Video of the Divine Service is here. The sermon begins around the 26:50 mark.

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

Imagine this scenario: the sheep are safely gathered inside the fold, but the wolves are circling, howling, creeping nearer and nearer. The shepherd goes out and “lays down his life for the sheep.” Would that be a “good shepherd”? If the shepherd lays down his life and is devoured by the wolves, the only thing that is going to happen is that the wolves are going to have a free shot at the sheep, snatching and scattering them. But that’s what Jesus says will happen when the hired hand—the guy who’s only there for the money—sees the wolves: he runs away and the wolves have free access to the sheep. So what good is a shepherd who lays down His life for the sheep? All you will have are a dead shepherd and dead sheep.

That is how it would be if Jesus were a regular shepherd, taking care of regular sheep. And it would be true that if Jesus were a regular man, and he was dead, the sheep would not be able to do anything to defend themselves from the circling, devouring wolves. And we know that the sheep don’t always stay where they are supposed to be. All we, like sheep, have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way (Isaiah 53:6). The sheep often give themselves willingly to the wolves of lust, greed, selfishness, complacency, apathy, even death itself. If the wolves can convince the sheep to come out of the fold, away from the shepherd, they don’t even have to attack; just eat their fill and go about their business.

But Jesus is not just another shepherd, not just another man. This shepherd does not just sacrifice Himself to give the sheep a good example to follow, or a temporary reprieve, or a way to go bravely to their deaths because they recognize that they are part of a reality bigger than themselves. This shepherd, the Good Shepherd, lays down His life, but then He takes it back up again. He is not only a man, He is also the eternal Son of God. He has authority to lay it down and to take it up again. The wolves do not take it from Him; He offers Himself to them—not simply as one more death, one more victory over life—but to exhaust completely their blood-lust and murderous strength. When this shepherd lays down His life, He takes sin, death, and the devil with Him. When the wolves devour the sheep, they devour what is already dead. But when they devour Jesus on the cross, they devour life itself, and that is too much for them. They cannot digest life, so death itself is burst open, and the jaws of the wolves are broken. They have no power over the sheep anymore. He has broken down the gates of hell, and He leads the sheep of death out into the light of life. “Hell took a body, and it discovered God. It took earth, and encountered Heaven. It took what it saw, and was overcome by what it did not see. … 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” (Chrysostom’s Paschal Sermon).

This is the command of the Father, which the Son in flesh does completely, for your salvation. The Father knows the Son and the Son knows the Father, and from this eternal divine communion comes the Son taking flesh and laying down His life for the sheep. Now, the sheep know their shepherd, because the shepherd knows them, both as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and as the Good Shepherd, who gathers all the wandering, scattered sheep into the holy sheepfold of God’s own presence. This is the promise that goes all the way back to David’s 23^rd Psalm, and to the prophecy by Ezekiel that God Himself would gather His sheep from all the places they have been scattered. They are scattered not just physically, but spiritually. We were scattered by our sin and our seeking after whatever gods would give us what we think we need. The sort of sheep who make the earth into a god because they eat the grass and drink the water. The sort of sheep who turn the body and its desires into a god which must be satisfied. The sort of sheep who become gods themselves, to do what is right in their own eyes.

Jesus has laid down His own life for you. And He has taken it up again, to ward off the wolves of death, and give you His own abundant, resurrection life, beyond all that this world offers. And He puts His servants over His flock to feed His sheep until the wolves are gone. Some are, of course, only hired hands, only in it for the money, or for some other reason. And with the wolves circling and howling, it would be easy to abandon the flock. Paul warns the pastors in Ephesus that “fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them” (Acts 20:29-30). What is the defense against these wolves? There is only one, and it is the one that Paul says he himself used: I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. He says, “Pay attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which He obtained with His own blood” (Acts 20:27-28).

Only Jesus, God in flesh, has paid for you with His own blood. Only the word of Christ protects you from the wolves. Only the blood of Christ will keep you from being devoured. If it is not the teaching and preaching, the flesh and blood, of Christ Himself, it cannot feed or give life to you. And life is what Christ came to bring. Only in Him, the Good Shepherd, will you cease to want for anything. Only Christ the Good Shepherd will lead you to the deep, still water and the good pasture, by which you live. Only Christ the Good Shepherd is also the Lamb who takes away your sin, by laying down His life in your place. I will not abandon you to the wolves. I will give Christ to you and you to Christ, who will never abandon or forsake you. No one and nothing is able to snatch you from His hand. I do not have life in myself, but the Father and the Son do. Here is the good pasture and the living water; the sacrifice offered to you to eat. And you become what you eat: little lambs of the Lamb of God; little lambs of the Good Shepherd. Fear not, little flock, He will lead you through this earthly valley, life lived in the constant shadow of death. Fear not, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. He prepares a table before you in the presence of all your enemies, in the midst of the wolves, in the midst of death itself: surely His goodness and mercy will pursue you and shepherd you into His eternal presence, where you will dwell in the House of the Lord forever.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7, ESV). Amen.

— Pr. Timothy Winterstein, 4/19/24