Category: Higher Homilies

by The Rev. Marcus Zill

Psalm 2, Hebrews 1:1-6; Matthew 1:18-25

 

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

How does one even begin to comprehend the enormity of the holiness and the glory of God? Imagine a being so great and powerful that He created everything that is, everything that ever was, and everything that ever will be. Almighty, eternal, knowing all things. It’s just plain beyond all of our understanding.

Now there was a time when we did seek to grasp the wonder and power of the almighty God. In the Garden man had a perfect relationship with God, one based on love and trust, not fear. But Satan, that great deceiver, stole that away from us. He blinded our eyes to God, so that all we can now do is look inward at ourselves and think that we understand everything.

But it is not so. There is nothing inside you that is worth looking at. A great chasm separated you from God because of your sin. The only way that God could give you Himself, the only way He could restore your blindness and raise you up from the death of your own sin was by taking on your very life.

And so, as our conference hymn puts so well:

“He sent no angel to our race,
Of higher or of lower place,
But wore the robe of human frame,
And to this world Himself He came.”
(LSB 544:2)

Yes, God became one of His creatures.

So when you see Jesus, poor and helpless, an infant lying in the manger, you see God Himself. Hard to imagine? You bet. It’s more than hard. It’s impossible to imagine. But it is true. This is the very nature and character of faith. We can all imagine a God of judgment and fear and wrath. That somehow seems to come naturally to us. But a God who would come as a baby? Now that seems pretty strange.

And yet in that sublime mystery lies the heart and soul of the Christian faith. As we confess in the Creed: “Who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven and was made man.”  Did you catch that? For us men, that is, for us sons and daughters of Adam, He became Man. It’s incredible, and beyond all imagination. And God did it all for you.

And this is no small task.

The Bible declares that God is holy, and God’s holiness burns so hotly against sin that no one can see His face and live (Exodus 33:20). [You just don’t want to get close to someone like that!]

God warned Moses at Sinai that His people Israel must not approach the mountain, because if they forced themselves through to see God, they would perish (Exodus 19:21). Much later, the prophet Isaiah despaired of his life, because his eyes had seen “the King, the LORD Almighty” (Isaiah 6:5). St. Paul described this holiness as an “unapproachable light” (1 Timothy 6:16), and when St. John realized in the book of Revelation that he was looking at God Himself enthroned in splendor, he passed out cold (Revelation 1:17).

So how can we be restored in the presence of a holy God without being consumed by His wrath?

Well, let me try an analogy on you: Nuclear power.

Nuclear power gets generated when a high-speed neutron strikes an atom and splits it in half. The resulting energy is so violent and so destructive that special containment buildings must be constructed around the nuclear reactor to control its wrath.

Of course, God’s wrath is unimaginably and infinitely hotter and more violent than any nuclear reactor. And so a special containment building had to be built to house and to hold this all-powerful divinity whose holiness ferociously destroys sin.

And so the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

God gave us Jesus. He built Him. He knit His eternal Son in the womb of an earthly mother. An infant child who sleeps in a hay-filled manger and suckles on His mother’s lap. Jesus is the special containment building that God has provided so that we would not be obliterated during His special forces operation.

When this Holy nuclear Child was miraculously conceived in Mary’s womb, it is as if our God said, “Mankind cannot see Me and live. Therefore I must bury My holiness and hide it somewhere so that they will not be afraid of Me any longer. I will conceal the fullness of My godhead and holiness here in the flesh and blood of this woman’s Son.”

And so the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

Jesus’ physical body became the covering and the shield by which Mary and Joseph and you and I are all protected from the righteous wrath of God. Everything that God is and does now reduces itself to the confines of a baby boy.

Do you want to see the God of eternity, the one through whom the heavens were made, the one who fills all things? Well here he is! And guess what? The Gospel according to Ricky Bobby is actually true – He really is some 8 pounds and 6 ounces. “For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form.” (Colossians 2:9).

Some people fear their earthly governments or those in power. But what does the Almighty and all powerful God do for you? He comes to earth in the most helpless and harmless form of all – the form of a baby.

