Rev. Tucher

Text: John 10:22-30

The Good Shepherd

Grace,
mercy, and peace to you from God, our Father, and from our Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ, amen. The text for this
morning comes from the Gospel and other selected verses from Matthew 10.

One sure
sign of spring at Concordia Theological Seminary and Concordia St. Louis is the Vicarage
Assignment/Deaconess Internship and Candidate Placement services held each
April. This past week, several gentlemen
who started “seminary bootcamp” known as Summer Greek with me were placed into
the office of holy ministry. A former
vicar here, Michael Groves, was placed into the office of holy ministry from Concordia St.
Louis. Men, such as these, have been
called to be pastors and teachers. They
have been called to be shepherds from He who is the Good Shepherd.

This
office, to which some are called, is a difficult and challenging office to
serve in. Yes, it has its many joys and
rewards, but there are times where it becomes difficult and challenging to say
the least. Even our Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd, faced difficult times and challenges in His
ministry to His flock. John records for
us today in our text one such occurrence.

The entire
10^th chapter of John revolves around Jesus and His discourses to
others about who He is: the Good Shepherd. He tells those gathered around very plainly that “I am the good shepherd. The
good shepherd lays down his life 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.” These words were meant for the people to be
words of comfort and of assurance, knowing that Christ is indeed the Savior,
the One promised of old. Instead of the
crowd acknowledging Christ’s words, they were split: some of the Jewish leaders
said that He was possessed by a demon and insane, while others believed in
Jesus because of the miracles which He had performed.

Two months
later, we find Jesus at the Feast of Dedication in Jerusalem. Two months earlier, Jesus had told them that He was the good shepherd,
that He was the Son of God. Now they
want proof of who Jesus is: “How long
will you keep us in suspense? If you are
the Christ, tell us plainly.” What
more proof do the people need? Haven’t
they heard the message which He has preached? Haven’t they seen the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies
regarding the coming Savior? Haven’t
they seen the miracles which He has performed? Surely someone present had to have eaten some of the fish and bread when
Jesus fed the 5000 people. Food kept
coming from what seemed like nowhere, and there was no stopping it, not until
everyone had eaten their fill.

The answer
which Jesus gave was not the answer they had wanted to hear. What they wanted to hear was a simple “yes”
or “no.” They didn’t want any
complicated answer. They didn’t want to try
to read between what Jesus was saying for an answer. “Are you or aren’t you? Just say “yes” or “no.”

Jesus saw
through their words and actions and He understood clearly the intent of their
question. He answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe.” Therein lies the tragedy of unbelief. “I told
you, and you do not believe.” Jesus
had already clearly spoken the good news of God’s grace. From the beginning He had revealed the
goodness of the Father. His preaching
and His teaching had announced simply but forcibly that the Father loves what
He created. In contrast to those who
said that one had to do something to win the affection of God, Jesus came
proclaiming a message, the Gospel, the Word, that God loves the world in spite
of its sin.

Strangely,
it was religious people who did not want to believe this. They did not want to believe this message,
not because they did not want to be saved. They did not want to believe it because they thought they had to do
something to be saved. Unbelief does not
grow out of the unwillingness to be saved. Unbelief is the notion that God is not good. Sometimes it is the sinners who do not
believe that God can forgive. In this
instance, they people who thought they were righteous did not believe that God
was so good as to accept them without their merit. Or we could say they thought they could be so
good that God would have to accept
them.

The latter
half of His answer was more pointed, so pointed that the Jewish leaders wanted
to stone Jesus. “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.” “The Jews” show, by not believing in Jesus,
by not recognizing who He is in spite of the miracles which show His Father’s
authorization of Him, that they do not belong to His flock. When Jesus had spoken to them previously
about Himself as the “Good Shepherd,” they had become very angry.

What more
startling of a statement can Jesus make than this: that if you believe in Him,
you are of His flock. If you don’t
believe in Him, then you are not of His flock. If you want to be of Christ’s flock, then you must believe. And for the Jewish leaders, there was a
significant number who did not believe. For
those who did believe, they had the assurance that they were indeed members of
Jesus’ flock. That meant that they would
have eternal life and they will never perish, as Jesus says.

