09 Easter 4th Sunday

FROM LUTHER’S PRAYERS: My Lord Jesus Christ, you are indeed the only Shepherd, and I, sorry to say, am the lost and straying sheep. I am anxious and afraid. Gladly would I be devout and cling to you, my gracious God, and so have peace in my heart. I learn that you are as anxious for me as I am for you. I am eager to know how I can come to you for help. Anxiously you desire above all else to bring me back to yourself again. Then come to me. Seek and find me. Help me also to come to you and praise and honor you forever. Amen.

The 23rd Psalm The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want; he makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters, he restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil; for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of my enemies; thou anointest my head with oil, my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER

God of all power, you called from death our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep. Send us as shepherds to rescue the lost, to heal the injured, and to feed one another with knowledge and understanding; through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

GOSPEL: John 10: 11-18 (Jesus said): “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the

sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away—and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13 The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. 17 For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.”

These are comforting words, which set before our eyes a gracious picture of our Lord Jesus Christ, and teach us what sort of a Person He is, what sort of work He does, and how He is disposed towards men. And if you ask me whether Christ is saintly, I answer without hesitation ‘Yes’, and I place Him like a shield before my own saintliness, and I trust in Him with my whole heart. For I was baptized in Him and have received in the Gospel a letter and seal, that I am His dear lamb, and that He is my good shepherd, who seeks His lost lamb and deals with me in no legalistic way. He demands nothing of me, neither does He drive me on; He does not threaten, neither does He frighten me, but He shows me His sweet grace, and lowers Himself to me, even beneath me, and takes me upon Himself, so that I now lie on His back and carried by Him. Why then should I be afraid at the quaking and thundering of Moses or even of the devil? I am under the protection of the Man who has given me His saintliness and all that He has, who supports me and upholds me that I cannot be lost so long as I remain His lamb and do not doubt Him or wilfully fall away from Him. Sermons from the year 1532.

W.A. 36. 296.

Taken from the book: Day by Day

We Magnify Thee Page 182

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN ? I am the good shepherd. John x. 14

by Martin Luther