This little infant holds in His clenched little hands the full scope of your existence! He possesses, beneath His swaddling cloths and his well-sucked thumb, the divinity and might necessary to overcome every enemy who would oppose you. He is God Himself, not the God who comes to inspire your fear, but the God who hides and conceals everything you might fear about Him so that He can destroy everything that makes Him seem so fearsome in the first place – your sin that would damn you from His presence if you were left in it.

When Jesus takes your sin from you and carries it upon Himself, God’s wrath no longer burns hot against you. When He robes you in His holiness and washes you with His perfection, nothing unclean remains in you that would stir God’s holiness against you. Jesus is God’s containment building and shield and defense for you, for in this Child even death gets swallowed up in victory.

And so the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

And “blessed are all who take refuge in him.”

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

 

The Rev. Marcus Zill is pastor of St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church in Laramie, Wyoming, which serves as the campus congregation for the Lutheran students at the University of Wyoming.  Pastor Zill also heads the Christ on Campus work of Higher Things.

by The Rev. David A. Kind

John 3:16-21

You have come to a conference entitled “For You”. I’m sure as you’ve planned for this trip you’ve considered just what that title is meant to convey. Simply put, God is “For you”. Christ is “For You”. His love is “For You”. His gifts are “For You.” But every Christian wonders at one time or another whether or not all of this, God, His love, His blessings, really are for him or her. You know what the Gospel says about Jesus’ love, but you are also assailed with other voices that want you to doubt that love – the voice of your own conscience as you consider your sins, the voice of the devil who wants to amplify what conscience says so that you are lead not to repentance but to despair, the voice of the world that calls your faith foolish. This deadly chorus cries out that God surely can’t be for you. And yet the Gospel says very clearly that Jesus loves you and died for you. But when your feelings and your experiences cry out something different, you find yourself wondering if it’s really true. And if it is true, as it surely is, then how can you be sure about it? How can you know that God is “For You”?

The ancient Israelites must have struggled with the same questions. In the Old Testament lesson you heard today they are just about to cross over the Jordan river into the promised land when Moses addresses them as to the faith God desires to give them and to find in them. At one point Moses says: “The Lord delighted only in your fathers, to love them; and He chose their descendants after them, you above all peoples, as it is this day.” The people’s own recollection of history and of their own experiences in the wilderness, could have been interpreted in a completely different way by them, and probably was by many of them. Where Moses proclaims God’s love to them, they see only trouble and wrath and hardship. The Lord chose Abraham, but then caused him to leave his homeland and his family and go to a foreign land, and to trust in a promise that he would not live to see fulfilled. The Lord sent the offspring of Abraham down into Egypt where after a brief period of prosperity they were enslaved and suffered for some 400 years. The Lord at last raised up Moses to lead the people of Israel out of their captivity, but instead of taking them directly into the land promised to Abraham, caused them to wander around in the desert for 40 years until the generation that came out of Egypt as adults had died off. And now as their children were about to enter into Canaan, a land they would have to take by force of arms, they hear again the message that God loves them. And many of them must have wondered if God really was “for them”.

And yet the Lord God had shown His love for them throughout all of their trials and hardships. He had called Abraham out of the land of Ur in order to make a great nation of Him, and in order to fulfill His promise of sending the Messiah to save mankind. He had sent the children of Israel into Egypt to save them from famine, and though they ended up being enslaved there, the Lord kept them and blessed them, so that by the time Moses leads them over the Jordan they are “as the stars of heaven in multitude.” Yes even in this darkest period of their collective memory God was bringing about good for them. Moreover He brought them out of Egypt with a strong hand, gave them the wealth of Egypt to bring with them, brought them through the Red Sea in safety while destroying their pursuers in the same waters, fed them with heavenly bread for forty years and provided them with water in the desert. And above all He provided for the forgiveness of their sins by giving them the Tabernacle and the liturgy of the sacrifice. And these to whom Moses spoke had seen the Lord’s presence among them and had received His blessings in a very direct and tangible way, so that Moses can say to them: “He is your praise, and He is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things which your eyes have seen.” Surely God was for Israel and for each person in Israel. He explicitly stated His love for them. He proved His love for them by pouring love out upon them even in what felt to them like the worst of times. And His love would continue to be poured out upon them in the promised land and later in the sending of His Son as their Savior. If you were an ancient Israelite you could say for certain that God was “For You”.

