“I AM Lays Down His Life”
Saint John 10: 11-16
Misericordias: 15 April Anno Domini 2018
Father Jay Watson SSP
You have no problem with Christ being your Good Shepherd. You do in fact want Him to provide you with food, clothing, shelter, family, and comfortable life-styles in a sheep-fold of ‘Murican plenty (you’re Number One, you’re Number One).
And you always want the Good Shepherd to fight away, drive away, and exterminate the wolves that harass you: sickness, sadness, separation, and setback. But…
But “old Adam” likes all of the aforementioned because The Lord is invisible, save for His Word and Sacraments, and can be ignored, marginalized, and compartmentalized by all of you whenever you’re too busy with self. You can ignore The Shepherd pretty much all week long and then put in a short-shift in the sheepfold on Sunday morning, not much more than 60 minutes really, and then be back amongst the “mammon of Me!”
Jesus is The Good Shepherd. He says so. He is God. Those that reject this truth are either already unbelieving wolf-food, or on their way to being devoured. If one is not in the sheepfold…and that means more than having a floppy bible at home (somewhere) and saying that “I believe in God…guns…and my country.” To be a sheep, a disciple, is to be here in The Shepherd’s appointed pasture to be fed by His Word, and His Supper, having been previously washed in + His Blood and Water.
Jesus uses “means,” “instruments,” physical, solid, earthy, things (yes, broken, and imperfect things to be sure) to give you the washing, feeding, teaching, strengthening, protecting, nurturing, and guarding. You may not like the way The Shepherd does things by using, water, wine, wafer, and under-shepherd, but then, that’s just too bad. Your own under-shepherd is not judged by his mistakes, deficiencies or lack of “bed-side manner,” he is judged by “faithfulness.” And faithfulness according to The Good Shepherd is whether he is a hireling who flees, leaving the sheep, when the wolf comes charging. He need not be an heroic David or Samson charging the wild devil beast, staff or club a swinging…but he at least needs to stumble/shuffle into the way of the attacker. Pastor should never retire. They should have their bodies ground down and die “in office” with The Word of Christ on their lips. That is a final and most fitting way to “icon” The Lord, to live out the cruciform life “in the stead and by the command.” That too is the life of all of The Good Shepherds sheep…all of you.
Saint John knew Jesus well. Saint John, faithful son of Israel, knew the Torah, Prophets, and Psalms well, also. John knew that The Holy Ghost had King David write in the 23rd Psalm, that “THE LORD” is my Shepherd, I shall lack nothing. The word that David uses is the four-lettered “Tetragrammaton,” i.e. The Name given by The Son of God to Moses from the burning bush, the singular and semper womb of The Only-begotten. ADONAI is my Shepherd wrote David. I AM THAT I AM is my Shepherd wrote the young under-shepherd lad. Saint John also knew, he was there, that when Christ once said to the Pharisees, “before Abraham was, I AM,” that though Jesus said “ego emi,” meaning I am, that The Lord really was saying “ADONAI” I AM THAT I AM.
The Living Second Person of The Trinitarian Godhead is your Shepherd. The Word Shepherd is “Poimaen” in John’s Greek text. It is the word that transliterates into our English word “pastor.” The Crucified One is your Pastor. Those who claim to be pastors but who are women are hirelings, not because they “run” from wolves who look like wolves, but because they run from The Word of The Lord by denying it’s truth in all its articles. So, too, the “so-called” pastors of the thousands of “protestant” sects and “non-denomination groups.” How absurd and almost wolf-like/devilish that word “non-denomination” really is. To nominate is to NAME. To be + NAMED in The NAME of ADONAI, I AM, The Father, The Son, The Holy Spirit, is to be in the ONLY sheepfold that exists: The One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. Non-denominated is to reject the historical faith, the traditional faith of The Church, i.e. of Scripture in the lives of those sheep for whom Scripture was recorded! Being a faithful under-shepherd is more about holding the Doctrines/Teachings/Truths of Jesus than about holding fragile and piqued egos that constantly yearn for new-comforts for itching ears.
Dead animals killed by wolf packs are eaten. And the first parts that are eaten are some of the fleshy thinner appendages…including the ears. He who has ears to hear…
All of your shepherding, your pasturing, your pastoring, comes from The One Who gave His life for you. He gave His perfect sinless life for you in untiring and unflagging—boring even, laborious, meticulous, constant, and PERFECT obedience to The Law, The Ten Commandments. He gave His precious unblemished life for you in giving His real Body and actual Blood for you in His suffering and death at Calvary. He literally laid down His life for you, and was laid Himself in a cold, dark, tomb: DEAD…for you.
Yes, He crushed the serpent’s head with His own bruised, nail-pierced heel…the feet that are precious going to the ends of the earth to preach Repentance and Forgiveness. But He also snapped the ravening wolf’s jaw, head, and neck when He let Himself be used for bait. The wolf came to devour you but gorged itself, oh so temporarily, on the innocent Lamb of God. But Christ is Risen, He is freed from the devil’s jail, and has ripped asunder the bars of the gates of death and hell. He is free. You are free. His Word is free to be preached in all the world. He is about His mission to gather all His other lost sheep, even as He has gathered you here today.
You hear ONE voice, in ONE fold, from ONE Shepherd. He knows you…Know Him in the breaking of bread.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of The Holy Ghost
Email the webmaster.Contact Augsburg Lutheran Church: (913) 403-6194