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.
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