But looking out from this pulpit, I do not see any ancient Israelites here today. So what about you? Is God for you or not? Your life at times may seem to testify that God is not for you, but against you. When you find yourself being treated as an outcast by your classmates or find yourself the brunt of their jokes; when you are rejected by one whom you care for deeply, or even just by one whom you think cute and interesting. When you are persecuted for being a Christian by your friends and maybe even by your teachers; when you see one of your parents or grandparents or someone else you love dying; you may well wonder is God really “for me”?

God is certainly for you, even in the most difficult times. Your conscience may accuse you of being a terrible sinner unworthy of God’s love. Your life may cry out to you that God has abandoned you or is perhaps punishing you. But Christ cries out even more powerfully with His Gospel and with His love. “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” Yes God has sent to you and to the whole world a new Moses; one who not only speaks about the promises of God, but who is the fulfillment of those promises; one who is not only God’s prophet, but is God’s Son. His having been sent is the living expression of God’s love for all people. His having become the propitiation for our sins is the enactment of that love. And what is that about, being the propitiation for our sins, that is about being the atoning sacrifice, that is about death and blood, that is about the cross. But in that sending and propitiation is found our forgiveness and life. Jesus said: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” And so just as with the ancient Israelites, God has explicitly stated His love for you. And He has proven His love through what He has done.

But how can you know for sure that you are on the receiving end of these promises? How can you know that you are included here, especially when there are so many who are part of the world, but have not received Christ’s grace? Look not only at what God has done for all, but also at what He has done for you individually. That which God has accomplished in Christ Jesus, our salvation, after all, is given to each one of us and applied to us individually. Have you been baptized? If you can answer “yes” then you know that what Christ has done has been given to you and that God really is “for you”. Here you have crossed the Red Sea from bondage and death into freedom and life. Here you are sealed with God’s name. Here you are washed from your sins and given eternal salvation. Jesus has promised it after all, and has sealed His promise with His own death. This is why Luther anchors baptism first of all in the promises of God. He writes in the Small Catechism: “What does Baptism give or profit?” It works forgiveness of sins, delivers from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe this, as the words and promises of God declare. “Which are such words and promises of God?” Christ, our Lord, says in the last chapter of Mark: He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.” If you are baptized you have proof that God is “for you”. God is not tricking or deceiving you here. Do not doubt, but believe Him and trust His promise.

And having taken you from the wilderness of your own Egypt in Baptism, He also feeds and nourishes you on your way. He gives you the living heavenly manna of His own flesh and His own blood. Is God for you in this? Of course He is. Again Luther quotes Jesus words in the Catechism: “What is the benefit of such eating and drinking?” That is shown us by these words, ‘Given and shed for you for the remission of sins’; namely, that in the Sacrament forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation are given us through these words…” This is Jesus own promise to you. Eat and drink Him in faith, and believe what He says. Know by this also that God is “For You”.

And by these things you can know that in all things this is true: that God, His Son, His love, His gifts, are all “for you”. He has given His Word and that cannot be broken. His love cannot be broken, for Christ has died and rose again to prove it, enact it, and fulfill it.

“And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you…?” He requires you to believe. That’s it. Just trust Him. Just believe Him. And such belief looks to Him for all good and all blessings. Such belief loves Him in return. Such belief loves others too for His sake. But these are not additional requirements. They are simply the results of believing and of receiving God’s love and living in it. Hard times will certainly come. Your faith will be tested. But remember that all of these things will eventually pass away. Christ’s love never will. Believe Him and trust Him. In all times He is “For You”; to whom be all honor and glory with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and forever. Amen.

The peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, to life everlasting.

