READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:
Ezekiel 34:11-16
1 Peter 2:21-25
- St. John 10:11-16
Grace to you and peace from Him Who Is and Who Was and Who
Is To Come: Jesus Christ. (Rev 1)
Who speaks to you through His Introit in His Divine Service
saying:
“The earth is full
of the goodness of the Lord: Alleluia!”
Each and every Sunday, we are saturated with the voice of
our Good Shepherd. Every chant, every prayer, every hymn from the Bible, as you
can see for yourself in your hymnal. God has ordained it this way so that you
are familiar with His voice your entire life. So familiar that it is like
family. We repeat the sounding joy over and over so that, by God’s Grace, we
may hear our Shepherd when the Last Invitation goes out.
With these words from our Introit, you are connected to the
early medieval Church. Over a thousand years ago, this part of Psalm 33 was
employed to express and proclaim this Third Sunday of Easter. On top of that,
the chant tone we used for it, while having some modern modifications, dates
back at least 1500 years. And the Psalm itself, was composed about 3,000 years
ago, which then connects us to the rest of God’s revealed Word to us.
You are loved by God, O little Flock. You are remembered.
You are treasured and not an orphan. This is part of the goodness of the Lord,
chanted of in the Introit. Ironic, too, because Psalm 33 is termed an orphan
psalm. It is one of 50 in the book of Psalms that do not have a clear author.
That is ok because they do not disagree with the rest of the book or the
entirety of Scripture.
And another thing that gives great comfort in trusting these
psalms is that they can be explained ceremonially. As in, a large, biblical
character may not have written them, though they probably did, but instead the
Old Testament Church may have. As in, these Psalms were written for the Divine
Service done in the Temple. Very likely, the Book of Psalms is a hymnal.
As in, now by chanting this psalm at this time and in this
place, you are now in communion with the Old Testament Temple worship, chanting
at the appropriate, set-aside-time to pray, praise, and give thanks, along with
all the other believers in Christ.
So nice. But also, how bloodless, as in we have never met
those people and praying, praising, or giving thanks is no real sacrifice on
our side. Time has a way of drying out our bones, so to speak, and we lose that
familiar, blood connection. The goodness of the Lord may extend to us from the
beginning of all things, but what good does that do me today since I cannot
interact with those people?
The word used in the Introit psalm for “goodness” is
actually a little deeper than simply being good. The Lord’s goodness is His mercy;
thus, the word is just that. Better to understand the psalm as saying, “The
earth is full of the acts of mercy of the Lord: Alleluia”.
Acts of mercy come in two ways: spiritual and physical. From
today’s Gospel, Jesus explains it as the Voice and His Life. In the Voice,
Jesus teaches that the Gospel far exceeds monetary and physical aid. We see
this in Jesus’s encounter with the paralytic. On the 19th Sunday after Trinity,
men of His own city, bring to Him a paralytic, lying on a bed (Mt 9).
Instead of healing him, Jesus forgave his sins and would
have left it at that, had the scribes present not accused Him of blasphemy,
“only God can forgive sins”. At that, Jesus did heal to prove the fact that He
was God. Nevertheless, we see the emphasis on forgiveness. The Gospel is more
important than healing.
In Acts 3, a lame man was brought to the city gate daily to
beg for money. Sts. Peter and John looked directly at him, said they didn’t
have money, but healed him instead. The point being, physical restoration
expands the meaning of mercy. Forgiveness is first, but Christ’s name meets the
deepest need. This act of Apostolic charity became an evangelical platform that
gained thousands of converts (Acts 4:4).
When thinking about the life of Jesus, we must think on His
death. This is the meat of “acts of mercy”, or in the Latin “misericordia”.
Literally, “miserable heart”. It is the miserable heart of the world that
demands our death, with no mercy. In fact, there is a medieval weapon named the
Misericorde and it was used for mercy killing mortally wounded knights after a
battle.
No real mercy, however. No life. Just misery. No “thank
you”. No “well done good and faithful soldier”. Just, “you’ve outlived your
usefulness”. This is the extent of the world’s mercy and what our old Adam
extends to his neighbor.
It is the miserable heart of Jesus that combats the world
and our sinful nature, for His voice and His life have come into this world.
The Word of God is made flesh and has compassion upon His creation.
His voice goes out, with His Voice, all under the banner of
His Gospel, that Gospel of the free forgiveness of sins. And He lays down His
life for the sheep. Not a miserable heart, but the ultimate act of mercy. A
joyful heart, joyfully giving His own life, that we may live. A merciful heart,
desiring mercy and not sacrifice.
God’s misery is not like our misery. He is only miserable
until there is His compassion. Jesus does not give in to despair, but He does
weep, He does anguish, He does get anxious. This all, however, is only for His
suffering and death. He weeps for His friends Lazarus, whom He must rescue from
the dead. He bows down in aguish and anxiety when He nears His cross. Not
because He doesn’t know, but because He is true man.
But the kind of power to forgive sins and rise from the dead
does not come from man. St. Peter proclaims, back in Acts 3, “Men of Israel,
why are you surprised by this? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or
godliness we had made this man walk?”
The miserable heart of God is the joyful heart of God. Not
miserable, but joyful and merciful. For the dagger that pierces the haze of
time and history for us is the cross of Christ. To bring life to us who are
here, thousands of years disconnected from those people, places, and events. It
is the Blood of Jesus that centers all of history and all of His Church.
St. Peter explains, again in Acts 3:
“By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and
know has been made strong. It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through
Him that has given [this man] this complete healing in your
presence” (Acts 3:16)
The Blood of Jesus comes to us by faith alone. The Good
Shepherd’s voice leads us to His Body and Blood, His blessing, and His history.
The Word of God is living, because the Word is Jesus. Therefore history is
alive as well, in Christ.
Do you want to be a part of the Third Sunday of Easter, in
the true Church? Faith alone has granted you this seat. Do you want to be in
the choirs of the true Church spanning thousands of years? Faith alone. Do you
want to worship the Lord with the Temple, with David, Moses, and Adam?
Jesus is the key. The Good Shepherd calls, gathers, and
enlightens all to Himself. He alone fulfills God’s promise, made to Israel, to
gather all those exiles into their own land, their own green pasture, which is
the Body of Jesus.
The Body of Jesus Who was crucified. The Body of Jesus Who
bids us follow Him. The Body of Jesus into Whom we are baptized. The Body of
Jesus Who gives us our cross to bear, our own misericorde dagger.
Indeed, we are mortally wounded by sin. By faith in the Name
of Jesus, we are killed and raised to new life. In Holy Baptism’s dagger, we
are united to Christ’s death and resurrection. Why? Because the Old Adam in us
must daily die. Bury him, and do not visit his grave again. Rather, let Christ
crucify him and bury him.
When we fall into temptation, the Old Adam rises again, to
dry us out, to cut us off from family, from our Church family. He promises
fulfillment but delivers only suffering. Christ promises suffering, but
delivers only eternal life, forgiveness of sins, and faith in Him. All this He
accomplishes through His Word and sacrament.
So where do you belong? Which line is the line following the
Good Shepherd? Where have your fathers gone before you in the faith? Will there
be mercy when you get there?
In Christ alone there is mercy in death, for the grave is
open and death has lost its sting. The Shepherd has laid down His life for the
sheep. There is no other history and there can be no other song.
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
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