centered life.  It is rather the new birth of the Word and Holy Spirit, by which you have become a child of God and a sheep of His pasture, that you should live and abide with Him in Christ Jesus, nourished on the green grass of His Word and the preaching of it.

That is why the good and gracious will of God includes (and requires) that He would keep you steadfast in His Word and faith throughout this body and life, lest you depart from Him and die.

Do you long to know Him better, to know Him as your Shepherd?  Do you long to hear it plainly?  Listen to His voice.  Give attention to His gifts.  For He knows you in love, and that comes first.

He knows your sins and your weaknesses.  He knows your frailties and your failures.  And yet, He chooses to know you according to His grace and tender mercy.  He chooses to know you through His forgiveness of all your sins.  He chooses to know you in His righteousness, by grace.  And in His knowing you, He teaches you to know Him, to love Him, and to follow Him as your Shepherd.

Do you pray to Him?  Do you talk to Him?  That is good and right.  Indeed, you should pray even more faithfully and frequently than you do.  Your days and nights, your weeks and months and years should all be punctuated with prayer.  St. Paul says that you should “pray without ceasing.”  And your Lord Himself teaches you “to pray at all times and not lose heart.”  So do it.

Pray, praise, and give thanks in the confidence that your prayers are joined to those of Christ and the Spirit, who intercede for you in love; and they are heard and answered by the Father in heaven.

But your prayer — the true Christian prayer of faith — begins not with your speaking but with His.  His sheep listen before they speak.  For it is by His Word that you are taught to pray and confess, even as you are thereby taught to know Him.  Lay hold of Him by giving attention to His Word.

His Law truly exposes and condemns your sin and unbelief, but His Gospel truly forgives your sins and thereby calls you to faith and to newness of life in Christ.  You are able to lay hold of Christ Jesus in His Word because He lays hold of you there.  That is how He takes you by the hand.  That is how He lays you across His shoulders.  And that is how He brings you home again, rejoicing.

Everything depends upon Him.  And because He is true and faithful, all is sure and certain in Him.  He does and accomplishes everything, for you and for all people, by the preaching of His Word.  The One who promises is faithful, and He will do it.  As He has done so in the past, and as He shall do in your future, as well, so is He doing even now, all by His Word and the preaching of it.

Consider how it is for little Benedict this morning.  He has not baptized himself, nor could he even bring himself to be baptized.  He must rely upon his Lord, upon his parents and his pastor, and upon the congregation, to carry him and care for him, and even to pray and speak his confession for him.  And mark this well, that you stand before the Lord in no other way than Benedict does.

Consider, too, the Holy Gospel at hand.  Consider what your Good Shepherd has done for you by His pure divine grace — willingly and voluntarily — in love and mercy and compassion.

The Word — who was in the beginning with God, who is God, through whom all things are made — He has become flesh, and He tabernacles with you, in order to spread His tabernacle over you.  He has come to you and dwells with you here in love, the incarnate Son of God, Christ Jesus.  He has come down from heaven to seek and to save His little lost sheep — to seek and to save you.

So has He also laid down His life for you and all His lambs and sheep.  And He has taken it up from death and the grave, that He should raise you up in His own bodily Resurrection from the dead, that you also should have life in Him.  He has called you by His own Name, and you are His.  He has washed you with the water and His Word.  He has cleansed you of all of your sins; He heals you of all of your iniquities.  He leads you to His Table, and here He feeds you from His hand.

These are His good works, which testify of Him and tell you plainly that He is the Christ, that He is your Savior and Good Shepherd forever.  For so does He take you into His strong hand, and He shall never let you go.  So does He know you and love you, care for you and shelter you, feed you and provide for you.  And thus do you live and abide with Him in the House of the Lord forever.

Look, He has spread His Table before you.  And though your enemies may surround you on all sides with big rocks in their hands, they shall not be able to hurt you or snatch you from Christ.  For your Shepherd is with you, and His Cup overflows with your forgiveness, life, and salvation.

In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Sharing the Life and Love of Your Good Shepherd

In His great love for you, the Lord Jesus Christ, God’s own dear Son, your great Good Shepherd, has laid down His life for you.  He has given Himself into death, and He has spent Himself entirely for you and your salvation.  And He has taken His life up again by His exercise of perfect faith and trust in the Word and promise of His own God and Father; for He and His Father are one.  Thus does He raise you up, as well, from sin and death to faith and love and everlasting life with God.

By His Name — by the preaching of the Gospel in His Name — by this Ministry of your Good Shepherd, who cares for you — you are healed and made well.  You are raised up to stand in peace before God.  You are made strong and whole, and so shall you live with Him forever.

Live, therefore, the life that He has obtained for you and given to you by His grace.  Do not pursue and persist in your sins, which lead to death, but live the Life that is yours by faith in Christ Jesus.

Keep His commandments, and live according to them.  Follow Him, as He leads and guides you with His Word, and walk with Him in the right pathways of faith and love, for His Name’s sake.

Believe in Him, the Son of God, your Savior and Good Shepherd.  Believe that He was crucified for your sins, and that He has risen from the dead for your justification; that death no longer has any mastery over Him, and so it shall not master you.  Listen to the voice of your Good Shepherd, and trust His good Word.  Receive His good Gifts.  And live.  Do not fear death, but live in Christ.

So, also, love your neighbors, especially your brothers and sisters in Christ.  For you cannot love the Shepherd without loving His lambs and sheep, whom He calls to Himself by His Word.

But do you wonder what love really is?  What it means, and what it entails.  What it looks like.

You are given to know what love is, to receive and experience true and lasting love, in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd who has willingly laid down His life for you and all His sheep.

You, then, love the Lord and your neighbor by laying down your life for the Body of Christ.  That is what you are to do.  Give yourself and spend yourself entirely for others, especially for those whom the Lord has placed alongside of you in this body and life.  Do not be afraid that you will overdo it or love too much.  Do not flinch at the prospect of giving yourself away.  If you die by loving, what have you lost?  If you lay down your life in love, the Lord shall raise you up again.

If you see your brother or sister in need, then use whatever means and abilities the Lord has entrusted to your stewardship to help and serve and provide for your neighbor.  To love.  But if you do not see or know your neighbor’s needs, then open your eyes, and pay attention, and find out.

Do not speak of the Resurrection and the Life without living.  Do not speak of God’s love and Christian love without loving.  And do not speak of the Gospel and forgiveness without forgiving.

The forgiveness of sins is at the heart of God’s divine and holy love for you and for all in Christ Jesus.  He loves you by forgiving your sins, and by His forgiveness you know love and what it is.  It is an act of divine and utter charity, according to His mercy and His steadfast loving-kindness.  No one takes it from Him, but He gives it freely to all, by grace alone, by the Gospel of Christ.

To forgive those who trespass against you, as your God and Father in heaven forgives you — not for money or merit, but solely for mercy’s sake — that is to live and to love as God Himself does.

The Father has given His Son for you, and the Son has laid down His life for you.  In this way God has known you and loved you with the divine intimacy of the Father and His Son in the Spirit.

The Lord has not held your sins and failings against you, but He has given Himself to deal with them, to suffer the consequences of your wrongdoing, and to set things right for you at the cost of His own body and life, by the shedding of His holy and precious blood in death upon the Cross.

He has not allowed your enmity and lack of love to dissuade Him.  He has not returned tit-for-tat in petty retaliation, as you have so often done in response to your neighbors.  He has not treated you or dealt with you as you have treated others, with impatience, irritation, and spite, but, in spite of your nasty unpleasantness, He has actually befriended you in grace, mercy, and peace.

He has sought you out, His lost and wandering sheep, in order to restore you to His fold, to care for you as your Good Shepherd, on earth as it is in heaven.

Consider what that means, as even little children know what a shepherd is and does for his sheep.  He guards and protects you from the ravenous wolves and roaring lions who would devour you.  He leads you and guides you by His Word, steering you away from the dangerous temptations of sin, and bringing you into the lush green pastures of His Gospel.  He feeds and waters you in safety and in peace.  He calls you gently to Himself by name, that you should follow Him and live.

Indeed, He leads you into His House and seats you at His Table.  In the face of sin, death, the devil, and hell, He has prepared a Feast for you in His Kingdom, that you should live with Him forever.  He has called you by His own Name, that you should be His own, and all that He has is now yours.

He has made of you a child of His own God and Father, and He has poured out His Holy Spirit into your heart through the forgiveness of all your sins by His Gospel, that you should have peace and hope and confidence in Him.  What is more, not even His own Law, nor your own heart, nor anyone else may condemn you, for He has satisfied the Law entirely on your behalf, He has atoned for all your many and various sins of thought, word, and deed, and He has risen from the dead for your justification.  He is your righteousness and holiness, your innocence and blessedness, forever.

So it is that you live, now, by faith in Him.  Already now, you live with Him in His Resurrection.  As your heart and soul are at peace with God in Christ, by faith in His forgiveness, so does your body also live and work and rest in peace, regardless of what you may face in this life under the Cross.  You live and you love, as your Good Shepherd does, to the glory of your God and Father, and for the benefit of your neighbors in the world.  For your life is hidden with Christ in God.

It never is by your own reason, wisdom, or strength.  You live and love by faith in His Word, as you hear His Voice in the preaching of His Gospel, and as you receive His Life and His Love in the ongoing significance of your Holy Baptism and the ongoing Feast of His Body and His Blood.  For by the Ministry of His Means of Grace He continues to give His own Life for His Sheep; no longer by dying, for He shall never die again, but by living unto God in righteousness as a great and merciful High Priest.  He ever lives to make intercession for His Church before the Father in heaven.  But so does He live to serve His Church on earth at His Font, His Pulpit, and His Altar.

To this end, He calls and sends, not hired hands and mercenaries, liable to cut and run at the first sign of danger or difficulty, but faithful shepherds after His own heart, who care for His lambs and sheep with their very lives, preaching His Word and working His works in His Name and stead.

And where His called and ordained servants deal with you according to His divine command — as He Himself did all that His Father commanded Him — so does He deal with you and care for you in this way.  Wherever His Gospel is preached in its truth and purity, and wherever His Holy Sacraments are administered in harmony with His Gospel, there He is with you, knowing you and loving you, and teaching you to know Him and to love Him by faith in His Word and promises.

Thus you may be certain that He is here with you in the green pastures of His Word, with which He feeds you unto eternal life, and by which He leads and guides you in righteousness and truth.

Here, too, is the water of His Baptism, the anointing of His Holy Spirit, by which He has made you His own, to which He daily returns you in love, and by which He leads you in quietness and peace.

Here at His Altar is the Holy Cross, the Rod and the Staff of His Gospel, by which He has atoned for your sins and redeemed you, and by which He has defeated death and the devil for you.  So it is that you shall not die but live forever in Him.  And so it is that death no longer holds any power over you, and the fear of death no longer drives you into selfishness or shamefulness or sin.  For by His Word of the Cross Christ absolves you, and with His forgiveness He gives you His Life.

Here then is the Table that He spreads before you in His House, and here is the Cup that overflows for you with His holy and life-giving Blood; that by this Feast you may belong to Him and abide in His Body forever, in His goodness and mercy all the days of your life, unto the Life everlasting.

In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Following the Good Shepherd of Your Soul

As so often in St. John’s Holy Gospel, this Word of our Lord is at once so simple and obvious, and yet, so profound and mysterious that you can hardly understand it.  In fact, you cannot understand the things of Christ apart from the grace of His Word and Holy Spirit.  The disciples likewise did not understand the “figure of speech” that Jesus was using in this case.  It is only in the light of the Cross and Resurrection that anyone is able to understand the Lord Jesus Christ and His Gospel; but of course, the Cross and Resurrection must also be explained by His Word and Holy Spirit.

There are a number of key point in this Holy Gospel, which speak to the heart of your salvation: There is the Door to the sheepfold.  There are the true shepherds who enter through that Door, in contrast to thieves and robbers who enter by some other way or means.  There is the Doorkeeper, who admits the shepherds to the fold.  There are the sheep, who recognize their Shepherd by the sound of His Voice, but they neither hear nor heed the voice of thieves and robbers.  And, finally, there is the abundant Life which the Good Shepherd gives to His own dear sheep.

You know and confess that Jesus is your Good Shepherd.  But where and how does He “shepherd” you as a sheep of His fold?  That is, by and large, the main point to our Gospel this morning.  The great Good Shepherd of the sheep comes to you, He deals with you and cares for you, by those shepherds whom He calls and sends to speak and act in His Name and stead, with His authority.

As Jesus says, He is the Door through which the shepherds of His sheep must enter.  But since He also is the Shepherd of the sheep, He enters through the Door, as well.  He enters through the door of Mary’s womb, to begin with, in order to become true Man, flesh of our flesh and blood of our blood.  And then He enters through the door of His Cross and Resurrection — through death and the grave — into everlasting life.  The Lord-Who-is-our-Shepherd thus becomes the sacrificial Lamb of God, a Sheep led to the slaughter, to lay down His Body and Life for the entire flock.

Accordingly, those who are called to shepherd the flock under Him must also enter through this “Door,” which is Christ Himself, the incarnate Son of God, crucified and risen from the dead.  It is the Lord Christ Himself, the Good Shepherd, who makes any man a pastor, that is, a shepherd of His sheep.  This work He does by His Word, by the means of His Divine Call and Ordination.

It is Christ who calls and ordains a man to the Office of the Holy Ministry, though He does so through the agency of His Church on earth: The seminaries teach and train, the Church at large affirms and certifies, a congregation extends a Call, and those who already serve within the office confirm the Call with the laying on of hands, with the Word of God and prayer.  But it is the Lord who thereby provides shepherds for His sheep.  Apart from His Word and His work, there are no shepherds but only thieves and robbers.  Only those who enter through the Door of the Body of Christ, by His Word and Holy Spirit in His Church, are actually the true shepherds of His sheep.

But that is the beginning, not the end.  A man who has been called and ordained as a shepherd of the sheep — especially because he is sent in the Name and stead of the Good Shepherd — must always speak and act in accordance with the Word of Christ.  In everything a pastor says and does, he continues to enter into the sheepfold through the Door, that is, through Christ, by way of His Word.  Thus do the sheep hear and know their Shepherd’s Voice in the preaching of their pastor: because it is indeed the Voice of Christ, their Savior, with which their pastor speaks to them.

What is it, then, that all of us — pastors and people, shepherds and sheep — are called to do?  It is to hear the Voice of the Good Shepherd, and to follow Him by faith in His Word.  You know where to hear His Voice, that is, from those whom He has called and sent to be your pastors in His Name and stead.  And you follow Him by heeding His Voice and living by the Word that He speaks to you.  Thus do you receive the abundant Life that Christ has obtained and gives to you.

