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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Alleluia! Christ is risen! (He is risen indeed! Alleluia!)
“Jesus came that you might have life abundantly.” Jesus Himself plainly said that—that He came that you might have life abundantly—at the end of today’s Gospel Reading. Today’s Gospel Reading is part of a much‑loved chapter of the Bible, parts of which are read each of the three years of our lectionary cycle on this much‑loved day of the Church Year, Good Shepherd Sunday. Yet, in this year of the three-year cycle, Jesus does not actually identify Himself as the Good Shepherd, but instead, in today’s Gospel Reading, He twice solemnly identifies Himself as the Door of the Sheep. Generally, Jesus’s being the Door of the Sheep means that, if Jesus gives a shepherd access to you and you follow him, ultimately you will have life abundantly.
Now, as is usually the case, the original context of what Jesus said is pretty important to correctly understanding what He said. In the preceding chapter, Jesus had opened the eyes of a man born blind, but the Jewish leaders repeatedly questioned the man and eventually, because he confessed Jesus, cast him out of their fellowship, and in the end they even essentially insisted to Jesus that they could spiritually see (John 9:1-41). What we heard in today’s Gospel Reading immediately follows and seems to be directed at the Jewish leaders, who should have been faithfully shepherding God’s people, like the man born blind, but instead, Jesus suggests in the figure of speech, were self-interested thieves and robbers (confer Matthew 21:13; Mark 11:17; Luke 19:46), who, because they rejected Jesus, did not access the sheep through Jesus the Door, but who climbed into the sheepfold by another way—in order to steal, eat, or otherwise destroy the sheep—and whose voice, as strangers, the sheep would not know, and so whom they would not follow but flee.
Such fleeing of the sheep from a stranger is among the shepherding practices Jesus describes in the Gospel Reading that Bible commentators say are still observable today in Biblical lands. The sheep reportedly will flee a stranger even if the stranger is dressed in the shepherd’s clothes and attempting to imitate the shepherd’s call (Morris, ad loc John 10:5, p.448). That well the sheep know and distinguish their shepherd’s voice and follow only him!
How well do we know and distinguish our shepherd’s voice and follow only him? If Jesus as the Door of the Sheep has given our shepherd access, do we listen to and know his voice and follow him? There was a time, some might say, when people listened only to preachers of their own religious traditions, but the coronavirus lockdowns were probably not necessary in order for some to turn to other preachers, whether live-stream or download, on the television or radio, or in person. And, if we are now hearing faithful preaching of the Word of God, then the change is good, but if we are exposing ourselves to something else, then what are we doing? Are we looking for nicer space, better music, or more people? Those may or may not come with a shepherd authorized by Jesus the Door of the Sheep. Or, do we ever truly accept God’s Word as God’s Word, both hearing it externally with our ears and hearing it internally with our hearts and minds (confer Pieper, I:299)? And, if we truly hear that Word, how well do our lives follow it?
Perverse and foolish oft we stray, but yet in love He seeks us (Lutheran Service Book 709:3)! In the Gospel Reading, the Jewish leaders did not—or were not willing to (Brown, ad loc John 10:6, p.393; Ridderbos, ad loc John 10:6, p.356)—understand what Jesus was saying to them, so Jesus said it to them again, in a different way. And, God similarly uses the Gospel Reading to call and enable us to repent: to turn in sorrow from our sin, to trust God to forgive our sin, and to want to do better than to keep on sinning. When we so repent, then God forgives our sin—our sin of not distinguishing our shepherd’s voice and following him—or whatever our sin might be. God forgives all our sin, for Jesus’s sake.
As we have heard, Jesus is the Door of the Sheep; He does not symbolize a door, but He is a door, in a new sense (confer Pieper, III:305-306). Jesus grants shepherds access to the sheep, and He Himself saves the sheep. God in human flesh, Jesus was arrested as if He was a robber (Matthew 26:25; Mark 14:48; Luke 22:52); the people preferred that Pilate not release Jesus but release a robber, Barabbas (John 18:40); and Jesus was crucified between two robbers (Matthew 27:38, 44; Mark 15:27). But, out of His great love for you, Jesus was crucified for you, dying the death that you deserved, in your place. As we heard in the Epistle Reading (1 Peter 2:19-25), He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, and, quoting Isaiah (Isaiah 53:5), by His wounds you have been healed. Jesus makes an absolute claim to be the only mediator of salvation, and He mediates that salvation for you, so that you can receive that salvation in faith and be forgiven.
Your shepherd may not call you “long ears” or “white nose” (Brown, ad loc John 10:3, p.385), but he does call you by your name, usually the name put upon you in Holy Baptism, when you first come in-to the Church, which simply is holy believers and sheep who hear the voice of their Shepherd” (Smalcald Articles, III:xii:2). And, having gone out from the Church and sinning during the week, you again return to the Church for your shepherd to forgive your sins again by individual Holy Absolution and by feeding you with the “celestial food” (LSB 709:2) of the Sacrament of the Altar, bread that is the Body of Christ given for you and wine that is the Blood of Christ shed for you, for the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. If you hear His voice, the Lord comes to eat with you and you with Him (Revelation 3:20). He mediates the true pastoral office (John 21:15-17; Ephesians 4:11; 1 Peter 5:2-4), through the Church He calls and ordains shepherds, who give you life through such things as the water of life (John 4:10-11; 7:38) and the bread of life (John 6:51). Shepherd and sheep together are saved, and come in and go out, and find pasture. And so the rhythm of coming in and going out continues through out this life, until the abundant life to come.
In today’s First Reading (Acts 2:42-47), we heard how the believers were together and had all things in common, but that sort of “communal” life was not commanded, nor did it last very long, apparently. More important and longer‑lasting was the believers’ devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, that is, to the breaking of bread and the prayers, by which the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. Those believers suffered unjustly, as Christ had done, and in today’s Epistle Reading we heard St. Peter call us, as necessary, to follow in His steps, and the Church may be doing so even now, with some of the various governmental restrictions due to the coronavirus. No matter! Our abundant life does not consist in an abundance of possessions (Luke 12:15). We do not have to worry about ourselves or our loved-ones’ being laid off of work, for God will provide our needs. Our primary focus is not on the things of this life, which in all likelihood will end with our deaths, but our primary focus is on the life to come that never ends. Our “best life” is not “now” but in the future. The coronavirus or other disease need not frighten us; even though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we will fear no evil, for the Lord is with us (Psalm 23:4).
“Jesus came that you might have life abundantly”. Jesus Himself plainly said that at the end of today’s Gospel Reading. As you and I, with daily repentance and faith, live in His forgiveness of sins, we have that abundant, unrestricted, life already now, even if we have yet to fully experience it. We believe and confess with today’s psalmist, that surely goodness and mercy shall follow us all the days of our lives, and we shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever (Psalm 23; antiphon: v.1).
Amen.
Alleluia! Christ is risen! (He is risen indeed! Alleluia!)
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +