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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. (Amen.)
Keeping up with the news has been quite a challenge the last eight days! On the one hand, there were both the apparent attempted assassination of Former-President Trump last Saturday and the Republican National Convention this past week, and, on the other hand, there were both the new case of covid afflicting Current‑President Biden and the seeming stalemate over his remaining in the 2024 presidential race. Not presidents but other leaders such as prophets, priests, and kings are largely in view when the Bible talks about shepherds, as in both today’s Old Testament Reading (Jeremiah 23:1-6) and today’s Gospel Reading. As with a number of other Bible passages, today’s Gospel Reading refers back to the time when Joshua succeeded Moses—at least as a prophet and “judge”, if not as a priest and king—after Moses interceded before God on behalf of the people of Israel so that they would have someone to lead them out and bring them in and not be as sheep who have no shepherd (Numbers 27:17). Later the prophet Micaiah foretold the death of King Ahab by describing a vision of Israel scattered on the mountains, as sheep without a shepherd (1 Kings 22:17). Still later, the Lord through the prophet Ezekiel prophesied against the shepherds of Israel for the people’s being scattered, because there was no shepherd (Ezekiel 34:5). And, still later yet, the prophet Zechariah blamed the diviners for seeing lies, telling false dreams, and giving empty consolation, with the result that the people wandered like sheep and were afflicted for lack of a shepherd (Zechariah 10:2). As today’s Gospel Reading makes clear, however, we are “Sheep with a Shepherd”.
Today’s Gospel Reading picks up right where last Sunday’s Gospel Reading left off, as that Reading had picked up right where the Gospel Reading the Sunday before it had left off—all three Readings have a common theme of Jesus’s blessing His people through His apostles. Two Sundays ago, we heard how, after the people in the Nazareth synagogue took offense at Jesus, Jesus sent out His twelve disciples, who proclaimed that people should repent and who cast out many demons and healed many who were sick (Mark 6:1-13). Then, last Sunday, we heard how King Herod heard of what the apostles were doing in Jesus’s Name and thought that Jesus was John the Baptizer, whom Herod had beheaded, raised from the dead (Mark 6:14-29). Today, we heard how, after the apostles returned to Jesus and told Him all that they had done and taught, the Divinely‑inspired St. Mark arguably describes Jesus as the Divine Shepherd of Israel, even the King of Israel, caring for His flock, teaching and feeding them through His apostles (confer Pekari, CPR 34:3, p.39), as promised in passages such as today’s Old Testament Reading (confer, for example, Ezekiel 34:11-15). So, with Jesus, the people then were—and we today are—“Sheep with a Shepherd”.
Now, of course, just because we are “Sheep with a Shepherd” does not mean that we do not still love to wander and actually do wander. For example, we may look elsewhere for our ultimate safety. We may think wrongly that we will be secure if we just get the right person elected. We may think wrongly that we will be secure if we just have enough money. We may think wrongly that we will be secure if we find the right boyfriend or girlfriend. Or, we may look elsewhere for our comfort. For example, we may try to not feel so alone by working all of the time. We may try to numb our guilt by eating certain foods or imbibing certain drinks or by having other substance-induced experiences. We may try to satisfy our restless longings for inner peace by desperately trying to change our circumstances so we can be at rest. (Pekari, CPR 34:3, pp.40-41.) When we wander and stray in these and other ways, we sin, and so we deserve present and eternal punishment, apart from God’s calling and so enabling us straying sheep to return to the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls (1 Peter 2:25), Who laid down His life and took it back up for us (John 10:11, 15, 17-18), so that we can be forgiven of our sinful nature and of all of our sins, by grace through faith in Him.
In today’s Gospel Reading, when Jesus went ashore and saw a great crowd, He had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd—secular leaders, like King Herod, and religious leaders, like the Pharisees, had failed them. Jesus had compassion: the Greek word suggests a movement in one’s bowels, which were thought to be the seat of love and pity. Jesus had compassion: the kind of compassion that was characteristic only of God, which is what Jesus is: true God in human flesh, greater than Moses and greater than Joshua before Him. Jesus not only felt compassion, but Jesus also acted on that compassion. In the case of the crowd in the Gospel Reading, Jesus taught and fed them. In their case and in ours, Jesus also carried our sins to the cross. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his or her own way; but, as Isaiah prophesied, the Lord laid on Him the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53:6). Jesus is the righteous Branch of David’s stem Whom the Lord promised to raise up, as we heard in today’s Old Testament Reading; Jesus is the Lord our righteousness. We deserve to be separated from God on account of our sin, but, as we heard in today’s Epistle Reading (Ephesians 2:11‑22), we are brought near by the blood of Christ, Who is our peace, reconciling us to God, giving us access in the Holy Spirit to God the Father.
Today’s Gospel Reading is said to have similarities with accounts of the people of Israel’s exodus from Egypt, their on-foot wandering in the wilderness and being fed with manna, the bread from heaven. Today’s Gospel Reading is also said to have similarities with today’s Psalm, Psalm 23, the Lord as our Shepherd making us lie down in green pastures and preparing a table before us. Today’s Gospel Reading and Psalm 23 likewise thus point us to the Sacrament of the Altar, where the Lord is with us by way of both bread that is His Body given for us and wine that is His Blood shed for us (confer Ezekiel 34:23-31). Truly, there in the Sacrament of the Altar, the Lord gives us who are baptized and absolved the forgiveness of sins, and so also life and salvation, and, we might say, ultimate safety and true comfort.
Today’s Gospel Reading says that, with five loaves and two fish, Jesus miraculously fed five-thousand men, not to mention women and children (Matthew 14:21). They all were satisfied. When we ask a blessing before meals as the Small Catechism teaches us to, at the outset using verses from Psalm 145 (Psalm 145:15-16), we are reminded not only that the Lord gives all their food at the proper time but also that the Lord satisfies the desires of every living thing (Small Catechism VIII:7), which is to say, He gives them enough to make them joyful and of good cheer (see Tappert, 353). In the Lord’s Prayer, we pray for daily bread, as the Small Catechism explains, for everything that has to do with the support and needs of the body, such as food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, home, land, animals, money, goods, a devout husband or wife, devout children, devout workers, devout and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, self-control, good reputation, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like (Small Catechism III:14; confer II:2). We want God to lead us both to realize that He gives such daily bread to everyone without our prayers, even to all evil people, and to receive such daily bread with thanksgiving (confer the Collect of the Day). And, we remember, as I wrote in my column for yesterday’s paper, that the Almighty God can work good through any candidate for President of the United States, as the Almighty God rules over all for the benefit of His Church.
Keeping up with the news may have been quite a challenge the last eight days, and there will be more such days to come, with the Democratic party’s virtual roll‑call vote and in‑person convention next month; a presidential debate scheduled for September; then absentee, mail‑in, and other early voting; and, of course, Election Day and whatever results it brings, whenever we might know them. But, all of this, too, will pass. We are “Sheep with a Shepherd”, and, as our Midweek Bible Study of Revelation recently reminded us, the kingdom of this world eventually will become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever (Revelation 11:15).
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +