Luke 11:9-13

And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

Earlier in St. Luke’s eleventh chapter (where our text comes from), the disciples had asked that Jesus teach them to pray; and He’d taught them what we know as the Lord’s Prayer. And then, He’d set out an illustration for them.

The illustration encouraged a very persistent asking of God’s help (which indicates a very persistent offering of that help on His part, right?). The asking was to be so persistent, that were it a person asking for assistance from his friend, the friend (who was being inconvenienced late at night) would be so overwhelmed with the repeated, with the incessant asking, that he would finally give up and help him out.

That’s what comes right before our text. Jesus was telling His disciples, that’s how persistently, how earnestly they should pray to the Father.

In a certain place in the book of Acts, it lauds the devoutness of a particular man, saying about him that he prayed continually to God (Acts 10:1-2). That frequency of praying goes well with Jesus’ illustration. Jesus is encouraging the same in our text with the words, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.

Again, we said, that the fact of us being encouraged so strongly to ask indicates God’s very strong interest in helping us.

Why wouldn’t we do this, then, right? Why wouldn’t we make use of the opportunity, (according to God’s command, even!), to go to him for our needs in prayer?

We can understand why unbelievers wouldn’t do it; they wouldn’t care about God’s command, and wouldn’t see any use in it. But I’m not talking to that crowd here; you are believers who are moved by Holy Spirit. You know of God’s grace. So, why wouldn’t you want to pray?

Well, it might occur to us that God’s prophet Isaiah once spoke these words to the people:

your iniquities have made a separation
    between you and your God,
and your sins have hidden his face from you
    so that he does not hear (Isaiah 59:2).

And when we read those words, it reminds us that we have situations in our lives in which we find it awkward to go to someone with some sort of request, or even just to talk with the person. It’s awkward when we know they have something against us. We wonder where we stand with the person. How are they going to receive us? Will they slam the door in our face? Hang up the phone in disgust? Will they receive us that way?

And You might ask, Will God receive me that way? Can I approach Him even as a sinner, even feeling so guilty about my sins, even with nothing to offer to make anything right? Will He receive me mercifully? Will it be to my good, or to my harm? It becomes a certain sort of doubt, doesn’t it; a sort of unbelief? God is offering; and you are wondering whether it’s on the up and up, whether what He’s offering is really there for you.

I was preparing this message out on my back porch the other day, and I saw a little lizard inside the screen (where there isn’t any food, and where it will die if it remains there). But, of course, my effort to “save the poor little creature” was in vain. He kept running from me. He was afraid that I was out to hurt him rather than to help.

In answer to peoples’ objection that perhaps God is out to hurt rather than to help (that Jesus anticipates in our text), He makes a reasonable argument: What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? We read those words a moment ago, about peoples’ iniquities, their sins making a separation between them and God. Leading into that, Isaiah has this to say:

Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save,
    or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; [so, it isn’t that God’s goodness doesn’t exist or has somehow gone away]

But then He goes on to say those words,

but your iniquities have made a separation
    between you and your God,
and your sins have hidden his face from you
    so that he does not hear

So, he’s saying, this distance isn’t on God’s part; it’s on your’s. It isn’t that He doesn’t stand ready to have mercy on you in your penitence (to help you in your need), but that your doubt, your unbelief prevents you from receiving it from Him. God doesn’t change; it’s your perception of Him that changes because of your guilt. You perceive Him as being unwilling to hear you and to help you. It’s awkward, you feel. How do you even approach when you know, nothing’s hidden from Him. How does God feel about me?—that’s what this really gets down to, right? How does God feel about me?

Our Old Testament lesson offers insight. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you (Jeremiah 29:11ff). The prophet Jeremiah (there) is talking to God’s people a long time ago, the same crowd to whom Isaiah was speaking for the LORD those earlier words.

It means the same thing to us that it meant to them, though. God says to sinners of all times: ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. And it even goes on to mention His great desire to give you the Holy Spirit in your asking. So this isn’t just about having enough money to pay the bills (though that’s important); it’s about receiving the solution to the even more important problem of your sin, too.

In my teaching of the Catechism the other day in the school, a question came up in the workbook, about whether or not someone who’d sinned the day before should come to communion. Jesus once said, “Those who are well don’t need a physician, but those who are sick (Matt. 9:12).” Theologians have referred to the Lord’s Supper as the medicine of immortality. The spiritually sick go to receive the medicine that makes them well.

Pastor Faugstad had a good statement related to this the other day in chapel. He noted that sick people don’t say to themselves, I’ve got to wait till I’m well before I can go see the doctor to get medicine. How silly would that be?! When you’re sick is when you go. And again, Jesus refers to a spiritual sickness that people have for which He has come to help.

There’s a real connection between prayer and the Supper in that in both, we’re going to the LORD to provide for us what we need in our brokenness, in our unworthiness, in our lostness. It’s clear in both, that we’ve been invited to do so. Prayer isn’t a Sacrament like the Lord’s Supper; but those other things, the two have in common.

So, the answer to that question in the Catechism workbook is, of course, that person who sinned yesterday should go to the Lord’s Table in repentance and in faith to receive Christ’s body and blood for his benefit. I asked the student who was answering the question, “On what day haven’t we sinned?” That’s what the whole thing’s for. We’re receiving God’s grace and His comfort and His strengthening to sustain us as we wait for Him in this world.

All of it is there for you in Christ, your Savior, Whose record is spotless. The One Who never had any doubts or unbelief has made payment for you and I, who have. His perfect blood has paid the price. Your sins are forgiven. You are connected to Christ through faith. In Him you need have no fear of God, of approaching Him as He has invited you to do. He’s the one Who says, I have no pleasure in the death of anyone…so turn, and live (Ezekiel 18:32).

Do you know you’re guilty before God? Do you regret what you’ve been? Jesus is inviting you in our text to receive the grace that God is offering. In Christ’s Name, go before God with all of your concerns related to this world and the next. His very strong encouraging of it indicates His very strong interest in helping you. What He’s offering is really there for you.

In Christ, you have forgiveness and salvation. Along with it, God invites you to ask and receive all other needed things (to ask in confidence as His dear child). Amen.

Other Lessons Today:

Jeremiah 29:11-14

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.

James 1:22-27

Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

St. John 16:23-30

[Jesus said,] “In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.

“I have said these things to you in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures of speech but will tell you plainly about the Father. In that day you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father.” His disciples said, “Ah, now you are speaking plainly and not using figurative speech! Now we know that you know all things and do not need anyone to question you; this is why we believe that you came from God.”

Matthew 10:24-33

“A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household.

“So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.

11 Who clings with resolution
To Him whom Satan hates
Must look for persecution
Which never here abates;
Reproaches, griefs and losses
Rain fast upon his head,
A thousand plagues and crosses
Become his daily bread. (ELH #157)

We say sometimes: don’t lose heart. There are times in this life when things get very difficult, and it’s difficult for us to have the courage that we need, or the resolve to follow through with whatever it is we’ve undertaken, without anything stopping us from it. Don’t lose heart is the encouragement someone might give, to weather it, to endure in the struggle. Finally, we have a limit of how much we can take, though, right. Where does that leave us?

“A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master”—Jesus says in our text. Seems like a pretty obvious truth, doesn’t it? But the path of His superior position is a path of suffering. It’s a path of being the target of peoples’ scorn and hatred. And by His statement He means to say, that those who follow Him won’t escape this difficult path; they’ll walk it behind Him. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul [or Satan], how much more will they malign those of his household—He says. The people who haven’t liked Him also won’t like His disciples, is what He’s saying. He’ll go on to say later, “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you (John 15:18).

So, the persecution that their Lord must endure is coming also to them. Jesus discusses how they should respond to it. And it isn’t something they should do as much as something they shouldn’t, namely (they shouldn’t): have [any] fear of [the persecutors] (a pretty tall request when it comes to the inevitability that people will be aiming to hurt them in every conceivable way).

This reminds us that sometimes, we lose heart. Something comes up that really scares us or is so difficult.

We think about the night when Jesus was arrested. While He was with His disciples beforehand, He talked to them about how difficult it was going to be. Peter said to Him, “Though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away (Matthew 26:33).”

And we know what happened. After Jesus was arrested, and Peter was in the courtyard of the High Priest, he got scared. He was around people, and someone started accusing Him of being with Jesus (a dangerous thing in that moment—with Jesus across the courtyard being raked over the coals, being lied about by false witnesses). Peter started getting really scared, and he said, I wasn’t with Jesus; I’m not one of His followers. He said it a couple of times. In fact, by the end, Matthew says, Then he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, “I do not know the man (Matthew 26:74).” In his fear he couldn’t put enough distance between himself and Jesus so far as he was concerned.

It’s important that we recognize that as sin. He doesn’t get a pass because he’s scared. Jesus says at the end of our text: everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.

That’s what it is to lose heart. Peter had thought he was going to be courageous, he was going to be so faithful to the Lord, never deny Him like that. But when it got very difficult, he did, and afterwards he was so sad about it. It says he went out and wept because he was so sad that he had lost heart like that, and had denied his Savior (Matthew 26:75). Later, after Jesus’ crucifixion, the disciples had been so disillusioned, that they were inconsolable, doubting at first the testimony of the women who’d been to the tomb, then only able to be convinced of Jesus’ having risen when they saw his hands and feet, and touched the wound in his side. They’d lost heart there too. And Jesus rebuked them for it.

And of course, we always have to recognize the connection we share with these disciples and with all other sinners. We lose heart. Things get difficult, and we doubt, we despair. We fear the world, and we deny.

Jesus is trying to get His disciples used to the idea that being His followers will make them outlaws in this world. At that moment it hadn’t yet gotten as bad as it was going to get. In their minds it was still something that could happen, but hadn’t yet happened.

It’s the same for you. You’re under the same pressure. Either you’ve dealt with the kind of hostility directly, that Jesus is talking about in our text, or quietly, you’ve dealt with the knowledge that the arrows of the world’s scorn that land on Christ and His followers also belong on you. You deal with the thought that maybe one day you’ll be Peter in the courtyard, with Christ’s enemies calling upon you to say which side you’re on: theirs or His. Can be a terrifying prospect. We think of our failures in the past, and wonder about the strength of our resolve in a time like that.

But you know a couple of things that are important in lifting your spirits (like Christ is doing for His disciples in our text). First of all, there isn’t a trace of your sins in your LORD, who endured the greatest suffering faithfully, never wavering, never having a weakening of His resolve. Fear and discouragement never caused Him to fail in His obedience, in His trust of the heavenly Father.

His unwavering faithfulness in the face of the worst suffering stands as your record before God because yours of faithlessness and disobedience and denial stood as His record, and as the crimes for which He was punished. You are entirely forgiven and stand under God’s grace. So, it isn’t even about the strength of your resolve; it’s His on your behalf.

And there’s another thing. When we talk about the book of Revelation in the Bible, even though there are a lot of details that can be discussed, often we talk about it very simply, not getting bogged down in all of the symbolic language. We summarize it’s overarching message with a simple statement like this: Jesus wins, and we—His followers—win with Him. That’s what the book of Revelation is about.

Jesus is saying sort of the same thing in our text. When He’s talking about covered things being revealed, hidden things being made known, He’s kind of saying, nobody’s getting away with anything here. God is in control of it all. Nobody’s more powerful than He is. Jesus says it in our text like this: do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Jesus is telling His disciples with that statement, God is only one who is capable of really hurting you; so you might as well not be afraid as long as He’s on your side. Those who position themselves against Him can’t win. Even if they kill you in this life you win, not them.

And as an extra encouragement here, Jesus lets us in on something we might never have thought of: God takes care of the birds (and everything else in the creation for that matter). Not even a sparrow falls from the sky without His knowledge. And if that’s on His radar, think about the fact that He knows the number of hairs on your head. How much more important to Him aren’t you, who are made in His own image? His stated desire is that one day you emerge from this world that passes away, to the eternal one that He has prepared for you in heaven.

He has seen to the matter of your sins that had no other solution than the sacrifice of His only begotten Son. He has drawn you to Himself in faith through the waters of Baptism, through the truth of His Word. He nourishes your faith in the Supper.

Christ’s followers are outlaws in this world. But to the end, we who have our limit, and who have fallen short at times acknowledge our Savior Whose limitless resolve earned our forgiveness and salvation, we look at our sufferings as evidences that we are disciples of our Teacher, servants of our Master, who walk behind Him on our way to where our sufferings will end, to where there is only joy at His side.

12 All this I am prepared for,
Yet am I not afraid;
By Thee shall all be cared for,
To whom my vows were paid.
Though life and limb it cost me,
And all the earthly store
Which once so much engrossed me,
I love Thee all the more. (ELH #157)

Amen.

John 10:22-30

At that time the Feast of Dedication took place at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the colonnade of Solomon. So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me, but you do not believe because you are not part of my flock. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”

Just before our text is a brief note from the writer. He mentions that there is some division among the Jews over what to think about Jesus. Some are saying, why listen to Him? Others are pointing out His Words and actions as a reason they should consider listening to Him.

We can see why the Bible says faith is brought about only through the power of God-The Holy Spirit, as He works in Baptism and the Word. God has to convince a person of the truth, or else he can’t know it. So, we preach the Word and we baptize according to God’s command.

If it were up to us to convince people that listening to Jesus is the thing they should do, it really wouldn’t be possible. Every heart naturally goes away from God (think of Adam and Eve hiding from Him in the Garden after they’d sinned), and must have Him powerfully motivating change if things are to go the other way. St. Paul talks about the natural mind of a person being hostile to God (Romans 8:7). He says in another place, that the natural person isn’t able to understand the things that come from God because they are spiritually discerned (1 Corinthians 2:14).

That’s specifically why we baptize infants. In saying, That which is born of the flesh is flesh (John 3:6), Jesus is saying that even infants have this same heart, need this same motivating change from God. And He provides it through the Spirit’s work in Baptism. He gives faith so that the person can know God’s grace in Christ. How does it happen in an infant? We don’t know; that’s God’s business. But this need of theirs is clearly taught in the Bible, and we know God doesn’t have any limitations; so, we bring even infants to the Lord Who can do for them what we can’t.

Our text demonstrates that everyone has the same problem. It’s even true for people who were Abraham’s descendants, who were of the people known in the Bible as God’s people; their heart, too, naturally opposes listening to Jesus.

That’s who Jesus is talking to in our text—not to those who’ve never had any acquaintance with God, but to ones who’ve known His Word throughout their lives. These, who are Jesus’ fellow Jews, are gathered with Him in Jerusalem. They’ve known the Scriptures. They anticipate the coming of God’s Anointed One. That one’s coming, they know, will be accompanied with certain words and actions. The prophets have said this. Jesus’ audience have been anticipating the coming of this person all their lives. They should be able to recognize it when they see it.

And it’s evident to some of the Jews, that Jesus is this person Whose coming they’ve been anticipating. But again, there’s this division among the Jews over what to think about Him. The naysayers have argued that He talks like someone who must have a demon. The ones kind of arguing for Him, ask, Can a demon open the eyes of the blind (John 10:21)?

That’s the same kind of reasoning that Jesus uses in our text. They say, If you are the Christ, tell us plainly; He says, I told you, and you do not believe. So, He’s pointing to His words. And then He points to His actions. He says, The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me. He means they show that He is what the Scriptures had foretold that the Messiah or Christ would be.

When He talks in our Gospel lesson, about being the Good Shepherd, He is alluding to the things that are said in our Old Testament lesson. The LORD, as a shepherd, seeks out His flock, rescues them from the places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. Those words have their greatest fulfillment in Jesus, the Good Shepherd, Who lays down his life for the sheep.

Jesus’ hearers in our text haven’t seen the conclusion of that particular thing yet; they haven’t seen the cross and grave and Resurrection, but they’ve seen plenty. Opening the eyes of the blind (mentioned by some of them); well, that’s one of things the prophet Isaiah had said this Christ would do. To some who wondered one time, Jesus pointed out: “the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them (Matt. 11:5). It was another way of saying, You’re wondering if I’m the Christ. Of course I am, look what I’m doing. Look how the things I’m doing are what the prophets said the Christ would do.

But Jesus’ audience is divided. Again, we see in it the great problem that is our inherited sinful nature. It would always tend to say of Jesus, Why listen to Him?

If we think about it, this text can be looked at as a trilogy along with the Easter morning text, and last week’s text in this way: prior to Easter, Jesus had said He would rise from death, and it wasn’t believed. If anything, it had been rationalized in this way: Nobody rises from death; He must have meant something else. Then, on Easter evening He’d said He’s really risen from death, and it wasn’t believed. They’d rationalized it, thinking it must be a spirit they were seeing. Now, He says, I’m really the Christ, but He isn’t believed. Instead, they think He must have a demon.

The audiences were different; but it really doesn’t matter. That’s the point of all this: everyone has this same nature that refuses to listen to Jesus, refuses to believe His clear words and works. To these last ones it’s like He has said, I’m really the Christ, and they’ve said, No, tell us plainly, Who are you?

It goes against your very nature to listen to Jesus, to believe the things the Bible says about Him. It’s important to recognize that, because then it isn’t so startling to think that at times you’ve had doubts about it, that at times you’ve tried (along with the world) to rationalize things about Jesus to make them make more sense to you, to make them seem less un-believable.

One of the ways you might have done this is to doubt whether Jesus could really make you right with God, without you having to help in the matter. Could He really take your guilt on His shoulders as the Bible says He has? There’s a lot of it, you’ve thought to yourself. There’s so much! Just as stridently as the disciples had questioned of Jesus’ resurrection, How could it be?—you might have questioned in this matter: How could it be that this person [pointing to self] that falls so short of God’s glory, that adds to the debt of guilt every day—how could it be that Jesus could take it all away so that I could be made fit for God’s kingdom, without me having to (or even being able to) contribute anything to it?

You might even have asked these things with skepticism (in your skepticism you’d have been standing shoulder to shoulder with the disciples, by the way). And now, here you sit in this church this morning, brokenhearted, miserable in the thought of it. You’re among those Jesus talks about in the Beatitudes. You’re the poor in spirit. You’re among those who mourn. You share the sentiment of the man who said to Jesus one time: “I believe; help my unbelief (Mark 9:24)!”

Now, think of what it means that Jesus is the Good Shepherd. What a picture that is for you. In one of our hymns, O Dearest Jesus, there’s that line in the fourth verse that says:

What punishment so strange is suffered yonder!

The Shepherd dies for sheep that loved to wander;

The Master pays the debt His servants owe Him,

Who would not know Him.

Now, think about Jesus’ words in our text: My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. What words could be more sure than those, could bring more comfort? My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow me.

The fact is, your listening and your following have fallen short. But those words are spoken by the One without any sins. They’re spoken by the One whose life never had any sinful doubts in it like yours has; so His sacrifice made payment for yours. He has put Himself in your place. God has forgiven your doubts and your other sins because Jesus has put Himself in your place. Before God it looks like you’ve never committed them; He looked at Jesus as if He had, and punished Him for them. Justice has been served, then. Your sins are forgiven because the Good Shepherd has laid down His life for you. His rising from death is the evidence that it worked! Your sins really were paid for. Jesus has made you right with God without anything more being required of you. The Holy Spirit has made you aware of Jesus’ worthwhile Words and actions. He gives you eternal life. Amen.

Ezekiel 34:11-16

“For thus says the Lord God: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land. And I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the ravines, and in all the inhabited places of the country. I will feed them with good pasture, and on the mountain heights of Israel shall be their grazing land. There they shall lie down in good grazing land, and on rich pasture they shall feed on the mountains of Israel. I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord God. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them in justice.

1 Peter 2:21-25

To this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

St. John 10:11-16

[Jesus said], “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.”

St. Luke 24:36-47

As they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, “Peace to you!” But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit. And he said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate before them.

Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

Our text takes place on the same day as the Resurrection. Remember, that the angel in the tomb had told the bewildered women not to be afraid, they’d come looking for Jesus; but He wasn’t there, He’d risen. They were to tell the disciples that He was going before them to Galilee. There they’d see Him just as He’d said (Mark 16:6-7). So, on the evening of that same day (Easter Day), Jesus joins the disciples as they’re presently locked up in a room (afraid of being hunted down as Jesus’ followers).

And it’s interesting how it all goes. In our Gospel lesson we have St. John’s account of the same evening (our text is St. Luke’s account). St. John includes the detail, that one of the disciples, Thomas, hadn’t been there with the others when Jesus appeared to them. He’d been reluctant, then, to believe they’d really seen Him as they’d said (He’d doubted). Thomas is often referred to that way—fairly or not— as Doubting Thomas. Of course, Jesus had appeared again the next week when Thomas was present with the others, and had said to him, Do not disbelieve, but believe. Most of what people know about Thomas is this, that he doubted that it could be true that Jesus was really alive, not having seen it for himself.

Him being so famous for that is why it’s interesting how it all goes in our text. The disciples have been there in the room, waiting for Jesus (as the angel had told them to do). Jesus appears to them, greeting them with the words, Peace to you.

Again, considering how famous Thomas is for having doubted, we might expect to find these other disciples had been been pillars of faith in the similar moment, right? They must have jumped for joy at seeing the LORD because they weren’t hesitant at all to believe they were seeing Jesus standing in front of them, raised.

But that isn’t what our text says. Isn’t it true, that Jesus is having to do the same convincing with them that our Gospel lesson says He had to do with Thomas the following week? St. Luke tells us they were startled and frightened, thinking they were seeing a spirit. Jesus says to them, Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? And then, He does for them exactly what He will do for Thomas the following week; He shows them His hands and feet (where the nails were). He invites them to touch the places, feeling for themselves that it’s Him. He reasons with them in the same way He will with Thomas: a spirit doesn’t have flesh and bones as He has. He even asks for something to eat so that He might demonstrate that function of someone who is in the body (not of any spirit).

We bring this up because the same sort of doubting, the same sort of hesitance when it comes to believing Jesus’ Words tends to apply to us too—just like to Thomas, and to his fellow disciples. Jesus had asked them to believe His Words, to believe that He would rise from death. But people just don’t do that; they don’t rise from death! That’s the sort of difficulty they were having with it. How could it be?

You have the same challenge every Sunday. The pastor holds up before your eyes a wafer of what looks like mere bread and says, (Here’s a piece of bread? No.) This is the true body of Christ. Another comes along and holds up before your eyes a cup or cups containing what looks like mere wine and says, (Here’s a cup of wine? No.) This is the true blood of Christ.

Now, every one of you who communes in our church has been instructed and has confessed that you believe the pastor’s words, you believe that the mere bread and wine—consecrated as they are with Christ’s Words—have been mysteriously joined with His true body and blood for your real benefit (for the remission of your sins, Jesus says). That’s what you’ve been instructed to believe, and have confessed that you believe.

Haven’t you, though, had the same moments of difficulty with it that the disciples have been having anticipating this moment of Christ’s appearance to them risen in the flesh? Haven’t you been tempted like some other Christians have, to rationalize it in some way, to think, Christ must not have meant what He said; He must not have meant that the bread is His body, that the wine is His blood. How could it be?! That just doesn’t happen! He must have meant it can remind you of His body and of His blood, or that it should be taken as a symbol of those.

We can imagine the disciples were thinking the same when they were hearing Jesus say He would rise again from death, right? How could He mean that? He must mean something else. And seeing Him, evidently they were thinking, this can’t really be Jesus in the flesh; so it must be a spirit. But Jesus isn’t confirming that sort of thinking when He appears to them in our text. He isn’t saying to them, Yeah, yeah, you’re right; I didn’t really mean what I said. Instead, He shows them His hands and feet. He gives several evidences that indicate He meant exactly what He said. What has happened is every bit as amazing as the thing He’d said was going to happen. It doesn’t just look like He’s risen; He really has risen from the dead. He demonstrates in this text, that His Words can be believed—and should always be believed. They should be believed also when He says, This is My body, which is given for you…this is My blood, which is shed for you for the remission of sins.

But you have the same nature as the disciples, and no doubt, at times, have questioned, How can it be so? How can Jesus’ Words be true? And to you also, He might rightly say as to the disciples in our text, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts?—As if to say, Is there anything that’s impossible for God? Is there anything I can’t do? Do I ever speak things that aren’t the truth?

Look how Jesus addresses their sin of doubt in our text: He speaks reassuringly to them. He reminds them of what He has said. He reminds them of what the Scriptures have said, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. He opens their minds to understand better. He forgives them for their doubts.

He has done the same for you, dear sinner. He makes Himself present for you here, in Word and Supper every week. He opens your heart to understand better through the work of the Holy Spirit. His Supper is for the very purpose of giving you this sort of reassurance. So, actually, it’s a great blessing to have this opportunity every week, to put your trust in this mysterious, amazing thing He says to you, This is My body, which is given for you…this is My blood, which is shed for you for the remission of sins—to believe that it means exactly what it says, that there isn’t any need for you to parse it or interpret it in some way according to your corrupted human reason (all that does is remove all the joy in it anyway). Christ’s Words were reliable for the disciples when He told them He would rise from death—He demonstrates that in our text. They’re reliable for you as well.

One more thing about this text: Jesus’ words at seeing the disciples, Peace to you!—are more than a mere greeting, more than a mere wish (though, when other people say those words, that’s what they are). Jesus is the One Who brings peace about. Those words from Him are connected to what the angel said to the shepherd when announcing His birth in Bethlehem, peace on earth, goodwill toward men. Those words meant the One Who’s born there has been sent to bring about the only thing that could reestablish peace between God and His fallen creation, the atoning sacrifice of His only-begotten Son.

It makes perfect sense, then, for Him to greet His disciples that way following the Resurrection; because in overcoming death, He has established finally and completely, that this peace with God has been brought about. It is for the disciples, who are hearing the Words from Him in our text. It is for you, who hear them this morning as presented in our text. You have peace with God in Christ. Your sins are forgiven in Him. There is no need for you to be troubled. This One Who has never doubted or sinned in any other way has been put in your place, and you in His. God be praised. Amen.

Other Lessons from today:

Job 19:25-27

I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!

1 John 5:4-10

For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

This is he who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not by the water only but by the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three agree. If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater, for this is the testimony of God that he has borne concerning his Son. Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son.

St. John 20:19-31

On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.” Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.”

Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you
may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

St. John 16:23-30

[Jesus said,] In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to
you. Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.

“I have said these things to you in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures of speech but will tell you plainly about the Father. In that day you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father.” His disciples said, “Ah, now you are speaking plainly and not using figurative speech! Now we know that you know all things and do not need anyone to question you; this is why we believe that you came from God.”

We’re still in the Sixteenth chapter of St. John’s Gospel (third straight week on this conversation between Jesus and His disciples).

First, we looked at the part in which He talked about the “little while” that they would weep, and lament, and sorrow in His absence (all other believers too, until He returns in glory). He was telling them that, like a mother’s rejoicing at the birth of her child following the pain, believers will rejoice endlessly when that day has come. Then, last week, we looked at His promise of sending the Spirit of truth, the one Who clarifies for them these three things: (1) sin’s significance, (2) where sinners truly find their righteousness (in Christ), and (3) the “innocent” verdict believers in Christ receive in the judgment.

In today’s section of that chapter, Jesus talks about one of the specific things His followers will be doing in this world while they await His return; He talks about prayer. They will pray for their comfort. They will pray as an expression of faith. They will pray in His Name.

For Their Comfort

You might notice the word Rogate on the cover of the bulletin. It means, pray! We might not think of it this way so much, but one of the fathers of the synod ours comes from—the Norwegian synod—talked in a sermon about us being commanded in the Second Commandment to pray. We usually think we break that commandment—You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain—by doing something we’re not supposed to do; using God’s name in a way that dishonors Him. From U.V. Koren’s perspective, though, we break it also by not doing a certain thing we’re supposed to be doing with God’s name, that is: praying.

Jesus certainly is presenting prayer in this text as something believers do. It’s a given to Him that they’ll have things to say to the heavenly Father in prayer.

In Jesus’ conversation with His disciples in our text, He makes clear to them that, He won’t be in their presence anymore in the same way. They won’t be able to come to Him with their needs and concerns like they did in the boat when the waves were tossing them about and they thought they were going to perish, or like in the wilderness, when a hungry crowd was looking to them to provide food. Instead, they will go to the Father in prayer. They will flee for refuge to His infinite mercy, seeking and imploring His grace, as we say in one version of the Confession of Sins. They will be doing it by praying. Though not with Jesus like they’ve known, they will still have audience with God in this way. They can take comfort in having been invited by Him to address to Him their concerns.

That same U.V. Koren we mentioned earlier—in that same sermon, talks about believers having a longing to pray to God. “You never ask people for things you don’t want to have”—he says. We pray because we have needs.

You certainly recognize all sorts of needs that you have. If you’re a parent, you need wisdom in dealing with your children. You need understanding. You need patience. You need forgiveness for the times you think, and say, and do the wrong things. You need peace of mind because so many things worry you about their lives. You want them to be protected from all kinds of harm and danger. You want them to prosper mentally, physically, emotionally. You want them to be people of faith, who fear the true God. And you feel in so many moments in this, helpless, clumsy, incompetent. Jesus tells His disciples in our text (and He tells you) that the Father waits to hear your concerns—this One for Whom nothing is too large, nothing impossible.

As An Expression of Faith

“You never ask people for things you don’t want to have.”—Koren follows it with this: “You don’t ask people from whom you don’t expect anything.” Prayer is an expression of our faith. We pray because we believe, not only that we have needs that even with our best efforts still go unmet, but also that in God our needs are met. There wouldn’t be any point in praying otherwise. We pray because we believe Jesus when He says the Father hears our prayers. We believe Him when He says that we will receive from Him to our joy.

And yet, often our praying amounts more to something we are getting around to doing rather than something we have very faithfully done. We have been “pray-ers” in theory, but not so very often in practice. And it’s important for us to consider what that says about us as believers. Is God the One Who helps us in our need; or must our help come from elsewhere (maybe from ourselves)? The world says you must believe in yourself, you must dig down deep and come up with whatever it is that can solve your problems. God isn’t in the equation for the world.

It isn’t the same for us, is it? That’s not what we believe. That’s certainly not what Jesus is saying in our text. We ask of the Father in our need. If prayer is an expression of faith, then it has to be said—doesn’t it?—that to not pray is to act like an unbeliever. It’s to have had the One Who can truly help inviting us to come to Him for that help, and to have said, “I don’t need it; I don’t want it.”

In His Name

You might have noticed that in our text, Jesus says, in My name a number of times. People wonder sometimes, Why do we do that; why do we say, “In Jesus’ name” at the end of our prayers? It comes from this text.

The answer has to do with what Jesus is preparing in our text to do for His disciples (and for us). In a sense, He has already been doing it: He has been living perfectly in their place in this world—sinless. His work will be complete a short time after our text, when He is betrayed into the hands of sinners, unjustly convicted and sentenced to death, crucified, and entombed. Then, He will have positioned Himself (according to eternal plan) to represent us before the Father. He has made us able to invoke His name before the Father, Who then sees us as never having sinned—Him having been made guilty and punished for all of ours.

We don’t belong before the Father otherwise. Other than in Jesus’ name we have no business there. I wouldn’t want to find out what happens were I to stand before the perfect God in my own name. That name is corrupted. It is soiled. It is wholly unfit to stand before Him. There would be no mercy applied to my name, only just punishment for sins.

But I go before Him in Jesus’ Name. We talked about sins we have as parents (children have a whole list of their own). We talked about the sin that we have of neglecting prayer—ignoring so much of the time God’s invitation to address Him as the One who hears and Who helps. Jesus had no such sins, see. He was a perfect child of His parents, and of His heavenly Father—continually going before Him in prayer in every sort of circumstance. We not only see glimpses of it in Scripture, but knowing Him, we know that how ever many times He did it, it was the perfect amount. He did for us what we couldn’t do for ourselves.

So, when we look back upon the pitifulness of our prayer lives, and upon all of the other ways in which we have fallen short before God, and have earned His wrath and punishment, we don’t despair because our names are attached through Baptism, through faith to a Name that stands before God righteous and having salvation. It’s the Name that has made us righteous through an exchange; He took our sins upon Himself so that we could have His righteousness. We ask the Father in His name, and we receive. We receive to the extent that our joy is full. We anticipate the inheritance of God’s kingdom. The Father loves us for Christ’s sake. He loves you. He forgives you your sins. He forgives you in Jesus’ Name. God be praised. Amen.

Other Lessons from this week:

Jeremiah 29:11-14

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.

James 1:22-27

Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.
If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

St. John 16:5-15

[Jesus said,] “Now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.

“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.”

Our text is all about the importance of knowing the difference between what’s really true and what isn’t. That’s a timely topic, isn’t it?

Jesus will be gone from His disciples soon—in terms of their ability to interact this way with Him. But it’s a good thing, He says here. It’s good because in His place, another will come to them (they won’t be able to interact with Him like this either, but…it’s still a good thing). It’s good because the Helper, or the one Jesus goes on to call the Spirit of truth, Who’s coming, has a specific duty toward them that is to their advantage. The timing works such that He gets sent by Jesus once Jesus has accomplished His work (the dying for people’s sins, the rising from death, the ascending into heaven and so forth).

We confess in the meaning to the Third Article of the Creed, why this person is so important to them.

“I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Ghost has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith.

The gifts of the Father that we talk about this morning (you might have seen those words on the cover of the bulletin) are the Spirit of truth (Holy Spirit, Holy Ghost, the third person of the Triune God), and the Word of God that He uses to bring us to faith, and to keep that faith alive unto eternal life (also the Sacraments that are powered by that Spirit and Word).

Sin, righteousness, and judgment are the things Jesus says will be the Spirit’s points of focus as He guides people into all the truth—Sin, righteousness, and judgment.

Sin

We don’t like very much to hear about sin. When we confess in the Third Article’s Meaning, that we cannot by our own reason or strength believe, we’re referring to our fallen nature. We’re referring to our having inherited sinfulness from our first parents.

• We don’t want to be told what to do and not do.

• We don’t want to be made to feel guilty for having done anything wrong.

• We don’t want there to be a certain way that we have to be according to God.

• We don’t want to be held accountable for keeping God’s laws as presented in the Bible.

• Certainly, when we see the world getting more and more okay with things that go against God’s laws (things we might secretly like), then we don’t want to be pulled back and told, yes, but God’s laws still apply like they always did.

What a drag!—our sinful nature thinks. We don’t like very much to hear about sin.

The Spirit of truth is the one God has sent to stand on that Word, and say to the world what Jesus said, …until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished (Matthew 5:18). When people are in a burning building, it doesn’t matter if the people inside say, Yeah, but I don’t want the building to be burning; it doesn’t matter if they say, Yeah, but I don’t believe the building is burning. They need to get out if they want to survive. The Spirit of truth, on the one hand, convicts us of sin. He confronts us with God’s Law that exposes us, exposes our guilt. He convinces us that our guilt needs to have a solution; we can’t just decide we don’t mind having guilt. That won’t end well for us; hell is the end for that.

If the Spirit’s work bears the desired fruit in us, we have come to recognize our guilt, and to want nothing more than to have a solution that will remove it from us, remove the just punishment for that guilt. The Spirit of truth convicts us in regard to sin.

Righteousness

Righteousness is the next point of focus for the Spirit of truth. How do sinners become righteous, become what they need to be in order to escape guilt’s penalty?  The first thing the Spirit has to address is something that comes along with our sinful nature; that is, the thought that we can save ourselves.

Fewer and fewer today believe there even is a God to whom they are accountable. They see themselves as perfectly good people, and don’t give a thought to any sort of punishment waiting in their future. The Spirit is busy convicting them of sin, like we were talking about earlier. He works to rid them of this delusion before it’s too late.

For you, who believe there’s a God to whom you’re accountable, the Spirit’s work is aimed more at your tendency to compare yourself to other people, and think God certainly isn’t going to bother me about anything when others around are so much worse. The Spirit’s convicting of you is teaching you how you’re wrong about righteousness when your fallen nature is thinking in this way, and about what it really means to be that—to be righteous. He might point you to the words of the Psalmist: Enter not into judgment with your servant, for no one living is righteous before you (143:2). Or Isaiah: We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment (64:6). Jesus addressed this when someone asked what good he must do to have eternal life. He said, There is only one who is good (Matthew 19:17). Of course, that one is God Himself. Only a person who has God’s righteousness as his own escapes the just punishment for sins, attains eternal life.

God’s righteousness is available for you to have as your own through faith in the Christ. Believing that God has made you righteous in Him gives you ownership of that righteousness. Believing that His sacrifice on the cross was for you—so that you can be righteous before God makes the righteousness your own. Jesus doesn’t have any false notion of saving Himself like you have; He doesn’t need any saving. He has taken the guilt of your sin of self-righteousness on Himself, being punished for it so that you are given His true righteousness in exchange. That means you’re forgiven of that and every other sin. You are made fit for God’s eternal kingdom because of what Christ has done for you. The Spirit of truth convicts us in regard to righteousness.

Judgment

The Spirit of truth has one more topic to address: judgment. That can be a word that makes us uneasy. We envision charges being read, a guilty suspect waiting for the judge’s verdict, the judge preparing to hand the verdict down. Do you ever worry about this? Do you think about the sins of your youth (or of more recent days)? There are things I would imagine that all of us think about (unless I’m different from all of you, because I certainly have things).

And the devil likes that we have those things. He likes that we revisit them in our minds, regretting them anew from time to time. His hope is that you think, God is certainly very good; but He can’t be so good that He would let that slide. And the devil wants you to think, these are good Christian people who are gathered here this morning. I don’t belong here. I don’t measure up to this.