This abundant Life for which you were created, which is to say, your Life with God the Creator, is not only from Christ but in Christ.  It has been accomplished for you and for all by His death upon the Cross, and it is given to you in His Resurrection from the dead — as it is preached and administered in all the world — through the Ministry of His Gospel, His forgiveness of sins.

This Gospel is the distinctive Voice of the Good Shepherd, which is spoken into your ears and given into your body by His Word and Sacraments.  This Voice of the Shepherd does not simply tell you about the forgiveness of sins.  It is the actual forgiveness of all your sins.  And it is by this Voice of forgiveness that Christ Jesus gives you His own abundant Life.  It is not some endeavor that you must do or accomplish for yourself by following a set of rules or regulations.  It is Life itself, the gracious gift of God in Christ.  In hearing His Voice, you already begin to live in Him.

Everything depends on His Voice.  His sheep know His Voice and follow Him by faith; but those who do not recognize or listen to His Voice are not His sheep and have no part in His sheepfold.

That is a sobering assertion, which calls you to repentance.  For St. John has indicated that even those chosen disciples had no idea what Jesus was talking about.  And do not suppose that you are smarter or superior to those men who were called by Christ Himself and followed Him to death.  No.  By virtue of your fallen flesh, you are not even able to know the Voice of Christ, because you were conceived and born in sin.  So you are not His sheep by any merit or ability of yours.

You are a sheep of the Good Shepherd, like those first disciples, only because He has called you to Himself, and by His Word and Holy Spirit He has caused you to hear and believe His Voice of the Gospel.  Otherwise, it would make no sense to you at all.  Indeed, it would be quite offensive.

You don’t like to hear that your sins are forgiven, because you cling to a denial of your sins.  You seek not forgiveness but explanations and excuses.  You don’t like to hear that you are given life in the Cross of Christ, because you don’t want a life that is shaped and defined by the Cross.  You don’t want the preaching of the Gospel, because you don’t like to rely upon the preacher whom Christ has sent.  You much prefer the self-righteousness of a prideful do-it-yourself spirituality.

The Voice of your Good Shepherd is surely the sweetest and most comforting sound that you will ever hear.  It forgives your sins and gives you Life.  But to those who are not yet sheep, even the sweetness of this Voice is bitter; and it remains bitter to the ears of your old Adam, because the forgiveness of your sin means the renunciation and repudiation of your sin, which has otherwise defined your so-called “life.”  And to live the new Life that you have in Christ Jesus involves the daily death and destruction of your old Adam — who is no one else than your own sinful self.

So it is that you will too often prefer to listen to the voices of thieves and robbers and to follow them instead of your Shepherd.  You don’t perceive them to be thieves and robbers, of course, because they say what your itching ears desire to hear.  Besides, they’re not stealing from you so much as they are stealing you from your Good Shepherd!  Yet, by doing so, they rob you of your life and health and everything else, because they lead you astray from your Savior, Christ Jesus.

Such are the grim realities that your Shepherd faces.  By all rights, He might well throw up His hands in disgust and just give up on you and your stubborn, wayward ways.  Sheep are often not the smartest of animals, as I recall from when I was a young boy living in Australia, where many of my friends and their families raised sheep.  By your native sinfulness, however, you are even more foolish and stubborn than sheep.  You are sinful and unclean, and it is surely true that you deserve nothing else but punishment for your sins, both here in time and hereafter in eternity.

But what does your Good Shepherd do?  He comes through the door of St. Mary’s womb into flesh and blood like yours, in order to share your mortal life, and to bear, both with you and for you, all the deadly consequences of your sin.  He passes through the narrow door of death and the grave, in order to blaze the trail and open the way for you, into His Resurrection and His Life; that you should be forgiven all your sins by His grace; that you should not perish but live with God forever.

His own Cross and Resurrection have thus become the Door whereby you enter His sheepfold — His Church on earth and the Paradise of God — in which you are His own dear sheep, and you are kept safe from the devil, the world, and your sinful flesh, and you are cared for by Christ Himself.

So do the Cross of Christ and His forgiveness of your sins also shape the Life that you live in Him.  Which is to say that, as a sheep of the Good Shepherd, your life is characterized by self-sacrificing love and service for others, and especially by your forgiveness of those who sin against you.

So it is that, even though most of you will never become pastors of the Church, there are many ways in which the Good Shepherd does call you to serve and care for His sheep, that is, within your own particular stations in life.  That is probably most obvious in the callings of fathers and mothers for their children, and for teachers, public servants, doctors and nurses.  But whatever your particular place and calling may be, you are given to love and care for your neighbor for the sake of Jesus Christ.  Thus are you an agent of the Shepherd’s care for others.    Indeed, that is the main point and purpose of your position in life; not making money or a name for yourself, but loving and serving those entrusted to your care, and forgiving your neighbor as Christ forgives you.

