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Saturday, April 13, 2013

Easter 3



John 10:22-30 - Misericordias Domini - April 13, 2013 
Good Shepherd Sunday

Jesus Christ is Lord.  This is the most fundamental confession of the Christian faith.  In Luther’s Small Catechism we confess in the second article of the Apostles’ Creed, “I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the virgin Mary, is my Lord.”   Immediately once we confess who Jesus is, namely, that He is true God and true man, we also confess what He has done.  This is important.  The two confessions always go together.  And so we continue, “who has redeemed me a lost and condemned creature, purchased and won me from all sins, from death and from the power of the devil, not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood and His innocent suffering and death.”  It is not possible to separate who Jesus is from what He does for our salvation.  By calling Him Lord, we always confess both. 

In the Gospel of Matthew, it is recorded that Jesus once asked His disciples who they believed Him to be.  You probably remember Peter’s response: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”  What a clear and straightforward answer.  That is exactly who Jesus is!  Peter did not learn this, however, by being really clever.  He learned this from God.  That’s what Jesus said when He responded: “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.”  Now let’s consider this for a second.  How is this possible?  When did the Father reveal this to Peter?  What is Jesus talking about?  The disciples had spent their time on earth listening to Jesus who was flesh and blood, not in heaven listening to the Father.  And by listening to Jesus and seeing what Jesus was able to do, they came to the conclusion, seemingly apart from the Father, that Jesus was the Christ.  So then, why does Jesus say that the Father revealed to Peter what he confessed? 
Jesus answers this very question for us in today’s reading from the Gospel of John which we just heard.  “I and My Father are one.”   There is only one God.  The work that Jesus did for our salvation was the work that God the Father gave Him to do.  It was the will of our Father in heaven to redeem us.  Jesus did His Father’s will.  Thank God! What Jesus has done for us reveals the Father’s love for us.  “I and My Father are one,” said Jesus.  That is why He gives His Father the credit for revealing who He Himself is.  To separate who Jesus is from the Father’s love for us is to separate who Jesus is from what Jesus has done.  Peter learned who Jesus is by the work Jesus did.
Jesus had asked him a very straightforward question, “Who do you say I am?”  He got a very straightforward answer.  “You are the Christ.”  The Jews in our Gospel lesson asked Jesus a just as straightforward question, “Are you the Christ?”  Why didn’t Jesus just say, “Yes.”  Why didn’t He just say, “I am the Christ, the Son of the living God.”? He is! Wouldn’t that have given them what they needed to believe?  Why didn’t Jesus just give them a straightforward answer?  Instead it almost seems like He dodged the question: “I told you, and you do not believe.” 
Although we don’t have any record of Jesus telling them in so many clear words, Jesus didn’t dodge the question.  Who Christ is is always revealed by what He does.  And what did Jesus do?  He healed the sick; He made the lame walk; He gave hearing to the deaf and sight to the blind.  Jesus forgave sins!  Only God is able to do any of this.  And Jesus did it all.  He never hid the fact that the work He did was the work of the Father.  And therefore He never hid the fact that He was the Christ.  Jesus revealed who He was by doing the work His Father gave Him to do. 
The Jews who gathered around Jesus did not believe that He had sufficiently proven Himself to be the Christ because they didn’t care about what He did.  They didn’t believe that they were sinners who needed God’s mercy – they relied on what flesh and blood could reveal instead of upon what God revealed.  We are sinners in need of God’s mercy.  God reveals His mercy in Christ alone.  We learn that Jesus is our savior from sin, death and the power of the devil, not by being really clever.  We learn it just like Peter did: from God.  God teaches us in Holy Scripture.  That’s why we listen to it.  That’s why we commit to memory from Luther’s Catechism and promise to suffer all, even death, rather than fall away from the faith we have confessed. 
Nowhere is God’s work in our lives more clearly revealed than when we see a little baby baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  This should remind us all of our own baptism.  Just like us, this little Sadiejo right here has not become Jesus’ little lamb by any cleverness of her own.  No, our God in heaven has revealed Himself as our dear Father by joining us to His Son’s greatest work of dying and rising through the promise attached to water.  Here we see Christ’s power!  As a lost stanza of that hymn we sang this morning says it:
As the Son of God I know Thee
For I see Thy sov’reign pow’r;
Sin and death shall not o’er throw me
Even in my dying hour;
For Thy resurrection is
Surety for my heav’nly bliss,
And my baptism a reflection
Of Thy death and resurrection. 
When we confess that Jesus is Lord, we confess also that He is our Lord.  We say, “I believe that Jesus Christ … is my Lord, who has redeemed me … who has purchased and won me … that I may be His own and live under Him in His Kingdom.”  It is not possible to separate what Jesus has done in the Father’s name from the fact that He has done it for you.  That is very important!  Christ is our Lord.  We own Him as our Savior.  And we are His children.  He has redeemed us so that we might be His own and have eternal life with Him.  Our relationship with Jesus certainly is personal.  Both ways.  We are His sheep.  He is our Good Shepherd.  Jesus says, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of My hand.”  We belong to Jesus. 