+ Soli Deo Gloria +

by The Rev. William Cwirla

The Light of the world hangs in darkness. The Light no darkness can overcome is plunged into the darkness. The Splendor of the Father’s light who makes our daylight lucid bright is swallowed up into black hole of the world’s sin and death. On a Friday – the day man was made, the day God spoke His “very good” over all creation. Between Noon and three pm – the bright hours of the day. This is good Friday. Behold, it was “very good.”

He is the beloved Son, the only-begotten of the Father, God enfleshed in humanity, yet He cries out as one damned by God in the miserable isolation of your sin and death. This hell on earth is your hell which He bears for you, what you deserve for what you’ve done and for who you are. He has become your sin, the ultimate Substitute Sinner in place of sinners, the Sacrifice, so that you in Him might become the righteousness of God.

“While we were still weak, Christ died for the ungodly.” For you. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. For you. While we were still enemies we were reconciled to God by this one dark death on a Friday afternoon between Noon and three.

Would you be willing to die for another? Perhaps you would. Maybe there’s a little super-hero in you. If the cause were just, if the person were noble, if the time were fight, perhaps you would. Would you be willing to die for your enemy, your slanderer, your betrayer, one who would wish you dead?

In the world of religion, you climb up to your god; in the faith of the cross, your God comes down to you. In the world of religion, you die for your god. You might even take a few of your enemies along with you into death, thereby ensuring your place in paradise. But in the faith of the cross, your God dies for you. In the world of religion, you must make peace with your god. In the faith of Jesus, your God makes peace with you while you are still His enemy.

Eli, eli lama sabachthani? The first verse of Psalm 22. The prayer of the God-forsaken believer. He trusts in God and yet is abandoned by God. And in His abandonment, he asks why. Jesus prays it in Aramaic, His mother tongue, as He learned it from His youth. It’s the question on the lips of every sufferer. Why? Why, do you let the innocent suffer? Why have you forsaken me in the hour of my need? Jesus asks the question for all of us, for all of humanity, and receives only the silence of the darkness. There is no adequate answer to this question, in spite of all our attempts to fill in dark silence with the noise of our speculations.

There is only faith, trust in the One who meets us in the darkness of our own death and says, “Trust me. I am with you to forgive you, to save you, to bless you.”

He drinks the sour, bitter cup. Jesus told His disciples He would not drink of the fruit of the vine until He drank it new in the kingdom of heaven. He drinks the bitter cup of wine long gone sour, so that you might drink the sweet, new wine of His blood poured out to save you.

He dies, forcefully, intentionally, with a shout not a whimper. This is His victory, His hour of power, His glory. This is His “jihad,” His holy war alone to fight, and in His death He conquers.

This is salvation’s time and place – on a cross on Friday between Noon and Three – where God in the flesh hung in the darkness suspended between heaven and earth to save fallen humanity. You have peace with God in this one, dark death. You have access to God’s undeserved kindness. You have hope, a bright future in a dying world; you are already glorified at the right hand of the Father in Christ the Son.

You are given to rejoice even in your sufferings. Yes, you heard that correctly: rejoice in your sufferings. Jesus is not a detour around suffering; He’s the only way through it, for He has gone through it. Your pain is absorbed in His pain and redeemed for good. Your sufferings in the cross-pierced hands of Jesus are the raw material of endurance, character, and hope. There is no other way. There is no such thing as a baptized believer of character, endurance, and hope who has not suffered and despaired of God in the present. You will have your own dark day, your less than happy Fridays when we see nothing, hear nothing, when God seems absent, when there literally is nothing for you to do but trust in the Promise of baptismal water, of bodied bread and bloodied wine, and words of forgiveness.

And there He is for for you, making all things new, reconciling all things to the Father, embracing you in a death that will not let you go. In His darkness is your light; in His death is your life; in His lonely forsakenness, is your acceptance by God and your peace.