If you know
anything at all about sheep, they are dumb animals and will literally lead
themselves off a cliff or separate themselves from the flock, wander away and
die if no one is there to shepherd them. Jesus tells us that He is the good shepherd. “The
good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” That is exactly what our Good Shepherd did
for us, Jesus Christ laid down His life of perfection so that He could become
sin and death, so that you and I might have a life of holiness by His body and
blood, given and shed for the forgiveness of sins.

The sheep
of Jesus’ flock hear the voice of Jesus. He knows us and we follow Him. Sheep “listen to” the voice of their shepherd. They not only hear this voice outwardly. They listen obediently. The shepherd also “knows” his own sheep. He knows, recognizes as his own, and
understands their ways. This meaning is
conveyed by the word used here by Jesus. The sheep therefore “follow” their shepherd. They do so obediently.

A traveler relates that one day he came to a
well at the time when the shepherds watered their flocks. Many different flocks came there at the same
time. The sheep of the various flocks
mingled, and no attempt was made to keep them separated. The traveler thought that the shepherds would
have a tedious and difficult job separating them. But when the time came, each shepherd went
his way calling his sheep, and every sheep followed its shepherd. Every sheep of Christ knows and follows His
voice.

Passing
from the picture to the application Jesus adds, “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will
snatch them out of my hand.” This
free gift of “eternal life” is assured. In no way shall the sheep of Jesus “perish.” No one has the power to snatch the believers
out of His protecting hand. Only by
rejecting His hand of salvation will they go astray.

We are all
chosen to be sheep of Jesus’ flock. That
was what God had wanted. Unfortunately,
some of these sheep have wandered away. For the sheep who remain, we know that by listening to the voice of the
Good Shepherd, all will be well. The
Good Shepherd knows His sheep and will continue to watch over us. He will keep us away from the cliffs and will
bring us back into the rest of the flock when we go astray. We as sheep follow the shepherd. God provides to us shepherds of congregations
to watch over and lead and guide, just as He did this past week when He called
223 men to be undershepherds of the Good Shepherd of the Church. We rest, knowing that we are safe in the
shepherd’s care, both in the Church on earth, and in the Church in heaven, for
we have the Good Shepherd, who laid down His life, so we may have eternal life,
amen.

Now the
peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds
through faith in Christ Jesus, amen.

Easter 4C

I came across a very interesting article on the Indianapolis Star, the newspaper from my hometown. It appears that a national gay advocacy group, Faith in America, leased space on 22 billboards around Indianapolis last week to spread messages like “Jesus affirmed a gay couple” and “Jesus said some people are born gay.” Unfortunately, this is a true story, there is no making this stuff up.

If you look at the picture, you see Matthew 8:5-13 quoted as the place where Jesus affirmed a gay couple. Below you can read exactly what Matthew 8:5-13 says.

The Faith of a Centurion

5 When he entered Capernaum, a centurion came forward to him, appealing to him, 6 “Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly.” 7 And he said to him, “I will come and heal him.” 8 But
the centurion replied, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my
roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed. 9 For
I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to
one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my
servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” 10 When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, “Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith. 11 I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, 12 while
the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that
place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” 13 And to the centurion Jesus said, “Go; let it be done for you as you have believed.” And the servant was healed at that very moment.

Maybe I’m missing something here, but I don’t see anywhere in the text that says Jesus affirmed a gay couple. I don’t even see anywhere in the text where it says what the sexual orientation of the centurion or his servants is. It sounds like the Jesus Metropolitan Community Church, the sponsors of the billboard campaign, is trying to take Scripture and twist it into what it wants Scripture to say.

Text: John 21:1-14(15-19)

“It is the Lord”

    Grace,
mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ, amen. The text for the
sermon this morning comes from the Gospel which was read earlier.

    Just before Lent began a couple
months back, we heard the account of a miraculous catch of fish in Luke 5. Jesus was teaching along the shoreline in Galilee,
and the crowds were pressing Him right into the water; so He asked Peter, the
conveniently nearby fisherman, to take Him out in the boat. Peter was weary from a night of not catching
fish, but he consented anyway. Jesus
taught for a while, and then instructed Peter to row back out into the deep
water and throw the nets in again. Despite the illogic of the instruction, Peter did so-and ended up with a
net-full of fish.

    Do you remember Peter’s reaction
when he saw the nets were filled?  He
turned to Jesus, terrified, and declared, “Depart
from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!” Peter wanted to be far away from Jesus: He had a glimpse of how sinful
he was and how holy Jesus was, and the glimpse of it was terrifying.  Peter knew he was a sinner who deserved
judgment, and he was fearful that Christ had come to judge.