The Spirit’s work is in a very tender area now. He puts Christ before your eyes. Look what He has done for you! He stood waiting for the judge’s verdict (this innocent One did!). What was given as the list of sins for which He must die are those sins of yours—the ones you revisit, the ones you regret anew over and over again. They’re already taken care of. He wanted to do it. He died for them. He rose again to life, defeating death and sin. You won’t have them read as your sins again in the Judgment; they’ve already been read and done away with. Read as your verdict will be the word innocent. You are that through faith in Christ. Let that be the end of your uneasiness. God’s mercy is yours in Christ. You know the difference between what’s really true and what isn’t; the Spirit of truth has told you. You are a sinner. Christ is your righteousness. You are thereby innocent in the judgment. God be praised. Amen.

Isaiah 12:1-6

You will say in that day: “I will give thanks to you, O LORD, for though you were angry with me, your anger turned away, that you might comfort me. Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the LORD GOD is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation. With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. And you will say in that day: “Give thanks to the LORD, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the peoples, proclaim that his name is exalted. Sing praises to the LORD, for he has done gloriously; let this be made known in all the earth. Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.”

James 1:16-21

Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures.

Know this, my beloved brothers: let every
person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

St. John 16:16-23

[Jesus said], “A little while, and you will see me no longer; and again a little while, and you will see me.” So some of his disciples said to one another, “What is this that he says to us, ‘A little while, and you will not see me, and again a little while, and you will see me’; and, ‘because I am going to the Father’?” So they were saying, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We do not know what he is talking about.” Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him, so he said to them, “Is this what you are asking yourselves, what I meant by saying, ‘A little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me’? Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy.

“When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you. In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you.”

You will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice—Jesus says to His disciples in our text. He has just washed their feet on Maundy Thursday. He hasn’t yet been arrested. Soon, He will be gone from them (at least so as they have known). 

And that’s just the latest of the troubling news He has given them. Before this, He’s been saying that the world will hate them on His account (John 15:18). They’ll put them out of the synagogues. They’ll even think killing them is offering a service to God (16:1-2). 

Maybe this portrayal of the world as hostile to Jesus’ followers is surprising to you. You might think, Oh, that’s a little dramatic, isn’t it? Maybe you don’t feel like you’ve experienced that sort of hostility as a result of being Jesus’ follower. St. Peter might have seen Jesus as being a little dramatic in this way. In an account from Matthew’s Gospel Jesus starts telling Peter and the others of all that’ll be happening to Him shortly in Jerusalem—the suffering, and the killing, and the rising from death. And Peter takes Him aside and says, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you” (16:22). Could Jesus really cause that level of offense? Could He really get people riled up that badly?

It does seem strange. The message that we believe doesn’t seem like it should be so offensive. 

• God created people.

• They sinned and separated themselves from Him to their harm.

• He loved them so much that He laid down His life in order that they might be with Him eternally.

• He isn’t going to require that they pay the cost for sinning; He has paid it with His own blood instead.

Why should anyone be so offended at that?

And you might be thinking, all this talk about weeping, and lamenting, and being sorrowful; are things really all that bad? Jesus had responded to Peter’s rebuke of Him with a rebuke of His own: “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man” (Matthew 16:23).  

In a way, Jesus was saying to him, you’re trying to make this less serious than it is. Things really are all that bad. In fact, they’re so bad, that solving them will take God dying for you.

That idea of trying to make things less serious than they really are; that’s a temptation that’s common to all of us. On this Mother’s Day, we recall our tendency to spin our disobedience into something that, by the time we’re done with it, sounds like it might be something resembling a certain form of obedience. I might not have done exactly as you asked, Mom; but what I did actually brought about the result I think you were looking for anyway (which is my happiness). So, no harm actually done…right? You’re welcome!

Our sinful nature is forever engaged in this sort of negotiation with God. He says in the conscience and in His Word that our absolute corruption required payment in the form of His innocent Son’s death—things can’t be any worse; our sinful nature says, well, it seems that way on the surface, maybe; but actually, when you really think about it, I’m able to be a pretty good person. It really isn’t as bad as all that. And as long as the sinful nature is winning that battle, we are able to look at the big picture of this world without all of the weeping, and lamenting, and being sorrowful. And that can be really appealing to us. We can just kind of ignore the price of our sins and the battle that continues between us and the devil for the duration of this fallen world.

But just as empty and worthless is our spin to our mothers about our disobedience actually being the cause of goodness, so is our imagination of a goodness in us that makes Christ’s sacrifice unnecessary (so is our imagination of us in a world free of the corruption that caused His death, free of the corruption that brings the world’s hatred upon faithful followers of that Savior). If the world isn’t hating us, then Jesus didn’t know what He was talking about in our text with all of the weeping, and lamenting, and being sorrowful. As those who know Christ, who know our sins that brought about His sacrifice on the cross (our school kids talk about this every day as they recite blessed are the poor in spirit in their chapel liturgy); as those who know the ongoing power of our sin that threatens to separate us from Him forever, we live in this world as ones who most ardently anticipate the next world. In our best moments (the Spirit-led ones) we aren’t thinking up ways to spin our unrighteousness into actually being some sort of righteousness; rather, in our despair, we're clinging to Christ’s righteousness that brings God’s forgiveness, and that promises to us a resurrection to glory with Him eternally.

And Jesus describes this anticipation in a way that couldn’t be more apropos for Mother’s Day. He compares the believer’s anticipation of His kingdom to a mother giving birth to her beloved child. The corruption that sin has brought on this world is present in the proceedings. It’s there in the pain of labor. She has sorrow because her hour has come—Jesus says. God had foretold this pain that comes as the result of sin. To Eve he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children” (Genesis 3:16). 

But the pain isn’t to be forever. When she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world—Jesus says in our text. And He compares that to what His disciples will experience, and really what all believers will experience in this world. You haven’t really helped yourself in those moments in which you imagined that things are less serious than they really are, in those moments in which you imagined that sin hasn’t really brought weeping, and lamenting, and sorrowing, that somehow you can spin your unrighteousness into righteousness. All of that sort of thinking is empty and worthless. It comes from the nature that is utterly corrupted. 

The believer’s sorrow is turned into true joy in the One Who says in the text, I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you. This is the one Who never needs unrighteousness to be massaged into righteousness, to be spun into righteousness. He already has it. So when He is considered by God to be your righteousness, nothing more is needed. It could never be said of you, that you were wholly obedient to your mother; but the Bible does say it of Him (Luke 2:51). His blood has bought your forgiveness. You are forgiven in Him.

A little while we wait in this world. We have joys here; there’s no question about it. Many of us are blessed to recall joy that God has brought to us through the loving service of our mothers. He has been kind to us through their kindness. He has provided for our needs through their provision that was too often unthanked. Our mothers represent to us the love and caring that Jesus is expressing to His disciples in our text. They remind us of His great love for us. They remind us of what is expressed in our Old Testament lesson: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

We wait quietly a little while for the salvation of the Lord. As those forgiven in Christ’s blood, we anticipate the end of our weeping, and lamenting, and sorrowing that give way to eternal rejoicing at His side. Amen.