Good Friday. Good for you.

by Rev. Brent Kuhlman

+ Jesu Juva +

Acts 2:38-39

Peter’s been preaching his Pentecost sermon. You hear the word “Pentecost” and you think Holy Spirit and all His gifts, don’t you? That’s right. The disciples are given the Holy Spirit on Pentecost Day to preach the Gospel in many understandable languages. And 3,000 sinners are brought to faith in Jesus as the Savior of the world. Just as He promised Jesus sends the Holy Spirit to bring glory to Himself. The Holy Spirit points sinners to the Savior Jesus. The Holy Spirit creates and sustains faith in Jesus only for salvation. As the UPS Delivery Man of the Trinity the Holy Spirit delivers, bestows, and applies the gifts of Jesus’ most holy Good Friday death to you and rescues you from death and the devil through the forgiveness of sins.

And lo and behold right before your very eyes this morning there was another little Pentecost Day. A full blown Holy Spirit extravaganza! Did you see it? Didn’t it just blow you away?

“Where Reverend? You’ve got to be kidding? A little Pentecost Day in a dead orthodox Lutheran congregation in rural Nebraska? Come on now! We all know that Holy Spirit Pentecosts and Holy Spirit gifts take place in big city churches that are all ablaze! What time is it? A little after 11:00 a.m. A bit too early isn’t Reverend? Shame on you. Have one of the elders check the sacristy! Do a little communion wine inventory! Kuhlman may have snuck into the sacristy during the senior recognition party! A little Pentecost Day? Give us a break Reverend. Now sober up, be a good pastor, and give us one of your typical dead orthodox Lutheran sermons that we’re so used to!”

I’m very happy to do that. So glad you asked. After all, dead orthodox Lutheran sermons are what I do best. Gave one to the Wyoming District pastors in Gillette, WY last Monday. They seemed to like it. What do you expect from a bunch of dead orthodox Lutheran pastors? In any event, be my guest. Smell my breath. Inspect the sacristy. I couldn’t be more sober.

So I think try it again. Shall I give it a whirl? What do you think? Are you sure? All right. Here goes. Right before your very eyes this morning you witnessed a little Holy Spirit-filled Pentecost event. The Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life, was doing what He does best. Raising the dead! Recreating a sinner for faith in Jesus! A whole new life.

It happened when Mike and Stephanie brought their little baby sinner, Nolan, to church this morning. Jesus met them at the baptismal font. And with His Word He unleashed the power of the Holy Spirit! Handed out a washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit for little Nolan. A little Pentecost Day just for him!

I’m not making this up. Peter preaches Holy Baptism this way. Let’s have another listen: “Be baptized every one of you in the Name of Jesus,” he says. “Every one of you.” Every one means all. Every one leaves no one out. Who would dare to say that the “be baptized every one of you in the Name of Jesus” should exclude Nolan? If you would exclude little Nolan, or anyone else for that matter, then you anger the Lord Jesus who says: “Let the little children come to Me and DO NOT FORBID THEM for of such is the kingdom of God.”

So Mike and Stephanie have brought Nolan for Holy Baptism.

Better get back to the text. “Be baptized every one of you in the Name of Jesus,” Peter says. Why? Simply out of obedience? To offer Jesus a gift? To show Him what good boys and girls we are? No. Just the opposite. It’s to receive gifts from Him.

Listen carefully to Peter’s sermon again. Baptism in the Name of Jesus is: FOR THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS AND YOU WILL RECEIVE THE GIFT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. THIS PROMISE IS FOR YOU AND YOUR CHILDREN.”

How wonderful! Forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit given in Holy Baptism. All the Lord’s doing. All the Lord’s giving. In the way He says in Peter’s sermon.

Are your and Nolan’s sins forgiven? Of course. Because Jesus died for you. Because you and Nolan are baptized in Jesus’ Name. It’s what the text says!

Are you Holy Spirit-ed? Of course. Because you and Nolan are baptized in the Name of Jesus. It’s what the text says! The Scriptures do not lie!

Holy Spirit and all His gifts. A little Pentecost Day. At the font. For you and for Nolan.

You can be sure of all this. Faith is only certain and sure in what the Lord promises. The apostle Peter states: “This promise [of forgiveness and the gift of the Holy Spirit] is FOR YOU and FOR YOUR CHILDREN and for all who are far off as many as the Lord shall call to Himself.” For you and for you children! Peter doesn’t say only eight years old and up. Why? Because Jesus died for all. He didn’t leave anybody out of His dying. So Holy Baptism is for all. He wants all nations to be baptized.