    Once again
this morning, our text in this season of Easter focuses not on Christ’s death,
but on His resurrected appearances to His disciples and other followers. Blessed assurance was one result of our
Lord’s resurrection appearance to His followers. Christ’s appearances assured His followers
that death is not a closed door but an open door leading to a life far greater
than we could possibly imagine in this life. Even St. Paul proclaimed that “no eye has seen, nor ear
heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love
him.” The resurrection appearances of
Christ gave His followers the wonderful assurance that in the moment we die, in
that very moment, we begin to truly live. Death frees us so that we experience the fulfillment of life in and with
Christ.

    It has been
three weeks since the death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ. To date, Jesus has appeared
before His disciples twice. Both times
He appeared, we find the disciples cowering in a locked room for fear of what
happened to Jesus might indeed happen to them as well. It seems that the heat is off of the
disciples. Now, they have gone their
ways and returned to their former occupation: fishermen.

    Simon
Peter, Thomas, Nathanael, the sons of Zebedee and two other disciples were all
together. Where the others were, John
doesn’t tell us. Of the seven disciples
who are present, two stand out the most: Thomas and Peter. The last time we saw Thomas, he refused to
believe that Christ was raised unless he saw Him and touched His wounds. Simon Peter, the spokesmen for the disciples,
was also present. And lest we forget
about Simon Peter, he denied Christ not once, not twice, but three times; a
prime leader and spokesmen.

    As the seven are prone to do, they
go fishing. Maybe after all that has
gone recently, fishing might help to take the mind off of everything. After being on the water all night, they come
back ashore with nothing to show for it. Imagine James and John, the sons of Zebedee. Just over three years prior to this, they
were in their boats catching fish. Had
three years made them that rusty? Were
the fish just not biting? When Jesus
called to them from the shore, “Children,
do you have any fish?”, you could sense the disappointment in their
voice. You never wanted to come back to
land and say that you caught nothing, especially after being out all
night. But again, the net is full - big
fish this time, but even so the net doesn’t burst.  It’s another miracle; and it’s not because
they fished on the other side of the boat.  It’s because the One on the shore spoke His Word and declared to them that they would find fish there. Immediately after the disciples listened to
words of Jesus and followed His instruction, the boat became full of fish. The life of a Christian is no different. Once the Holy Spirit works faith in you, the
miracle happens – salvation.

    This
incident of Jesus and the disciples shows to us the importance of being in
Christ.

    Apart from
Christ’s command to cast their nets into the sea again, they caught
nothing. Try as they might, they could
not catch any fish. But when Christ
spoke to them, they were not able to bring in all the fish which they had
caught. Apart from Christ, we are unable
to achieve eternal life. There is
nothing that we can say or do to earn eternal life. Only when we are in Christ are we able to
receive eternal life; not because of what we have done, but because of what
Christ has done to us and for us.

    What does
all of this have to do with us? This
just sounds like a story of a bunch of fishermen who couldn’t catch
anything. On the contrary, this has
quite a bit to do with us.

    Our lives
outside of Christ are nothing, for there is no life outside of Christ. One might try to argue that they have a very
good life outside of Christ. They have a
nice home, several nice cars; in short, the works. Jesus didn’t help them get all of this, they
did it themselves.

    The
psalmist writes: “I lift up my eyes to
the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.” All good things come from the Lord. All of our earthly blessings come from the
hand of God, not from our own doing. The
disciples found this to be true when they went fishing.

    In order to
experience success on the water, the disciples had to rely on the Lord instead
of relying on themselves. They had to
subject their will to the will of the Savior. Instead of being self-directed, they heeded the words of Christ. It was then that Christ resurrected them from
their failures.

    We too are
resurrected from death and into life when we focus not on what it is that we
can do for ourselves, but what Christ did for us – became death for us. He became death for us when He came into this
world in the form of a baby. He grew up
so that He could die for your sins. His
death gave to you and to I the keys to heaven in the form of forgiveness of
sins, life and salvation.

    Where does God give forgiveness?  In His means of grace.  Wherever His Gospel is preached and His Sacraments
administered accordingly, Jesus is there to forgive. The hymn, “Salvation unto Us Has Come” tells
us quite a bit in just the first two lines: “Salvation unto us has come by
God’s free grace and favor.” It has
nothing to do with us. It can’t have
anything to do with us. If it had
anything to do with us, then it would mean nothing.

