Third Sunday of Easter (1888)John 10:12-16

Everyone has something on which his heart finds joy and pleasure. But from which now very much, yes, everything depends, is about which a man rejoices, in which he seeks and finds highest joy and delight in his heart. Nothing less depends on it than the essential question: whether he would be a Christian or not a Christian, whether he would be spiritually alive or still dead. Thus it is for a man that nothing so deeply saddens him as the loss of earthly goods, and not so much pleases him as the acquisition and possession of temporal goods of happiness; thus it is for a man that nothing knocks him down so much as reproach and contempt of his fellow men, and nothing so satisfies and delights him as their praise and recognition; thus it is for a man that his heart is barren and empty of joy, but then rises and beats harder when it comes to enjoy this or that worldly joy and pleasure: ah, then a man still does not know true joy, proper Christian joy. O vain joy that does not fully satisfy the heart here below, that first follows from weeping and wailing! Even true Christians have joy; but their joy has a very different reason. It is rooted in Jesus, in their Savior and Good Shepherd. What He does for them and all lost children of men, what He does to their souls, what they enjoy in and through Him, what He still does in order to bring the straying into His flock: that is the fountain of their joy. Thus Jesus, the Good Shepherd, would like to be ever more our "fountain of all joy"!

The joy of believing Christians about Jesus, their Good Shepherd;

it is based on the fact1. that He has laid down His life for them1; before their souls isa. misery and ruin, in which men had fallen through sin; α. through sin they

had willfully become stray and lost sheep from God, torn from His pasture2; β. through it they were caught in the authority and power of the devil, abandoned to the infernal wolf; γ. the pit into which they had to plunge was the hell of eternal destruction;

b. the great love of Jesus, of the Good Shepherd who looked after the lost sheep; α. through his Incarnation, he placed himself at the head of the lost flock of mankind in order to fight with the devil for it and redeem them from his power; David - Goliath; β. in this battle He lost His life for the sheep as a faithful Shepherd; the sword, God's wrath, curse and death struck Him in order that the sheep would remain alive3; O what love!4;

c. the thus-won wonderful help and salvation; α. in that Christ wrestled with the devil and death and lost His life, He has defeated His enemies5; β. through his vicarious suffering and death he purchased, redeemed, and saved the sheep for His

1 John 10:12-13, 15.2 Isaiah 53:6.3 Zechariah 13:7.4 TLH 523:7.5 John 14:30; Hebrews 2:14-15.

own. This is what prepares believing Christians, the flock of Jesus, for eternal heartfelt joy;

2. that He has made them sheep of his pasture and recognizes them as His own6;

a. He has made them "His own", sheep of His pasture7; α. they did not in the least ascribe this to their willing and running; because they were lost and scattered sheep who "ran in error flailing down to hell's abysses deep"8; but He pursued them as the faithful Shepherd, has brought them to the knowledge of their erroneous path and desolate state and "called them to repentance" through His sweet and alluring shepherd's voice, the Gospel, that they must fairly follow; β. and what miracles He has done for so many, how long, how faithfully He has pursued us there among many, before He could take him on His shoulder as a found sheep and carry him home!9;

b. He knows them as His own; α. He knows them, they are known specifically by Him10; He knows them as His sheep, even when mankind - world and false church - does not want to know them as such, in spite of sin and infirmity, in spite of the external shell of the cross and suffering ("as My Father knows Me"); β. but He knows them also as His own "with unspeakable, bottomless, eternal love" (Luther), in that He א. He grazes their souls in the most glorious way in the sheep pen of His Christian Church through Word and Sacrament11, and ב. thus strengthens them against all enemies and keeps hold of them that no one can snatch them out of His hand.12 O high comfort!

3. that He still pursues lost sheep and brings them to His flock;a. V. 16 was fulfilled when the Holy Apostles preached the Gospel of Christ

to the Gentiles; one flock was gathered there from Jews and Gentiles under one Shepherd;

b. but the call of the Good Shepherd, the Gospel, resounds even today among all nations; the Good Shepherd thus pursues lost sheep; praise God, not in vain, everywhere, even among us, the faithful Shepherd brings one or another lost and straying sheep to His flock. Is it not a reason for warm and grateful joy? Have you already let Him find you? (urgent warning.) But if you are a sheep of Jesus, listening to his voice13, O, then nevertheless rejoice over your Good Shepherd etc. Cf. the hymn, "I Am Jesus' Little Lamb".

A.G.G.

6 John 10:14-15.7 Psalm 100:3; 1 Peter 2:25.8 KELG 221:2.9 Luke 15:5.10 2 Timothy 2:19.11 Psalm 23.12 John 10:28.13 John 10:16.