Forgiveness of sins. Gift of the Holy Spirit. For Nolan in his Baptism today. No wonder the apostle Peter writes in 1 Peter 3:21 that “Baptism saves you . . . through the resurrection of Jesus.” No wonder Mike and Stephanie brought Nolan to the font today. Even though the apostle Peter sounds very much all those dead orthodox Lutheran pastors, they still brought Nolan for a little Pentecost Day. Couldn’t withhold that from him. And neither would I. After all, what Jesus institutes is not useless. It is for you and Nolan’s benefit.

Happy Baptism Day Nolan! Happy using Jesus, Holy Baptism, and its benefits against all your sin, death and the devil for the rest of your life. For all of you here at Trinity and for Nolan there is the never ending: “But I am baptized! And if I have been baptized, I have the promise that I shall be saved and have eternal life, both in soul and body,” (Large Catechism, 462.44).

This  sermon was preached by the Rev. Brent Kuhlman on the Fifth Sunday of Easter at Trinity Lutheran Church, Murdock, NE.

Bishop John Chrysostom

Are there any who are devout lovers of God?
Let them enjoy this beautiful bright festival!
Are there any who are grateful servants?
Let them rejoice and enter into the joy of their Lord!
Are there any weary with fasting?
Let them now receive their wages!

If any have toiled from the first hour,let them receive their due reward;
If any have come after the third hour,let him with gratitude join in the Feast!
And he that arrived after the sixth hour,let him not doubt; for he too shall sustain no loss.
And if any delayed until the ninth hour,let him not hesitate; but let him come too.
And he who arrived only at the eleventh hour,let him not be afraid by reason of his delay.
For the Lord is gracious and receives the last even as the first.He gives rest to him that comes at the eleventh hour,as well as to him that toiled from the first. To this one He gives, and upon another He bestows.

He accepts the works as He greets the endeavor.
The deed He honors and the intention He commends.
Let us all enter into the joy of the Lord!
First and last alike receive your reward;
rich and poor, rejoice together!
Sober and slothful, celebrate the day!
You that have kept the fast, and you that have not, rejoice today for the Table is richly laden!
Feast royally on it, the calf is a fatted one.Let no one go away hungry.
Partake, all, of the cup of faith.Enjoy all the riches of His goodness!

Let no one grieve at his poverty,for the universal kingdom has been revealed.
Let no one mourn that he has fallen again and again;for forgiveness has risen from the grave.
Let no one fear death, for the Death of our Savior has set us free.

He has destroyed it by enduring it. He destroyed Hell when He descended into it.
He put it into an uproar even as it tasted of His flesh.
Isaiah foretold this when he said,”You, O Hell, have been troubled by encountering Him below.”

Hell was in an uproar because it was done away with.
It was in an uproar because it is mocked
It was in an uproar, for it is destroyed.
It is in an uproar, for it is annihilated.
It is in an uproar, for it is now made captive.

Hell took a body, and discovered God.
It took earth, and encountered Heaven.
It took what it saw, and was overcome by what it did not see.
O death, where is thy sting?
O Hell, where is thy victory?

Christ is Risen, and you, o death, are annihilated!
Christ is Risen, and the evil ones are cast down!
Christ is Risen, and the angels rejoice!
Christ is Risen, and life is liberated!
Christ is Risen, and the tomb is emptied of its dead;
for Christ having risen from the dead,is become the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep.

To Him be Glory and Power forever and ever. Amen!

Given the added name of Chrysostom, which means “golden-mouthed” in Greek, Saint John was a dominant force in the fourth-century Christian church. Born in Antioch around the year 347, John was instructed in the Christian faith by his pious mother, Anthusa. After serving in a number of Christian offices, including acolyte and lector, John was ordained a presbyter and given preaching responsibilities. His simple but direct messages found an audience well beyond his home town. In 398, John Chrysostom was made Patriarch of Constantinople. His determination to reform the church, court, and city there brought him into conflict with established authorities. Eventually, he was exiled from his adopted city. Although removed from his parishes and people, he continued writing and preaching until the time of his death in 407. It is reported that his final words were: “Glory be to God for all things. Amen.”

