Third Sunday of Easter + Misericordias Domini
Text: John 10:11-16
Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
What sweet words of life for the Lord of Life! They’re simply joyful to say and bring happiness to the most melancholy hearts.
Yet, we do not live in a time when life is treasured and revered as it ought. Instead, the world around us reveals a culture of death.
This dichotomy of these cultures’ pit life and death in what appears as an ongoing battle some 2000 years after Christ’s resurrection.
This battle was on full display as competing voices of death and life were gathered at the steps of the United State Supreme Court in 2021 as they heard oral arguments regarding the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization – the case that would eventually overturn Roe v. Wade.
That day, it was quite the scene with barricades in a line down the middle to separate the two groups. The voices of the two sides couldn't be more different. Their words are a tale of two stories – two worldviews and cultures. A culture of life and another of death.
While the Dobbs victory and overturning of Roe was a great one for life. It was still a judicial and legal victory. While it saves life (thankfully!), it ultimately will not create the culture of life we so desperately need. This is a different thing altogether.
Ultimately, when you get to the basis of belief, these two cultures on display before the Supreme Court were formed by the behaviors, beliefs, and values taught and handed down from one generation to the next. Often (but not always) in a home or a classroom.
So, what type of culture can be found within your home, and how is it being formed and nurtured in the hearts of your family?
In another way, one should ask whose voice forms your heart's faith. Is it the Good Shepherd and the Lord of Life, or have you permitted the ancient enemy, the wolf, to enter your ears and snatch the joy of your heart, scattering you from the sheepfold?
Regrettably, we have welcomed the voice of the wolf into our lives all too easily.
Look at the video games your children have become addicted to, the movies you watch, and the news that “informs” you of what is happening throughout the world. What your families consume often fills your lives with a flood of tragedy. Leading you to bouts of depression, anger, and a mental health crisis of epic proportions – which is tragically increasing among the young and adolescents.
Further, recent research demonstrates most of the news and information today is of the negative sort – meant to stir up emotions and outrage in a person. So it should not shock us that even we, people of life, see the joy of Easter fade from our lips so quickly in the shadows of Christ’s tomb.
Think about this: what we consume for entertainment, news, and information is like food for the body, revealing a culture of death that transcends abortion and assisted suicide. It lives in your heart and is displayed in how the wolf uses your tongue to hurt and murder your neighbors with your very words.
So, how is this culture altered? How do you guard your heart and the door of your lips against such a dark and perverted world?
You begin by ceasing to wander as sheep that have gone astray; instead, turn, repent of your sin, and open your ears first to the voice of your true Shepherd. Listen to the voice of Jesus as He says, "I am the good Shepherd. The good Shepherd lays down His life for His sheep."
Did you hear that “The good shepherd lays down His life for His sheep?" He sacrifices Himself for you.
In other words, the fight of this life isn’t yours at all – rather, it resides with Jesus and His cross.
That means you are now simply called to confess Him in this world. And learning to confess Jesus begins in your homes.
So, what are the loudest voices in your home today? What receives the most significant priority? Sports, music lessons, a continuation of the day’s work, television, your phone?
Examining and identifying these items will begin to reveal what is genuinely forming the hearts and minds of your family, not only today but for the days and years to come.
If you want to change this culture, learn and teach your home to confess Jesus. This has to happen in the home church before you can be expected to confess Him in your lives and out among the people of this world.
But what does it mean to confess Jesus? It simply means hearing His voice and then repeating His Words into your neighbor's ears.
Remember, the fight of this life isn't yours – rather, it resides with Jesus.
Therefore, His voice must be heard and then transform the hearts of those who dwell in the shadows of death through the work of the Holy Spirit.
The culture we seek must begin with the voice of Jesus. His voice must be on your lips as you speak to your family and friends. His words must be your confession as you venture to school and work because, through them, the very community and culture the Church is called to pasture in are formed by the voice of Life Himself.
As Peter said to Jesus earlier in the Gospel of John, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. (John 6:68)
The battle of life and death is not yours, but as we sang the last two weeks in Christians, to the Paschal Victim,
Death and life have contended
In that combat stupendous:
The Prince of life, who died,
Reigns immortal.
While the dichotomy of cultures pits life and death in an ongoing battle still today, you know the end and how the Lord of Life has won.
So hear and learn to confess Jesus in your lives, walks, vocations, and homes - read the Scriptures together, pray together, and sing with one another. In this way, God the Holy Spirit will form your behaviors and beliefs, giving you the words to speak so the people around you not only hear but know the voice of the Good Shepherd because while the wolf still growls, Your Shepherd has struck him with a fatal blow, knocking out his teeth through His death upon the cross. From this point forward, his bite will only last one bitter hour, whereas the Shepherd has prepared an eternal home for you in the pastures of His Father’s land.
What great joy this is for you!
Today is Good Shepherd Sunday, so learn again how to be His little lambs. Learn to trust in Jesus to care for and defend you – in life and death.
There is no doubt that as you look around this world, all you will see is a world of decay. However, the joy of Easter reminds you how your Savior, Jesus Christ shattered death's reign over a man and transformed the grave into a portal to life everlasting.
So come and follow the baptismal waters to the table He has prepared for you in the face of your enemies, take the food of His flesh into yourself, and trust in your Good Shepherd to remain with you all the days of your life. +INJ+
Alleluia! Christ is risen! Amen.
Rev. Noah J. Rogness
Associate Pastor, Immanuel Evangelical-Lutheran Church
Alexandria, VA