As you consider how often you fall short of these good and gracious things in the way that you actually do think, speak, and act in relation to your neighbor, so do you realize that, not only are you a sheep of the Good Shepherd by His grace, but you are still a sinner, a child of Adam in this body and life on earth.  And if you conclude that it is all too much for you, and that you are simply not up to it, well then, you are quite right!  For as long as you live in this fallen world, you are going to fall short, to stray from the Shepherd and His flock, and to sin.  Of yourself, you are lost, helpless and hopeless.  But, thankfully, none of this depends on you.  None of it.  Not in the least.

It is the Good Shepherd Himself, your dear Lord Jesus Christ, who has gotten Life for you, and who now bestows that abundant Life upon you by His grace alone.  By His Incarnation, life, death, and Resurrection, He has become your Shepherd.  And by His Ministry of the Gospel, He not only calls you to be His sheep, but He shepherds you and cares for you in peace.  It is His Voice that daily and richly forgives you all your sins, and calls you back to the fold as often as you stray.  And it is by His Voice of the Gospel that His Spirit strengthens and sustains your faith and life in Him.

For your part, then, hear your Shepherd’s Voice as He speaks to you, and receive His forgiveness of your sins, His life and salvation, which He freely delivers to you here and now in His Church.

You are shaped for Life with God by the Cross and Resurrection of Christ Jesus, into which you have been baptized.  You are given a forgiving heart, and you learn how to forgive those who sin against you, by confessing your sins and receiving Absolution from your pastor as from your Good Shepherd Himself.  And you are nurtured in the green pastures of that same Good Shepherd, to grow up unto everlasting life in His image, as often as you are fed with His own Body at His Table and given to drink of His holy and precious Blood from His overflowing Chalice of Salvation.  So shall you live and abide in the House of the Lord forever.

In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

To Hear and Know the Voice of Your Shepherd

We heard last Sunday how it was that St. Peter first of all needed his dear Lord Jesus to be his own Good Shepherd, before he, in turn, could be and serve as a good and faithful shepherd of the flock under Christ.  Now, today in particular, we remember and give thanks that the same Lord Jesus Christ is the great Good Shepherd of us all, and that He has always provided His Church on earth with faithful shepherds under Himself to tend and care for His lambs and His sheep in His Name.

Dr. Luther once wrote that even a seven-year-old child knows what it means for lambs and sheep to hear and follow the Voice of their Good Shepherd.  For He feeds and nourishes them with His Word, and by the same means He guards and protects them from all the dangers to their life.  And they, in turn, learn to love and trust in Him by faith in His Word, by the grace of His Holy Spirit.

Which means, in practice, that a Christian pastor must nourish the Lord’s flock with forgiveness and with the Body and Blood of Christ, and that he will protect the sheep from all false theology.

That is how it is that Christ Himself is your Good Shepherd, the way and the means by which He cares for you and shepherds you in the green pastures of His Church — in the divine Liturgy of His Gospel — by the preaching of His Word and the regular nourishment of His Holy Supper.

So then, as for Simon Peter, so also for you.  To be and to live as a sheep of this Good Shepherd requires that you understand your need for Him, and that you receive His many blessings — of forgiveness and life and salvation — with grateful appreciation for and confidence in His mercy.  That is the essence of true faith: humbly to rely upon the Lord and thankfully to receive His help.  Which means that you must listen exclusively to His Voice and follow no one but Christ alone.

That is what you must do, if you would be His sheep.  Yet, too often you fail to hear the voice of your Good Shepherd or follow Him.  First of all, because you fail to recognize the Lord Jesus.

How often do you look for “Jesus” by following your own thoughts and feelings and instincts?  But you’ll never find Him that way.  That’s precisely how the sheep get lost!  But no, instead, you keep track of your Shepherd and stay close to Him by listening closely to His voice.  You follow that voice, and no other, to your Shepherd Himself in the flesh, right where He promises to be.

Regrettably, because of the deceptions of sin — in your heart, mind, and flesh — you find it so hard to hear and to heed the voice of your Good Shepherd in the preaching of His Gospel, and harder still to be content and satisfied with those mundane things to which His voice directs you.  For He calls you to water applied in the Name of the Lord, and to bread and wine administered with His Word in remembrance of Him.  You would so much rather see and hear Him clearly and in person.  So you cry out like the Jews in this case: “Tell us plainly, Jesus, if you are the Christ.”

But Jesus responds that He has already told you, that the works He performs in His Father’s Name speak for Him.  Certainly, those works include His miraculous signs, all of which reveal who He is and the salvation He obtains by His Cross and Passion.  But fallen flesh and intellect cannot see beyond the works to comprehend the Cross or to believe in the Person who does them.   In truth, His works are all the proof that is needed, but the crowds are blinded to the truth by their unbelief.

Without the gift of faith, which only God can give, you will never recognize the Good Shepherd nor believe His works.  As Jesus says here, “You do not believe because you are not My sheep.”

How, then, do you become and remain a sheep of the Good Shepherd and live by faith in Him?

To begin with, the Good Shepherd does not just let you go, leaving you to wander lost and helpless on your own.  He is always coming out to find you, even leaving the hypothetical ninety-nine to go searching for the lost ones.  He does not make you come to Him.  Left to yourself, that would never happen.  By yourself, by your own skills, you could not recognize the Good Shepherd, you could not believe His works nor listen to His Voice.  Therefore, the Good Shepherd comes to you.