Rev. Marcus Zill

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

The King of Love My Shepherd Is,
Whose goodness faileth never;
I nothing lack if I am His,
And He is mine forever.
(LSB #709:1)

Words we love based on the most beloved of all Psalms. Words that may seem a little lacking to some who are despairing after the horrific massacre in Blacksburg, VA this last Monday.

But words that bring comfort even in the midst of despair because Christ is the Good Shepherd.

What is the difference between a hireling and the Good Shepherd? Put simply it is this: For the hireling, the sheep are expendable, while the Good Shepherd makes Himself expendable for the sheep. The hireling has no attachment to the sheep except insofar as they are a source of income. If the sheep have to be sacrificed to save his life, so be it. Not so for the Good Shepherd, for He is willing to do the unthinkable. He lays down His life for the sheep.

When the hireling sees the bare teeth of the wolf and hears its hungry growl, he deserts the flock. Better to run than be mauled or killed by a ravenous wolf. Better to sacrifice a sheep or two – even the whole flock – than to risk life or limb for animals who aren’t worth that much anyway. Sheep are replaceable and human life is not, so goes the pragmatic logic of the hireling. “After all,” he reasons, “the sheep don’t belong to me and my boss would never expect me to die trying to protect them.” So when the wolf encircles the flock, the hireling retreats. The sheep are left without defense and become easy prey for the wolf. Their legs are not fast enough to run away from the predator and their teeth are no match for the strong jaws of the wolf. They cannot save themselves, and so, the wolf enjoys a nice mutton dinner.

But the Good Shepherd is different. He is the Good Shepherd. He is not merely a shepherd who does the good things that shepherds are expected to do like grazing the sheep, making sure that they have fresh water, tending their wounds, and protecting them from rustlers and wild animals. Jesus is our Good Shepherd in the way of Good Friday. He lays down His life for the sheep.

Our Good Shepherd puts Himself in between His sheep and the open jaws of that very hound of hell, Satan himself. Jesus throws Himself into Satan’s teeth. His body is mauled and His flesh is torn by the very predator who seeks to feed on us.

But when Satan sinks his teeth into the Lamb of God, he bites into the One who will break his jaw. He bites into the flesh of the Good Shepherd who came to destroy the work of the devil. By His death our Good Shepherd defeats death and the devil. Jesus is that Good Shepherd. He is God in the flesh, come to seek and to save the lost.

In the Old Testament God so often describes Himself as a shepherd. You heard that description again today in the Old Testament Reading from Ezekiel where God promises that He will depose the false shepherds of Israel who scattered the flock and fed off the sheep. God says: “Indeed I Myself will search for My sheep and seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock on the day he is among his scattered sheep, so I will seek out My sheep and deliver them from all the places where they were scattered on a cloudy and dark day.”

David, who himself was a shepherd, confesses in that most beloved of Psalms, Psalm 23, “The Lord is my shepherd.” Jesus is that shepherd. He IS the shepherd who comes to be with His sheep even in the midst of the kind of tragedy we have seen this past week. He comes for His Sheep – to feed them, to lead them, to comfort them. Yes, He does all of this. He feeds us with His own body and blood at the table He prepares for us in the presence of all our enemies – sin, death, and the devil himself. He leads us with His words that are spirit and life. He comforts us with His presence as He gives us His name in Holy Baptism. Standing behind everything that our Good Shepherd does for us – the feeding, the leading, and the comforting – is His cross. The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.

Jesus was no wimpy hireling. He was no whining coward who ran away when that old evil wolf came seeking to condemn and destroy you with your sin. Our Good Shepherd died, as the great Passion hymns, “O Dearest Jesus” puts it, “for sheep who love to wander.” He did not wait for us to find our way out of the wilderness and back to the sheep pen. He came to us in this world of sin and death and He redeemed us by dying on the cross in our place. Such is the love of the Good Shepherd for His sheep. Whatever happened in Blacksburg, VA this past week, or Oklahoma City 12 years ago, or at Columbine High School 8 years ago can’t change that.