Lamentations 3:18-26

My endurance has perished;  so has my hope from the LORD.” Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall! My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me.

But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.” The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the Salvation of the LORD.

1 Peter 2:11-20 

Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.

Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.

Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust. For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. 

St. John 10:11-16

I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.

Our Old Testament lesson from Ezekiel illustrates all peoples’ spiritual situation. On the surface it looks like the people in the text had gotten what their deeds deserved. God had allowed their enemies to overcome them in their own place, and take them to a far off land against their will. Certainly, He would wash His hands of them, now. That’s what you and I have wanted for people who’ve wronged us, isn’t it; that we turn the page and move on? 

We’re like that; is God? 

It seems like He might be if we read earlier in the book of Ezekiel. God was so angry with His people that He said this:

On account of your unclean lewdness, because I would have cleansed you and you were not cleansed from your uncleanness, you shall not be cleansed anymore till I have satisfied my fury upon you. 14 I am the Lord. I have spoken; it shall come to pass; I will do it. I will not go back; I will not spare; I will not relent; according to your ways and your deeds you will be judged, declares the Lord God” (24:13, 14).

And that seems to make sense to us in a certain way. You do the crime, you do the time. It’s justice. The way God is, it makes sense. The way He made everything to be, it makes sense. We grow up in our parents’ houses with rules. If we break them, there’s a consequence (our parents’ authority is established by God too). We’re warned in Paul’s letter to the Romans, that the government doesn’t bear the sword for nothing. If we do wrong, we should be afraid of that authority (13:4). Sin has consequences. It has wages, the Bible says (Romans 6:23).

Even after that sternness, however, some time later God told His prophet Ezekiel to say to the people:

As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?

I speak to a room full of sinners who have daily broken God’s Commandments (I see one in the mirror too). When we look in our texts for this morning (having come here to know God, and to number ourselves among His people), we want to see what kind of God He is. What we see is that He isn’t the kind who casually turns the page on sinners. What a comfort that is for us. No doubt, you have been troubled over your sins. I invite you to see this morning, the God Who presents Himself as the Good Shepherd.

He’d already been talking about Himself this way in Old Testament times, in the time—even—of the Babylonian Captivity (the 70-year exile of His people from Jerusalem, the time He drove them away by the hand of their enemies). Even as He was issuing the sternest of rebukes (as we read earlier), of condemnations for their waywardness, He was speaking tenderly to the terrified sinners in them, the poor in spirit, who would in some moment regret the evil and return to Him for His mercy. 

Through the prophet Ezekiel’s words, He presents a picture of Himself as the one whose job it is to care for the most helpless of creatures. Like sheep, His people are helpless without Him. They’ve already demonstrated their tendency to do the most self-destructive things. They have wandered away from His protection and His mercy to be counseled according to the wisdom of this world, and to take part in the wickedness that comes along with that counsel. 

And when God (through the prophet) talks about what they need now, He uses the word rescue. He talks about seeking them out, gathering them, bringing them back, binding up their wounds, strengthening them, feeding them, causing them to lie down (in comfort and safety like sheep in a meadow is what that means). And even with that harshness that we heard earlier, with God so angry about their sins that He seems almost to run out of ways to say how angry He is, He comes back around to talking like this, to talking like the shepherd who can’t bear to lose anyone from His flock.

And when Jesus—in our text—wants to demonstrate to His listeners just how much He cares about them, He brings up this same imagery, of Him as the shepherd who cares for His flock. 

The flock isn’t a perfect flock; He knows that. He speaks to a group of sinners who have daily broken God’s Commandments. They share the same sinful nature with those to whom God was speaking through the prophet in our Old Testament lesson. They have wandered away from His protection and His mercy to be counseled according to the wisdom of this world, and to take part in the wickedness that comes along with that counsel. As He speaks to them about laying down His life for the sheep, He isn’t trying to impress them by talking big about something he’ll never really have to carry out. He’s giving the details of a rescue plan fashioned in eternity. He will literally give His life for theirs. St. Peter talks about it in our epistle lesson with it having by that time happened: Christ also suffered for you….He Himself bore our sins in his body on the tree. This Good Shepherd puts Himself in front of the wolf who attacks the flock so that He might be torn to pieces instead of them.

Is God the kind of God who casually turns the page on His people? No. He turns the page on Himself instead. He gives His own life instead. 

He spoke to sinners through the prophet Ezekiel in that prophet’s day, to the same sinners through Jesus in His office as prophet in His day. He speaks to the same sinners today, even this very morning in this sanctuary. He speaks to people who are as guilty as any sinners of any time. He speaks to people who must admit their own ears that strain toward the wisdom of this world’s counselors. The people of Ezekiel’s day weren’t some kind of monsters; they were just people. They knew the true God, but also liked a lot of the ideas they were hearing apart from Him. They liked the feeling of being accepted by others who weren’t interested in God. There were so many alternatives, after all. Our first mother Eve was being tempted by the serpent in the same way. 

The people of Ezekiel’s time might not have thought of themselves as being in need of being rescued by God, of being sought out, gathered, bound up, fed, brought back, strengthened (that’s how it often is). They’d been deceived, and were thinking of themselves as enlightened, in a new way of thinking. Meanwhile, from God’s perspective their situation was so dire that the only way to reach them was with the severest discipline aimed at driving at least some of them to the point of repentance.

When you are at that point in consideration of your sins, you are in a very good place. It’s painful. You would rather not have to endure it. But it’s by God’s grace that He has brought you to this humble state. It’s the point at which you rejoice when you hear the words of your Savior in our text: I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He’s the One Who never wandered like you have, never sought any peace or satisfaction or goodness apart from the source of all it—never flirted around with this world’s wisdom and accompanying pursuits, so His perfect life is laid down for your spoiled one. And it suffices.

When you think of your sins that bother you, that make you even question whether God might be at the point of turning the page on you, think of how He presents Himself in these lessons. He is the Good Shepherd who pursues the sheep of His flock—not to harm them in some way, not to punish them—to restore them to His side. He seeks them out that they might be with Him in His eternal kingdom. He lays down His life to remove their guilt—to remove your guilt, to remove the punishment that it brings. He puts it on Himself instead. He forgives your sins. God be praised. Amen.