April 23, 2012 - Monday of the Third Week of Easter
Today's Reading: Ezekiel 34:11-16
Daily Lectionary: Exodus 33:1-23; Luke 7:1-17
For thus says the Lord GOD: "Indeed I Myself will search for My sheep and seek them out. (Ezekiel 34:11)
In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. Christ is risen! There's no sending someone else to do it. The Lord is going to do it Himself. He will go and find His sheep and seek them out. This is too important for some hourly wage, temp-agency shepherd to do. The Lord Himself is going to do it. He's going to rescue those pitiful sheep from the jaws of the wolf-devil, rescue us from the tangles of our sin, and bring us back from wandering and this desert of a world where there is nothing to sustain us.
The Good Shepherd does this by becoming man. By becoming a Lamb Himself. A Lamb who takes away the sin of the world. A Lamb who is led to the slaughter. A Lamb who is sacrificed as the Passover Lamb for the whole world. A Lamb who is risen and who was slain but now lives and reigns and holds forth the banner of His victory over sin and death.
That's how God does it. Consider all the other gods and deities supposedly out there. None of them is considered "hands on" like the Lord. None of them holds back from giving evil people what they deserve so that they would save them. None of them is the Creator of all things who became man to be one of us and to suffer and die and rise for us.
It is only the True God, who becomes man to seek and to save His lost sheep. We don't even deserve it. At some point you'd think the Lord would say, "Well, they keep walking off cliffs and into wolves' dens; let them suffer!" But no! Instead, He comes for us Himself to save us.
And the ways in which the Lord comes to us now are not far away and invisible. No, He still comes to us in His church. By water. Word. Body. Blood. You can't miss those ways that Jesus comes to forgive your sins and be your Shepherd. As you wander around in this world and life and fall into sin, the Good Shepherd is there Himself in His church, working through preachers and Word and gifts to seek you out and bring you back and save you from all that could hurt you. The Lord does it Himself because no one else could. Christ is risen! In the Name of Jesus. Amen.
The Lord's my shepherd, I'll not want; He makes me down to lie In pastures green; He leadeth me The quiet waters by. (LSB 710:1)
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