    In the resurrected Savior’s
appearance by the shore, we see Him bringing the resurrection to a broken
relationship. The result was
reconciliation. Peter had denied Christ. Yet when Peter heard that it was Christ,
without hesitation Peter leaped for the shore, for forgiveness came from
Christ.

    The resurrected Christ brings about
healing to our broken relationship, broken when death entered into
creation. Christ’s death purged death from
creation and His resurrection bridges the gap between death and the new
creation that is in Him.

    Through the resurrection, Christ
brings new life – new life to Himself, but also new life to those that are in
Him. This life is passing away. From it shall come a new heaven and a new
earth. We too will pass from a life of
sin and death to a life where sin and death have been defeated by Christ’s
death and resurrection. All of this is
evident by Christ’s resurrection appearances. These resurrection appearances give us the blessed assurance that death
is swallowed up by eternal life. If that
were not the case, Christ would still be dead, death would have overcome us and
we would spend many years lying in a box in the ground.

    You see, Christ is risen from the
dead.  And He who died to restore us to
Himself didn’t rise again to abandon us.  Despite our sinful reluctance to come into His
presence for forgiveness, He still comes anyway.  Thus we give thanks to the Lord for His
coming, for His patience, and for His most persistent mercy.  And thankful for His persistence, we rejoice
to confess our sins and draw near to Him.  For here, by His means of grace, the present,
risen Lord declares that you are forgiven for all of your sins in the name of
the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.  Amen.

    Now the peace of God which passes
all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through faith in Christ
Jesus. Amen.

Earlier this morning, I posted the comic for Easter Sunday 2007 from the comic, B.C. As I was checking my email, I came across a rather saddening story: B.C. creator Johnny Hart passed away on Saturday from a stroke, according to his wife.

Links
Cartoonist Hart, creator of ‘B.C.,’ dies
About Johnny Hart

If you’re a fan of the comic, B.C., then you will want to check out today’s cartoon strip.

Text: John 20:1-18

Christ Is Risen

    Christ is
risen! He is risen indeed! Hallelujah! Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our risen
Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, amen. The
text for this morning comes from the Gospel reading, which was read earlier.

    It’s been
an agonizing week. First, Jesus rides
into Jerusalem where He hears the cries of the people: “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the
Lord, even the King of Israel!” On Thursday, Jesus met with His disciples for
the last time and instituted His Supper, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.” Friday brought with it a day of shear
hell. Jesus was brought before his
enemies and was beaten and scourged. Starting at 6am, Jesus was brought before the elders, the scribes, and
the whole Council. At the third hour,
9am, they crucified Him, but death didn’t come quickly. Starting from the sixth hour until the ninth
hour, from noon until 3pm, darkness covered the entire land. Then the shout of Jesus rang across the land:
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken
me?” and Jesus died. There He hung
until evening had come, 6pm, until Joseph of Arimathea went before them to
remove the body of Jesus.

    For three
days, Christ laid dead in a tomb. On
that Sunday morning which we call Easter, something happened. “Now on
the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was
still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.” After the last week’s events, it brings us to
this morning. Early hasten to the
tomb/Where they laid His breathless clay;/All is solitude and gloom./Who has
taken Him away?/Christ is ris’n! He
meets our eyes./Savior, teach us so to rise.

    This hymn
doesn’t end with the empty tomb. It
doesn’t end with a missing Jesus. It
ends with a risen Jesus and our plea for our Savior to teach us to rise. The focus wasn’t on the fact that the tomb
was empty; the focus was on why the
tomb was empty: because Christ rose from the dead to give us everlasting
life. It is because Christ defeated
death by His death and resurrection for you and for me.

    And when
Mary Magdalene found that the stone was rolled away, she was troubled, just as
anyone would be if we went to the cemetery and found that our loved one was
missing from their gravesite. Mary of
Magdalene and her companions could see the stone was gone. What could they assume but the worst? After all, they were coming for a dead Jesus,
not a living Savior. The stone away from
the tomb, out of its groove, suggested violence. Mary Magdalene’s focus: “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb.” She still refers to Jesus as “the Lord.” Although Mary Magdalene cannot see the body
of Jesus, she cannot do otherwise than still call Him “the Lord.”