He does so, first of all, by giving up His life for the sake of the sheep.  As we sang on Good Friday, “the Shepherd gives His life for sheep who love to wander.”  And as Christ Himself has clearly spoken today: “I Am the Good Shepherd, and I lay down my life for the sheep.”

But that is not the end of the story.  Even now, and to the close of the age, the Good Shepherd comes to you by giving you the blessings of His Cross — in the Spirit of His Resurrection — through the Ministry of His Gospel and His Sacrament, through all His Means of Grace, and in the work of His servants.  That is our profound confession of faith in calling the Ministers of Christ our “Pastors.”  For as you may already know, “pastor” is simply the Latin word for “shepherd.”

So does St. Peter write to the pastors of the Church in his First Epistle: “Be Shepherds to the flock of God which is among you.”  Notice how that recalls the Word that Jesus spoke to St. Peter: “Feed My lambs, and shepherd My sheep.”  And again, you have also heard what St. Paul spoke to the pastors of Ephesus in the First Reading this morning from the Acts of the Apostles:  “Be on guard for yourselves and for the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the Church of God which He purchased with His own Blood.”  Thus, by the Ministry of His Word and Sacrament, the Good Shepherd is always seeking His sheep and bringing them to Himself.

So does the Church pray in the Collect of the Day — not that you should somehow hunt around and find your Good Shepherd out there somewhere, that is, by searching on your own, by your own intellect, emotions, ingenuity, or efforts.  Rather, we have prayed that Our Father in heaven would grant us His Holy Spirit, so that, by His grace, we may hear and know the voice of our Shepherd and follow where He leads.  We pray in this way, by faith in the words and promises of God, because we rely on Him for everything, for life and health and strength in body and soul, for time and for eternity.  And we trust that He hears and answers our prayers in Jesus Christ, our Lord.

You follow the leading of your Good Shepherd, first of all, by recognizing the Lord Jesus as He comes to you in the work of His pastors or “undershepherds.”  Not because we pastors look like anything special.  Not because we are somehow better or holier than you or anyone else.  But you hear and receive the work of your pastors, as a Christian approaches all of life, solely on the basis of God’s Word.  For Christ Jesus says to His ministers, “whoever receives you, receives Me.”

You follow your Good Shepherd, then, by trusting and believing the works that are done in His Name, especially the works of Holy Baptism, Holy Absolution, and the Holy Communion.  As you confess from the Catechism, you thus receive forgiveness from the pastor as from God Himself, and no wise doubt, but firmly believe, that by it your sins are forgiven before God in heaven.

It is by these works of the Ministry, by preaching and His Sacrament, that Christ gives Himself to His sheep.  As He says to you this morning, “the works I do in My Father’s Name speak for Me.”

In all these things, you are a sheep of your Good Shepherd, and you follow Him, by hearing His Voice as He speaks to you in His Gospel.  For Jesus says that His Sheep will listen to His Voice: “I know My sheep,” He declares, “and My sheep know Me.”  So it is that you know and recognize His Voice by what He says and how He speaks to you:  “I love you.  I have given up My life for you.  Do not be afraid.  Your sins are all forgiven.  My Peace and perfect rest are yours by grace.”

Therefore, even “though you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, you fear no evil.”

For Christ, your Good Shepherd, has already passed through that valley of death on your behalf when He suffered and died for you on the Cross.  And by His innocent death He conquered death forever, as He demonstrates so clearly throughout Easter.  He has risen, and so will you also rise.  For by your Holy Baptism, you already share His death and Resurrection.  Now you follow your Good Shepherd through the valley of the shadow of death right on into heaven and eternal life.

As St. John writes concerning those who come out of the great tribulation: “You have washed your robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”  And in the Resurrection, never again will you hunger; never again will you thirst.  For the Lamb who was slain is your Shepherd; He leads you to springs of living water.  And so it is that God will wipe away every tear from your eyes.

That is your hope and confidence in Christ Jesus.  Already He is with you as your faithful Good Shepherd, strengthening your faith by His Word and Holy Spirit, guarding and keeping your life in Himself and with His God and Father.  So does He tend His whole flock on earth as in heaven.  He gathers the lambs and carries them close to His heart.  He gently leads the nursing ewes.

So also do you have the Good Shepherd’s own promise, given to you at your Baptism and every time you feast here at His Table:  “You are My own sheep.  I give to you eternal life, and you will never perish.  No one can ever snatch you out of My hand.”  And so shall you dwell in the House of the Lord forever.

In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The Lord Is Your Good Shepherd

The Lord Himself is your Good Shepherd, and, with Him, everything you need and all good things are yours.  For His goodness is not an abstraction; nor is it simply a quality of His character, an ability or aptitude or mere potential, but faithfulness in action and the fulfillment of His office and vocation.  Yes, He is intrinsically good; indeed, He is absolute goodness.  But He is also very good at what He does.  And what He does is more than noble and right; it actually meets every need.

