Sermon - Misericordias Domini 2019 - John 10:11-16

Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, everyone, to his own way.” “For you were straying like sheep.” Sheep go astray. They’re are as fickle as a nice May day in Iowa. They’ve been known to go astray or simply become sick and die for no good reason. They can be stubborn and hard-headed and very foolish. That’s us to a T.

“For He is our God, and we are the sheep of His pasture.” All of those negative traits we see in sheep, we do them. Except it’s worse when we do them, because we’re not just stupid sheep, we’re people whom God created in His image. When a sheep goes astray, it’s just a sheep. When you or I go astray, the consequences can be forever, lasting unto eternity. 

Thanks be to God that we have a shepherd in Jesus and He’s really our Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd calls out to His straying sheep. “For thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness.” 

Your Lord has lovingly sought you ought and rescued you from the perils of this life. Though we’ve gone astray after the cares and passions of the flesh; though we’ve been foolish and even purposefully wicked; though our sins are great and agonizingly abundant, Jesus, our Good Shepherd, has sought us out. The Good Shepherd has called out to us so that we might listen to His voice and return to Him. 

Now that our Good Shepherd has called out to us, He promises “I will feed them.” Our Good Shepherd feeds us with His Word. Dear confirmand, our Lord has gathered you near to Him as if you are a little sheep who had been lost and wounded, attacked by wolves and starved in the wilderness, but now today He says to you: “I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak.”

When you were baptized the Lord called out to you, placed His name on you, and branded you, seared you with the cross of Christ, sealing you in so that you shall never be lost. In the meantime He has bound up your injuries, healing you completely. How does our Good Shepherd heal us? Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”

While we may be a lot like actual sheep, our Good Shepherd is not like an actual shepherd. When the sheep begin to stray, an earthly shepherd beats them into submission. When one sheep leaves the flock, an earthly shepherd chalks that one up as a loss. When some sheep become deathly ill and extremely contagious, an earthly shepherd culls the dead weight. But not our Good Shepherd.

Our Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep and sacrifices Himself. This is the kind of love that your Good Shepherd showers you with. When you begin to stray He doesn’t beat you into submission, but He sacrifices Himself so that you’ll be forgiven. When you leave the flock He doesn’t forget about you, but continually calls out to you through His word in order to bring you back. When you become deathly ill with sin and contagious such that all others may become infected, He doesn’t lay down your life, but His. 

Our Good Shepherd heals us with the medicine which can only be found in the body and blood of Jesus. With great sacrifice, Jesus lays down His life for you and because of that heals the illness of your sin. The injuries of your heart, the pain and guilt which plagues you, all of it is healed in the blood of Jesus, your Good Shepherd. 

This healing body and blood of the Good Shepherd is given to you on the holy mountain heights where this sacrifice has been offered up on your behalf. The sacrifice is here present for you to eat and drink in the sacrament of the altar. This is the body and blood of the Good Shepherd, it’s the medicine to heal us who are sick sheep. 

What’s more, our Good Shepherd strengthens us weak sheep. For you confirmand, the past couple years have been intentionally focused upon studying the scriptures, upon learning and upon being trained in what it means to be a Christian. Through the study of God’s Word your Good Shepherd has strengthened you. I can see this as I reflect back upon the last couple years and I can see that you have been strengthened through the hearing of God’s Word. 

So over the duration of the remainder of your earthly life your Good Shepherd will continue to strengthen you with His Word that He feeds you. Christ commands His undershepherds to be involved in this ministry, as He instructed Peter, “Feed my sheep.” So it’s my job as your pastor to feed you with God’s word, to feed you with the sacrament, so that you may be strengthened to meet the days ahead. 

The reason your Good Shepherd heals you and strengthens you with His Word is because the days aren’t easy for His little flock. Like Jesus says, there are those who are nothing but hired hands and wolves, “He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.” The days aren’t easy for us as the little flock of Jesus. 

There are hired hands who claim to love the sheep and yet run away at every sign of trouble. Instead of being hated and having to sacrifice themselves, they abandon the sheep. With these words Jesus warns pastors not to be hired hands who run away but to be undershepherds who sacrifice of themselves for the sheep. May God strengthen me to not be a hired hand and run away when the wolf comes, but to stand firm and defend the flock and feed the sheep with God’s Word. 

But not only are there cowardly hired hands, there are also ravenous wolves who snatch sheep and scatter the flock. The earthly church isn’t perfect. There are divisions among us because the wolf has devoured some and the rest he has left scattered so as to be easier to snatch at a later time. Beware of hired hands who are cowards against the wolves and beware of the wolves themselves who want to snatch you away. 

Being in the little flock of Christ isn’t easy. So your Shepherd is constantly calling out to you, gathering you to Him, forgiving your grievous wounds and strengthening you with His Word. So listen to the soothing and familiar voice of your Good Shepherd. Be comforted in what you hear: “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.” He is our Good Shepherd and we are the people of His flock, our Good Shepherd has laid down His life for us. He sacrificed Himself, letting the wolf devour him, so that we might be gathered together into the one flock of His church. 

As frightening as the foe may be, with foaming teeth and burning eyes, our Shepherd is good and beautiful and pure, and loves you. When the world is dark and covered in thick clouds and you begin to stray, return to the shepherd of your soul and find solace in Him who lays down is life for you. Let us together follow Him who calls out to us with His Word, the shepherd and bishop of our souls, because He leads us to a green pasture far away from this wilderness of sin. 

Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!