Easter 2—Misericordias Domini
Dear friends in Christ. This Sunday has the nickname “Good Shepherd Sunday” because of what we hear Jesus telling us several times in today’s Gospel: I am the Good Shepherd. What beautiful and comforting images come to mind when we hear these words. Here we think of our Lord’s care and concern for His flock, that is, His Church—and each of His dear Christians personally. Our Lord Jesus is the Good Shepherd and proves that He is the Good Shepherd because also as He says in today’s Gospel: The Good Shepherd gives His life for the sheep and then a few verses after our Gospel ends [Jn. 10.18], No one takes [My life] from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. Did you catch that? Here’s the glorious connection between Easter and Jesus the Good Shepherd, Good Shepherd Sunday: The Good Shepherd gives/ lays down His life for—for the benefit of the sheep. He does it because He has the power to do it—here is Jesus’ willing, perfect, once for all sacrifice for the sins of the world; and He has the power to take back His life again—to rise from the dead. Jesus can rise from the dead because His was the one holy perfect sacrifice for the sins of the world; because [Jn. 1.4] in Him was life; because He is true God.
That’s really the point behind Jesus’ statement: I am the Good Shepherd. By Jesus saying that He is the Good Shepherd, He really is saying that He is the true God. Think back to Psalm 23 used in today’s Introit: Who is my Shepherd? The Lord! The one true God! Jesus is saying He is the true God when He says I am the Good Shepherd. This is a common OT theme—the Lord being the Shepherd of His people. For example, through the prophet Ezekiel the Lord says [Ez. 34.11]: For thus says the Lord God: “Indeed I Myself will search for My sheep and seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock…”. Jesus the Good Shepherd seeks us out—even going into death to save and rescue us from sin, death, devil and hell. By this He shows us that He is the Lord, the true God--Good Shepherd: I am the Good Shepherd… The Good Shepherd gives His life for the sheep. He proves it by His suffering and death—and indeed shows that He is the true God, beyond any shadow of doubt, by rising from the dead Easter Sunday: I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. Easter is about victory—Jesus’ victory over death, hell and grave; and His great divine mercy is shown in that He gives us His victory.
1. This victory of Jesus is exactly what we see in our text from Isaiah. Our text comes to us from the middle of chapter 40, which begins with those most glorious of words we hear every Advent: “Comfort, yes, comfort My people!” says your God. Then comes the prophecy about St. John the Baptizer who would prepare Jesus’ way by preaching; and then comes our text. We hear the proclamation: “Behold –see, look at, your God!” The Son of God, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, comes; He comes in the flesh—the true God became also true Man, Behold –see, look at, your God! as St. Paul writes [1 Ti. 3.16]: And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh--that’s Christmas; that’s our Lord Jesus, the God-man, carrying out the work of our salvation during His earthly ministry: “Behold your God!” God, the Son, came in obedience to the will of the Father to do all the work necessary to save us from our enemies of sin, death, devil and hell. All during His earthly life, beginning in the womb of the Blessed Virgin and all the way to the cross and death, Jesus was obeying God’s holy Law; He was doing for us what we can’t do—all so that God’s Law would be kept and heaven could be opened to us. And so that God’s wrath over our sin might be appeased and stilled, Jesus took all our sins to the cross and there suffered all God’s wrath and punishment over them and by this He reconciled all us sinners to the holy God. Now there’s a change in God’s judgment on us from damnation to favor. This is the work of the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ, for us and our salvation. This is Him laying down His life. “Behold your God!”
And now we fast forward as Isaiah points us forward to a victory procession—a victory procession in which Jesus, the God-Man, is at the head; and this is Easter—Jesus’ Easter victory procession: Behold, the Lord GOD comes with might, and his arm rules for him; behold, his reward is with him, and his works before him. This is Jesus who [has] power to take [His life] again because He is the true God. Jesus, the Lord GOD comes with might, is pictured here as a strong, victorious warrior returning from battle—for now He is ruling. Does this image fit with the Good Shepherd theme? After all, we think of shepherds as being in a quiet, solitary spot, watching their flocks. But remember what Jesus said in today’s Gospel: I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd gives His life for the sheep. What does all that mean/ imply? It means that there will be a battle—the shepherd has to put his life on the line to protect the flock from lions and wolves and other such predators and dangers. Jesus is the Good Shepherd because He went into battle for His sheep and even gave up His life so that the sheep could be saved. That’s the battles that Jesus fought against the devil and His temptations; the battle Jesus fought against sin; the battle Jesus fought as the devil arrayed all his host against Jesus to stop Him from being the Good Shepherd, to get Him off the path that would lead to our salvation. So great was the battle that Jesus fought that it was a battle into death. Luther puts it this way in his Easter hymn [TLH #195]: Christ Jesus lay in death’s strong bands for our offenses given…. It was a strange and dreadful strife When Life and Death contended; The victory remained with Life, The reign of Death was ended; Holy Scripture plainly says That Death is swallowed up by Death, Its sting is lost forever. Jesus won that strange and dreadful strife. Now death has been destroyed, undone. Jesus, the Good Shepherd took His life back again—He is the almighty God Himself and He offered that one holy, perfect sacrifice for sin.