What a beautiful comparison between sheep and Christians!  The thing about sheep, though, is that they are not very good at anything.  They are dim-witted, defenseless animals that rely 100% on the protection and guidance of their shepherds.  They are among the most un-clever animals on earth.  But there is one peculiar and very helpful skill that sheep do have.  They are able to recognize the voice of their own shepherd in distinction to all other voices.  That is about all they have going for them, but it is a skill that keeps them alive.  Their only defense from predators lies in the strength and faithfulness of their shepherd whose voice they listen to and trust.  It is very important, therefore, for sheep to have good shepherds whose voice they continue to hear.  Otherwise they will die. 
So it is for us.  Our greatest skill as Christ’s flock is that we recognize the voice of our Good Shepherd.  This is the most important thing that a Christian does.  Jesus says, “My sheep hear my voice, and they follow me.”  That is what Christians do.  It is what a Christian is.  Christians listen to the Good Shepherd.  Just like it is with Christ Himself, so also it is with each Christian: what a Christian is and what a Christian does can never be separated.  Christians go to church.  We do this in order to hear the word of God because the word of God alone rescues us from sin and death and gives us life.  This is not a legalistic requirement.  It is simply a matter of fact.  Jesus’ sheep hear His voice.  That’s what we do; we go where His voice is heard so that we may be, and because we are His sheep.  
But how can we be certain that the voice we listen to is the voice of our Good Shepherd?  If it is so important to hear His voice, we must be sure that we are listening to His.  There are lots of voices out there, and they’re not all saying the same thing.  Sometimes what we hear doesn’t sound all that bad either.  Many preachers are able to give really good advice that meets the needs of all sorts of people.  Maybe they can even give you good advice.  Maybe they can help improve a relationship of yours that needs a little guidance.  Perhaps they can also lift your spirits by providing a cheery and vibrant atmosphere in church that you cannot find at work or school or even at home.  We can’t deny that, humanly speaking, these voices are sometimes helpful to a certain degree.  But that does not make them the voice of our Good Shepherd. 
We are told to flee from false shepherds.  St. Paul warns that ravenous wolves will rise up from even among us!  We are warned that not all voices are beneficial to listen to but can actually hurt us.  But sometimes when what we hear sounds good and we are not sure how to tell the difference between what our Good Shepherd says and what the wolf says, we want to say to Jesus as the Jews did in our Gospel lesson, “How long will you keep us in suspense? … Tell us plainly; give us a straightforward answer! Which voice is yours? What church should I go to?  What shepherd should I listen to? Am I your sheep?” 
But Christians, remember: who Jesus is and what He does always go together.  It is much simpler than the wolf would want you to believe.  We identify who Christ is by what He has done for us on the cross.  And so too that is also how we identify His voice.  Do you want to know the voice of your Good Shepherd?  Do you want to always be certain that what you listen to and rely upon is what Jesus wants you to hear and trust in?  Then consider your need.  Do not consider the need that man can fill, the need that clever words can fix.  Consider that need of yours that only God can meet.  Consider how you have lived in the sight of your Father in heaven.   Consider how you have treated your mother, your father, your husband or wife, your friends, your enemies.  Have you refused to forgive those who don’t deserve it?  Have you refused to show respect to those who haven’t earned it?  Have you used your body as though it were your own, and not God’s temple?  Are you a sheep who has gone astray?  Have you chosen for yourself your own way?  Are you a sinner who needs God to have mercy on you and forgive you all your sins?  This is your greatest need.  Other needs often feel more pressing.  But they simply aren’t. 
Do not rely on your own wit and cleverness to learn the voice of your Shepherd.  Flesh and blood will reveal nothing to you.  Look instead at what your Father in heaven has done to meet your need in the life and death of Jesus Christ your Savior.  Look to where Jesus, who did not go astray, suffered the punishment for all your sin by thought word and deed.  See the work of God accomplished for us on the cross.  When we see Jesus do the work of the Father in our place, we find the mercy of God that we need. 
We know the voice of our Shepherd.  And we know where this voice is heard.  It is where we receive again and again the same forgiveness that became ours in holy Baptism.  It is where we are given the very body and blood of our Savior for the forgiveness that He will never stop giving us – because we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand.  Only this Shepherd laid down His life for His sheep.  Only this Shepherd takes it back again. 
When we place our confidence in what Jesus does we place our confidence in God who gave Him the work to do in the first place.  If what Jesus has done to save us is pleasing to His Father, that means that we are too.  From His hand no one can ever snatch us.  That’s what Jesus said!  His voice is clear, because who He is and what He does for us – today and every day – these two things can never be separated. 
In Jesus’ name, Amen. 
The peace of God that surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting.  Amen. 

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