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