The Lord is your true Shepherd.  That is who and what He is, and that is what He does for you.

He is not like the hirelings that you are prone to enlist and rely upon, whatever or whoever those hirelings might be.  They run out on you, in one way or the other, just when you need them most.  But they have nothing more to give than you give to them, and neither you nor they can save you.  Neither do hirelings care about you, anyway.  They care about themselves, and they are just as needy, and just as scared, as you are.

A sheep without a real shepherd is in trouble, like a child without a Mom or Dad; because there are so many needs, so many dangers, and so many enemies.  The wolf is on the prowl.  The lion is, too, you know that.  The serpent lies in wait.  But if the predators don’t get you and gobble you up, your own hunger will.  A sheep has to eat, and needs water to live.  If that isn’t provided for you, or if you aren’t content with what you’re given, then your searching and scavenging for food and drink is liable to get you lost.  Alone in the dark, in unfamiliar territory, in places where you don’t belong, you’re going to get hurt, or worse.

But your Shepherd, who is faithful, good and true, is not a hired hand who runs away from danger or lets you wander into it.  You are His own sheep, and He cares for you.  He is not working to make a living off of you, but He gives up His own life on your behalf, in order to give you life and preserve it in safety and in peace.

He saw the wolf coming, and He ran — not away — but He raced to help you.  He heard the lion’s roar, the serpent’s hiss, the big bear’s deep guttural growl, and He took His stand and set Himself between those predators and you.  He did not simply holler at them or chase them off.  Nor did He fight them, tooth and claw, as one might expect.  But He dealt them all a far more deadly and permanent defeat, in a way that has left them unable to hurt you anymore.

The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.  But what good would that be, if the wolf simply waited until the Shepherd were dead and gone, and then went about snatching the sheep and scattering them?  Heroic sacrifice, great, but what’s the point if it only puts off the inevitable?

No, the Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep, so that He may take it up again, and in His rising He obtains and preserves the life of all His sheep forever.  This is the great Mystery of His goodness, the special authority of His faithfulness and love in His keeping and fulfilling the commandment of His God and Father.

So this Shepherd, in sheep’s clothing, defeats the wolf at its own game.  He shuts the lion’s mouth and crushes the serpent’s head by giving Himself as a tasty little Lamb into their teeth.  They cannot resist this prize.  They cannot believe it is so easy!  And yet, they are in for a surprise.  For this Shepherd is the sacrifice that ruins their appetite once and for all.  He is not a hunter who kills the wolf with knife or gun, in order to open it up and bring Granny and Little Red back out, but He allows Himself to be swallowed up in the first place, in order to burst the belly of the beast from the inside-out.  That is what His dying and rising have done.  His laying down and taking up again of life in the flesh has left your enemies undone.

The predators still prowl for a little while now, and they can still act all fierce and scary, but they are toothless, and they have terrible tummy troubles.  They have no stomach for you, who belong to the Good Shepherd.  For not only does He gather you close to Himself, and stand over you to guard and protect you with Himself and His own never-to-die-again Life; but He also feeds you with Himself, so that He abides in you with His own flesh and blood, and you also abide in Him.

As you are thus fed, not only by but with your Good Shepherd, with the Meat and Drink of His flesh and blood, the wolf, the lion, and the snake, and even the big ol’ bear ought to know better than to eat you.  Oh, to be sure, they still eye you hungrily and greedily; more so than ever, ‘cause you know how it is when you can’t eat what you want!  They salivate over your body and soul, but whenever they try to snatch you and swallow you down, they taste again the Shepherd who abides in you, and they become ill.  They cannot hold His liquor.  They cannot digest His food.  Nor can they have His little lamb.

If staying with your Good Shepherd and keeping yourself close to Him depended on you and your faithfulness, well, you should already be aware, that wouldn’t work.  As it is, you wander and stray, you get yourself hopelessly lost, caught in some thicket, fallen into some deep dark hole or dangerous ravine.  Often as not, the predators don’t even have to come looking for you, because you’re out there chasing after them.  That is not as it should be, but that is how it is.

Yet, the Good Shepherd cares for His sheep.  Truly, He does.  He who laid down His life for you, and took it up again, He also takes care of you in every way.  He has defeated your enemies, and He still keeps you safe from them.  He has called you by His Voice of the Gospel to become a sheep of His fold.  He feeds you with the green grass of His Word, and He refreshes you with the cool clear waters of His grace toward you, His mercy and free forgiveness.  He provides all that you need (even though He does not give you everything your appetite craves and desires, lest you make yourself sick with gluttony and drunkenness and lust).

He guards and keeps you under His protection, so that you are able to graze freely and in peace on the good food that He provides.  And with His rod and staff, He guides and governs you in the good way that you should go, that is, the way of life, from pasture unto pasture, along the streams that flow from His Cross, from His innermost being, through the font, into Paradise with Him.

He does all of this for you, in order to give you life and preserve it; not only because He knows you and loves you as His own dear sheep, but it is by these means of grace, by His Gospel, that He actually does know you and love you.  His knowledge and His love are not so much intellect and emotion as they are activity and gift.