Easter is Jesus’ victory procession: Behold, the Lord GOD comes with might, and his arm rules for him; behold, his reward is with him, and his works before him. Notice, the announcement: Behold, the Lord GOD comes with might. When Jesus first came, He came in all lowliness—as a Baby, as one rejected and despised, as one suffering on the cross, as one loaded down with the sins of the world, as one who dies. But now come Easter, it is all different. Now Jesus makes full use of all His divine power and majesty. Now we see Easter as the victory procession of the One who in and by His lowliness and suffering conquered for us our enemies of sin, death, devil and hell— Behold, the Lord GOD comes with might …his reward is with him, and his works before him. Jesus returns victorious from the battle—the battle He fought for us against our spiritual enemies and He won! He crushed them! He is sole ruler.
What great comfort we have in this Easter scene of triumph—Jesus the conqueror leading this victory procession and devil, sin, death, hell, all crushed and defeated. But it gets better for us, dear Christian. Notice the word of our text: Behold, the Lord GOD comes with might …his reward is with him. We are His reward! We are the wages that He gained in that severe battle He undertook. All that Jesus came to do and to suffer was for us. Jesus won the victory for all people but not all people want or accept Jesus victory—but you, me and all our Lord’s dear Christian are part of this glorious Easter procession. Jesus has led us out of the devil’s kingdom of slavery to sin and death. What a glorious scene—Jesus at the head of this victory procession followed by all His dear Christians, His flock. See already the hint of the upcoming imagery of our Good Shepherd leading us?
And notice something else. Not only is his reward is with him, that is, His dear Christians, with Him in this glorious procession but so also are his works before him. The works before him are the spoils that He brought back to bless His people with—the blessings/ spoils of the forgiveness of sin and eternal life. By His holy life and innocent suffering and death Jesus has destroyed sin, taking from it its power to accuse and condemn us; by rising from the dead on Easter, Jesus has destroyed death—now at Christ’s command on the Last Day it has to surrender all in its clutches; by His descent into hell on Easter Sunday, Jesus proclaimed His victory in the very citadel of Satan and that Satan has no power over us.
Behold, the Lord GOD comes with might, and his arm rules for him; behold, his reward is with him, and his works before him. Notice that the Lord Jesus comes in this glorious Easter procession with both His Christians—those rescued—and with the spoils of His victory that won for us. In other words, Jesus right now brings and distributes these blessings of forgiveness, life and salvation, to us. We already now share in His victory as through His holy word and Sacraments He gives the fruits/ spoils of His victory.
2. This is how Jesus can be our Good Shepherd. Not only did He enter the battle and lay down His life for us and die, but He won the battle and rose from the dead. Now He lives and reigns, giving us the fruit of His victory and leading us safely through our earthly life and into heaven. In other words, because Jesus is first the strong, victorious warrior, He can now be our gentle Shepherd. He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young. Jesus is the true, the Good Shepherd, of His people, His flock, His Church. Since He defeated the spiritual enemies of all people and His victory is for all people, He wants to gather all people into His flock, the Church, that’s why our text begins: Go on up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good news; lift it up, fear not; say to the cities of Judah, “Behold your God!” Through His holy and Sacraments Jesus is gathering people into His flock to be their Good Shepherd. In His grace He lets us, His Church, His Flock—you and me—call others to Him. We who have, in faith, seen Jesus in that Easter victory procession, returning over the hills in triumph at the head of freed captives—His flock, the Church—and bringing the rich booty He won—forgiveness of sin, life and salvation have that blessed commission to boldly and unashamedly cry out: “Behold your God!”
As we are part of Christ’s flock, we are enjoying the gracious protection of the Good Shepherd. What a glorious comfort we have! Jesus our Good Shepherd is the mighty, victorious warrior and now He is protecting us against the devil and his wiles to draw us away from following Christ. He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young. Jesus will take proper care of all His sheep. This is a matter of faith. We—our old sinful nature—very often do not like the way our Good Shepherd is leading us—through pain, suffering, hurt, sickness. Yet by faith we know that Jesus is our gracious Savior and gentle Shepherd. By His word and sacrament He gathers us to protect us and care for us. He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms. That’s us—the lambs—the young, weak, inexperienced; with the most tender care He carries us, brings us safely along; he will carry them in his bosom. As He carries us, as He feeds us with His word and sacrament, He is keeping us safe—He the almighty victorious warrior. He will never do us wrong. He has nothing but gentle and loving patience toward us sinners and bears with us, leading us—not impelling, forcing us: gently lead those that are with young.
Why is Jesus the Good Shepherd? Because He as the strong, victorious Warrior won the battle for us and now as our gentle Shepherd is giving us the fruits and blessings of that victory as He protects and leads us safely to our heavenly home.
INJ Amen.