“MISERICORDIAS DOMINI”
Saint John 10: 11-16
Misericordias Domini: 23 April Anno Domini 2023
Fr Jay Watson, SSP
The Shepherd is not there to give the sheep a vision of where He would like them to be. He is not their friend (as the world sees it—pal, chum), coach, psychologist, entertainer, or professor. He is not there to give them information and historical data. The Shepherd is the shepherd. What does a shepherd do? He makes it so, HE, that they shall not want—that they would lack nothing. You think you lack? You sin in so thinking. You only lack what you—a sinful nature, itching ears, lusting eyes, sugar-conditioned bellies, wants. You lack nothing that you need—and The Shepherd knows what you need. He is The Good Shepherd. Sheep are fed Doritos, Hostess Twinkies, and whatever it is that McDonalds pretends is food. You are not to eat and drink the satanic swill and poison of the world; of false doctrine; of heathenish imaginative spirituality; of made-up self works and bragging checklists.
The Shepherd is a type of god to a flock of sheep. The Good Shepherd, well, He is God. He commands, demands, and prescribes with a firm hand, an iron-hand…a hand so hard that it is soft enough to blister, callous, and be punctured and bleed; and rip and tear—all for the sheep.
The sheep do not vote. That needs to be repeated: the sheep do not vote. Yes, yes, we all know about Saint Paul having his words “checked” i.e., studied by the Bereans. The Bereans were not supervising Paul in a magisterial way, they were serving their congregation by better understanding the Hebrew Scriptures; of seeing Paul’s proper feeding of Jesus to them by way of The Old Testament. Or as Christ says, “The Scriptures…they testify of Me” [Jn. 5.39].
So regardless of what the sheep desire “He maketh [them] to lie down in green pastures; He leadeth [Them] beside the still waters.”
Yes, The Good Shepherd is Jesus. And Saint John tells you that the shepherd is the poiman. Poiman is correctly translated, and comes down to us in English, from the Latin Vulgate “Ego sum pastor bonus”—I am the Good Pastor.
Therefore, Christ makes you (He saves, He finds the lost sheep, He redeems, liberates, rescues, MAKES YOU SHEEP) lie down in the green pastures of His Church. They are green because they grow, are vibrant, are life-giving and sustaining. Outside of the sheep fold, the pastures, there is only desert, hot sand of Satan, and death. If one is not in this pasture, one is not part of the flock. The waters your Pastor Jesus gives to you are the same He is telling the Canaanite woman at the well about—Himself. The still waters are only still to contrast them to the floods of Noah and the storms on the Sea of Galilee. But they are moving with His mercy—His Blood and Water, His Flesh and Word. The angel stirring the waters of the Pool of Siloam in order to place you into you healing and regenerative amniotic fluid of Holy + Baptism. The is how He restores you soul!
The Good Pastor leads, yes, but the sheep know His voice. The Spirit constrains them by The Word to follow. The paths of righteousness are not only deeds of obedience, love, and discipline they are IN-CHRISTO. Only in The Righteous One, The Righteous Pastor do the sheep have “His name’s sake.” His Name is Jesus—Savior.
You sheep are in the valley of the shadow of death. You have been there since your father sheep, Adam, became the first goat—temporarily—and was cast out of paradise into the valley. There is death in the valley, for all have sinned. The wages of sin is death. The shadow of death means you know that the end of life on this earth, is coming. It comes for all. But it is only a “shadow” because for you the sheep of Christ, that shadow is from His bruised and bloody Body hanging on the cross. The blinding hot blazing Sun of The Father’s Wrath roasted Him in suffering and death for your goatish sins. But His pierced Holy Body blocks that punishment from burning you. He is your Salvific Sun Block—your Savior Shade!
When your Shepherd is with you, you will fear no evil. Where is He with you for Grace and Peace? Not apart from His Words and His Blessed Sacraments. No one who is not in The Church has peace. If one believes that The Shepherd is really here, not just in memory or “spiritually” it will not just change their hearts and souls—it will change their behavior and the way they worship.
The Shepherd does not wear fancy clothes, unless He is in the Temple at the altar—or in The Church. He is no fancy-dancy, pretty-boy effete soy creature. He is a man. Pontius Pilate: “Behold The Man!” He “beareth all things…endureth all things” [1 Cor. 13.7].
The Good Pastor fights for you with His rod and staff. One instrument for battle and rescue or two? One Christ—Two Natures. One Doctrine—Two works, Law and Gospel.
At this, your deliverance from the ravening wolves, from the dragon of fire, you are comforted—whether you “feel” that way or not.
Your Shepherd has prepared a table before you this morning. His stone altar; His sepulchral tomb altar; His cross pieced wooden/tree crucifix altar. The table of comfort which He has prepared from eternity, delivered in the fullness of time at Calvary, and distributes this morning at this Communion table.
Your Great Pastor Who is Good, Who is God, enfleshed anoints your head with the oil of His very Flesh and Blood and your cup overflows.
This Mercy which IS The Good Shepherd He gives to His under-shepherds to distribute—for all of you—His precious lambs.
In His stead and by His command—I Gospel you
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of The Holy Ghost
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