He has known you, in love, by His becoming like you in every way: true Man of flesh and blood, forevermore, but also having experienced all your suffering and temptation, your sin and death.

He still knows you, from now on and forever, by giving you Himself and His Life with His Word.  This is the knowledge of intimacy, the way the Bridegroom knows and loves His Bride; which goes way beyond the honeymoon and romance to the sharing of life, the sharing of one name, the sharing of the same home, the sharing of time together in conversations and activities.

Your Good Shepherd knows you that well.  What is more, He knows you in the way the Father knows the Son in the perfect unity of the Holy Triune God; in that flawless harmony of divine and holy Love.  Truly, there is nothing lacking in His knowledge and love for you.  Therefore, do not ever suppose that He does not understand or care about you.  Rather, listen to His Voice, and learn to know Him in His Word to you, even as He knows the Father in Himself.

How often isn’t it the case that you perceive and know a father in his son, because the son has received and made his own what was the father’s.  So much more do you know God the Father in Christ Jesus, His Son, who is begotten of His Father from all eternity, of one and the same divine nature and substance as He is.  And as you know the Father by His Son, so do you know the Son by the Word that He speaks, by the gifts that He gives to you, and by the Life and Love that He bestows upon you in the Gospel.  Not only do you know Him in this way, but you also become like Him, begotten of God by His grace, a son of God in Christ, through faith in His Name.

As the Good Shepherd has become like the sheep, so do you, His sheep, become like your Good Shepherd.  Not apart from Him, but always with Him, in His care and keeping; because He is always with you.  He really is with you.

Do not be afraid.  Even if you are given up as a sacrificial lamb, know that your Good Shepherd has already gone before you, and He also now goes with you, through the valley of the shadow of death, into the glorious Light of His Resurrection and His Life everlasting.

If you are commanded by God and called upon to lay down your life for your neighbor — to bear the cross for your spouse, your child, your parent; for a stranger, or in forgiveness and love for someone who hates you and hurts you — know that your God and Father will also raise you up again, as surely as He has raised Christ Jesus from the dead.

His Resurrection is your resurrection.  That is the authority of which your Good Shepherd speaks: the authority of His Gospel.  Because He received both the Cross and the Resurrection from His Father, and in faith and love He took them on Himself for you.  The Father loves you for His sake.

So, then, His Resurrection is your resurrection, not only when you are faithful and true, but also when you have fallen and totally blown it; not only when you suffer patiently for doing what is right, but also when you suffer the consequences of your own faults and failings.  That is the whole point.  That is why your Shepherd has not only chased off the wolf and kept it at bay, but He has knocked out its teeth, shut its mouth, and broken its jaw.  Sin and death have been robbed of their sting, because the Law of God has been fulfilled and satisfied by the Shepherd for His sheep.  God does not accuse you, but He forgives you for Jesus’ sake.  That is what His dying for you has done, and that is what His rising for you means.  There is no condemnation for you in Christ Jesus.

His rising from death is your comfort and your confidence in the face of every contradiction, in the midst of all confusion.  Face to face with the wolf, surrounded on all sides by hungry and voracious predators, your Shepherd stands fast, and He’s got you covered.  He shelters and protects you round about.  You’ve got nowhere to run, but He has come running to you, in order to be with you, to defend you, to save you, and to love you, now and forever.

When the wolf would stare you down, to intimidate and scare you with accusation, guilt and shame, your Good Shepherd stares down the big bad wolf with His Atonement and Redemption, and the forgiveness of all your sins.  So that, when your own heart quails with fear, or your own conscience condemns you, the Lord who loves you comforts and assures you with His Voice of the Gospel, and He strengthens you with peace in His presence.  Because He is your Shepherd, and He is with you, therefore, you are safe.

In fact, you are far better than safe and sound, and your Shepherd gives you much more than peace and quiet.  He does not only spare your life and provide your basic necessities, but He has brought you into His royal palace and seated you at His banquet Table.  He actually gives you a place of honor, and He glorifies you — in the presence of His Father, the great King, on the one hand, and in front of all your enemies, to their great shame and disgrace, on the other hand.

You shall not be food for your foes, but here the Lord gives Himself as Food for you, so that you shall never go hungry.  You shall not want for anything.  Though you have been thirsty and dehydrated, His Cup runs over with abundant Life, which He pours out for you to drink your fill, to be refreshed, to be revived in body and soul forever.
Though you have been unholy and unhappy, the Lord your Shepherd anoints you with the oil of gladness; He pours out His Spirit upon you, to sanctify you with His divine goodness and true joy.

Though you have been lost, alone and afraid, and sometimes you still feel that way, the truth is that your Good Shepherd has come for you; He has already found you, snatched you out of danger, and brought you home rejoicing.

In reclining at His Table, you lie down in His green pasture.  In drinking from His Chalice, you rest beside still waters.  In living here and now, by the Word of your Shepherd, you already dwell in the House of the Lord, and so shall you abide with Him forever.

In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.