https://app.dropwave.io/episode/7134a088-2dd6-4408-b6c7-0525e41720b5/misericordias-domini-second-sunday-after-easter-ad-2025.mp3

++ JESU JUVA ++

Alleluia! Christ is risen!

In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

I will establish one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them—My servant David. He shall feed them and be their shepherd. And I, the LORD, will be their God, and My servant David a prince among them; I, the LORD, have spoken (Ezekiel 34:23-24).

Those words come shortly after the appointed Old Testament for today. The southern kingdom of Judah has been exiled to Babylon. They have been exiled from home, and the Lord will bring them back. So we might think that this promise is about that rescue. But this passage refers to a better deliverance.

The Lord promises that “[His] servant David… shall feed them.” And by the time Ezekiel records these words, King David is long in the past. It might seem that God is talking about His ancient people, but we need to disabuse ourselves of reading the Bible like that. We must remember that the Bible is first and foremost about Jesus. That means it is written to Christians. With these words, God the Father promises that the Son of David will be the “one Shepherd” over His people. In other words, it is a promise of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Continuing to read after today’s Old Testament, we hear what it will be like when our Savior comes.

“I will make a covenant of peace with them, and cause wild beasts to cease from the land; and they will dwell safely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods. I will make them and the places all around My hill a blessing; and I will cause showers to come down in their season; t here shall be showers of blessing. Then the trees of the field shall yield their fruit, and the earth shall yield her increase. They shall be safe in their land; and they shall know that I am the LORD, when I have broken the bands of their yoke and delivered them from the hand of those who enslaved them. And they shall no longer be a prey for the nations, nor shall beasts of the land devour them; but they shall dwell safely, and no one shall make them afraid. I will raise up for them a garden of renown, and they shall no longer be consumed with hunger in the land, nor bear the shame of the Gentiles anymore. Thus they shall know that I, the LORD their God, am with them, and they, the house of Israel, are My people,” says the Lord GOD.’ “You are My flock, the flock of My pasture; you are men, and I am your God,” says the Lord GOD. (Ezekiel 34:25-31)

Or, in the words of today’s Gospel: I am the Good Shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own. And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd (John 10:14, 16). Jesus is the one Shepherd; He has only one flock. All Christians — both Old Testament and New Testament — are saved in the same way: faith in the word of the Lord Jesus. Thus they shall know that I, the LORD their God, am with them, and they, the house of Israel, are My people,” says the Lord GOD.’ (Ezekiel 34:30).

That means when you read today’s Old Testament, the one speaking is Jesus, and the sheep that are being described are you. Jesus is making promises to you. That means “the house of Israel” here means you. You are His people. You are His sheep. As it says in Psalm 95, which we sing in Matins: He is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, the sheep of his hand (Psalm 95:7).

The Lord makes these promises because His sheep need to be rescued. Today’s Old Testament says the sheep are lost, scattered, broken, and weak. They cannot save themselves. The Lord God Himself will come to save them.

Jesus, the Good Shepherd is the fulfillment of this Old Testament promise. The Lord Himself will come to help you. He will rescue you from the wolf. He will oppose and destroy all your enemies. He will seek what is lost. He will bring back what was driven away. He will bind up the broken. He will strengthen what was sick. The fat and the strong, He will destroy. In judgment will He feed them.

This text contains both comfort and warning: comfort for the sheep who are lost, scattered, broken, and weak; judgment for the sheep who are fat and strong. In language like last Sunday’s Gospel, we might say that Jesus is coming to exercise both Keys in the Office of the Keys. He will loose the sins of all who repent; He will bind the sins of all who refuse His voice. So we will look at each of these in turn: the lost, the scattered, the broken, the weak, and the fat and strong.

First, the lost. Jesus says: I Myself will search for My sheep (Ezekiel 34:11) Jesus comes to seek the lost. Apart from the guidance and rule of the Shepherd, sheep wander. Wandering sheep get lost. Sheep cannot defend themselves. A sheep that is lost also quickly becomes a dead sheep. A lost sheep becomes dead because sheep have enemies.

The wolves are real. The world says that if we Christian sheep would only be quiet about the evil wolf, it wouldn’t be a problem. They world says it’s you Christians who cause division by pointing out evil and falsehood and disorder. If you wouldn’t make such a big deal about it — if you wouldn’t notice the evil and uncover it and draw attention to it — then it wouldn’t be a problem!

Our upside-down world believes that if you just closed your eyes to the evil around you — if you didn’t notice what’s wrong, then we could all live like everything is rightly ordered. If you didn’t go and point out evil, then we can believe it doesn’t exist. And if it doesn’t exist, it’s not a problem, and we don’t have to address it. But Jesus, the Good Shepherd, says plainly in the Gospel that wolves are real. He says that wolves are dangerous to sheep.

So Jesus divides between wolves and sheep. He says that wolves belong outside the sheepfold; sheep belong inside it. He says that inside the sheepfold, you have protection. Away from the sheepfold, there is no safety. Away from His sheepfold, there is only snatching and scattering — stealing, and killing, and destruction. Jesus wants you safe with Him.

But you have not always known such safety. St. Peter says directly in the Epistle: “you were straying like sheep” (1 Peter 2:25). You were lost. It’s what we sing in the hymn Salvation unto Us Has Come: under the law, “lost is our condition.” St. Paul says in Ephesians that you were dead in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2).

So great was your straying and lostness that you didn’t know you were lost. You were unaware that there was such a thing as being ‘found.’ You didn’t know you needed a Lord, a Savior, a Redeemer. Your lost-ness had deceived you into believing that you were not lost. You believed the wolf was your friend and that Jesus was your enemy.