We often use the traits or characteristics of animals as metaphors for characteristics of human beings. “He is as strong as a horse. She sings like a canary. He is as wise an owl.” These are said as compliments. Of course, it cuts the other way, too. “Someone is fat as a cow. He is as dumb as an ox.” And what do we say in reference to sheep? He is as smart as a sheep? No, you are more apt to hear something like, “They are as stupid as sheep.

Sheep are notorious for getting themselves into trouble, for straying away, for ending up lost and confused, subjected to danger and unable to take care of themselves.

Jesus pays us no compliment by calling us sheep. But that is, in fact, what we are. By nature we walk away from the Good Shepherd right into the jaws of death. We have, as the Scripture says, like sheep gone astray. It is no temporary disorientation. It is total separation and alienation from the God who alone gives us life. Like dumb sheep, we graze in contentment not realizing that the wolf lurks around ready to attack. Then when he does attack we foolishly run our own way as though we had the ability to escape his grasp. We think that we can find food, only to starve because we refuse the fare that the Good Shepherd has set before us. We are poisoned with the putrid and stagnant water of worldliness with its passing fads that we think will quench our thirst, all the while refusing the streams of living water to which the Good Shepherd beckons us.

But the Good Shepherd still calls and gathers a flock by His Word. He says, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.” Today there is a lot of confusion as to just what the church is? But it doesn’t have to be that hard to understand. Martin Luther gave us a beautifully simple definition of the church in the Smalcald Articles at another time of such confusion. He said: “…thank God, a seven-year old child knows what the church is, namely, holy believers and sheep who hear the voice of their Good Shepherd” (Tappert, 315).

That is who we are. The church is where the Good Shepherd is and that is where His sheep may safely graze. Where His voice is sounding in the pure preaching of His Word and in His Baptism and Supper, there you will find the sheep that belong to Jesus.

Look instead at the characteristics of the sheep, and you will be deceived or disappointed. They can be mangy and flea-bitten, not a pretty sight. But our focus is not on the sheep but the Shepherd.

Dear lambs in Christ, in the midst of doubt or despair, keep your ears pealed to the voice of your Good Shepherd, forsake all others, for He alone has the words of eternal life. He has laid down His life for you, and He has taken it back for you. What else is there to fear, for He has shut the jaws of sin, death, and the devil forever. You are indispensible to Him, for Your salvation is His source of joy and His sure promise is this: “And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.”

And that my friends. is the difference between a hireling and the Good Shepherd. And this is why seeing Christ as our Good Shepherd is so comforting, because He is just that – Good.

Perhaps the most famous and influential Lutheran musician of all time, Johann Sebastian Bach, wrote a beautiful, tranquil piece entitled “Sheep May Safely Graze.” How true those four simple words are, because though our risen Savior has ascended to the right hand of the throne of God, He still shepherds us. He has not left His sheep to fend for themselves for food and protection, for the pastures where he leads us today are His means of grace. For what more fertile place could there be then the waters of Holy Baptism, and what greater nourishment could He feed us with than with His very own body and blood for the forgiveness of our sins. Through these things we recognize Him because in them He recognizes us as His very own. In these Holy things Christ knows His sheep and His sheep know Him. And what a privilege to hear our Shepherd’s voice, to hear Him speak to us still, and to know that we can hear it again and again and again.

Yes, it has been a tough week, but the Lord is our Shepherd, my friends, and in Him we lack nothing!

In death’s dark vale I fear no ill,
With Thee, dear Lord, beside me;
Thy rod and staff my comfort still,
Thy cross before to guide me.
And so through all the length of days
Thy goodness faileth never.
Good Shepherd, may I sing Thy praise
Within Thy house forever!
(LSB #709:4,6)

…where “sheep may safely graze!”

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Pastor Zill is the full time campus pastor at St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church & Campus Center in Laramie, WY. He also is the Christ on Campus Executive for Higher Things.