    When Peter
and the other disciple arrive at the tomb, they find it just as Mary Magdalene
had described: the stone was rolled away. When they entered the tomb, they found the lines they had wrapped Jesus
in. The sight riveted John to the spot
as he hesitated at the entrance and peered in. Peter didn’t stop but went right inside and studied the scene
intently. Both must have had an awe-struck
expression on their faces when they arrived. A large stone, only moveable by several strong men, has been moved. The body of Jesus, a mere man to some, the
Son of God to others, has been taken. They
must have been dumbfounded by the scene, because John says that “for as yet they did not understand the
Scripture, that he must rise from the dead.”

    After the
last three years, being with Jesus, seeing all that Jesus had done, hearing all
that Jesus had spoken, how could they not understand that He had to rise from
the dead? Even for us at times, we fail
to understand that He had to rise from the dead. “By His dying He has destroyed death, and by
His rising again He has restored to us everlasting life.” The Scriptures point us to His
resurrection. They spell out the meaning
of Christ’s resurrection for us, as well as the event. It provided a forceful demonstration of
Christ’s deity. It announced our
justification. We know that we shall
follow Jesus in rising from the dead. Our faith is sure since we have a living Savior.

    After
finding the tomb empty, Peter and John left and returned home. As far as our text for today reads, that’s
the last we see of Peter and John until later that evening. Our text continues with Mary Magdalene, who
never left the tomb. Mary Magdalene
couldn’t bring herself to leave the tomb. If ever there was a time for Christ to be present, now would be it. She was in a state of mourning because her
Savior had been killed. Sitting outside
of the tomb where He laid would help to bring comfort to her, knowing that He
was inside. But now seeing the stone
rolled away, the empty tomb brought only fear and uncertainty.

    It is so
unfortunate in our lives that we too, like Peter and John, abandon the empty
tomb. Jesus is no longer present, so we
leave and forget all about Him. We tend
to do things on our own. In our society
today, it’s “out of sight, out of mind.” If Jesus isn’t right here, right now, then we overlook Him. However, that is not the way it should
be. Jesus is right here, right now. He
is present in our lives every day. He is
present in the world in which we live in. We know that because as Luther writes regarding the First Article of the
Creed, “He also gives me clothing and shoes, food and drink, house and home,
wife and children, land, animals, and all I have. He richly and daily provides me with all that
I need to support this body and life.” We know that He is present in our lives because of today! By His death on Good Friday, by His
resurrection from the dead today, we know that He is present in our lives
because He died for you and He rose
from the dead for you.

    Dear, sweet
Mary had physically seen Jesus on a day-to-day basis. She had witnessed His many miracles of
healing, feeding, and raising the dead. Yet even in her more enlightened status as one very close to our Lord, he
sinful human nature blinded her from seeing her Lord. It was when her gracious Shepherd called her
by name that she recognized Him in His glorified body. It was the voice of her Lord that called her
forth from the tomb of despair and doubt.

    Remember
this little hymn you learned as a child? “I am Jesus’ little lamb/Ever glad at heart I am;/For my Shepherd gently
guides me,/Knows my need and well provides me,/Loves me ev’ry day the
same,/Even calls me by my name.” We too have been called by name by our
Shepherd. Our Risen Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ, called us by name to Him at the font, when we were baptized into
His name, made a part of His family for all eternity. You have been made alive again this morning,
for your resurrected Lord has called you from the death of sin to the
life-giving and certain proclamation of your adoption by grace.

    Christ’s
words to Mary Magdalene, “I am ascending
to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God” tell us that His
relationship to us will be different. He
is no longer here performing miracles and healing the sick. He is no longer teaching the people. Instead, He has sacrificed Himself for us
all, “to prepare a place for you,” so
that He will come again and will take you to Himself, that where He is you may
be also.

    Where is
Jesus? He is no longer dead. He is no longer in the tomb. He has risen, just as Scripture has foretold
of long ago. He descended into hell,
just as the Creed says, where He showed His pierced hands and feet to Satan and
told him that he no longer had any hold over God’s creation. More importantly, He ascended into heaven,
where He reigns with God forever, waiting for the time where all of His
brothers and sisters in the faith are joined with Him for all eternity.

    He is risen! He is risen indeed! Hallelujah! Amen.

    Now the
peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in
Christ Jesus until the day of resurrection. Amen.