Easter 3
Ez
34:11-16
5/4/14
I got glasses when I was thirteen
years old. In my case, it was baseball
that revealed there was a problem. During
the summer I began to perceive that it didn’t seem like I was seeing the
baseball as well when I was hitting. I
also realized that when I sat in the dugout and looked out at the scoreboard,
the numbers seemed fuzzy in a way that they had not in the past. I could tell that there was a difference, and
so my parents took me to the optometrist where we learned that sure enough, I
needed glasses.
Both my brother and I needed glasses
when we were in our early teens, and so I have always told my kids that they
shouldn’t be surprised if it turns out that they need them too. However, it never occurred to Amy or me that
the need might arise earlier.
This school year we had to take
Michael to the optometrist so that he could receive the eye screening that is
now required for all kindergarten students.
And in his case, it turned out that the state requirement was a good
thing because the tests revealed that he needed glasses. His vision had been off since a very young
age, and so apparently he had no basis for comparison. Unlike my case where I knew my vision had
changed and gotten worse, he just thought that this was what things looked
like.
Glasses have fixed this. However, they have created a new
problem. As you may have noticed Michael
is an athletic and active child. He
loves sports and always wants to be playing.
Now he is very good about being careful with his glasses – he knows that
we don’t want them broken. And so if he
decides that he is going to do something active in the house or is about to go
play outside, wherever he is at he takes his glasses off and lays them aside.
The problem is that often they don’t
go back on his face when he is done. And
so, at some point later in the day Michael and his parents – and sometimes his
brothers and sister too – end up playing the game: “Where are Michael’s
glasses?” The search commences as we scour the house, looking high and low
trying to find them. Thus far we have
always found them – though there was one time when days went by and all
attempts failed. Finally, mom came
through as she pulled out the cushion from a couch and found the glasses wedged
in below.
In our Old Testament lesson for
today, God describes how he will seek out his sheep who have been
scattered. He himself will be their
shepherd and will bring them into good grazing land. He will bring back the lost, and bind up the
injured, and strengthen the weak. On
this Good Shepherd Sunday we rejoice in the good news that in his Son, Jesus
Christ, he has done just that.
Our text addresses a time not long
after 587 B.C. Ezekiel was a part of the group of people – those from the upper
crust of society – who were taken into exile by the Babylonians in 597 B.C.
This was in fact the second group taken away by the Babylonians. The first had
occurred eight years earlier in 605.
Ezekiel lived with these exiles in the land of Babylon, and in the first
thirty-three chapters of his prophecy he condemned the nation Judah for their
unfaithfulness to Yahweh. They had
worshipped the pagan gods of the surrounding people, even bringing idolatry
into the temple itself in Jerusalem.
Now this wasn’t the way things were
supposed to be. God had rescued Israel
from slavery in Egypt and had given them a good land in which to live. Earlier
in this book Yahweh speaks of how, “I swore to them that I would bring them out
of the land of Egypt into a land that I had searched out for them, a land
flowing with milk and honey, the most glorious of all lands.”
Yahweh had taken them into a
covenant with himself. He said, “I gave
them my statutes and made known to them my rules, by which, if a person does them,
he shall live. Moreover, I gave them my Sabbaths, as a sign between me and
them, that they might know that I am the LORD who sanctifies them.” Yet again, and again, and again Israel
rebelled against God. They did not keep
his Torah. They did not keep the
Sabbath. They did not remain faithful to Yahweh and instead they worshipped
other gods.
This unfaithfulness had caused some
of the people to be taken in to exile.
And now, something even worse was coming. Yahweh’s presence, his glory had dwelt in the
temple. But in a vision, Ezekiel saw this glory depart from the temple. Yahweh was abandoning the temple because of
their idolatry and unfaithfulness. He
was going to use the Babylonians to destroy the temple and bring devastation to
the city. The Babylonians were going to
be the instrument of his judgment.
The story of Israel’s sin is the
story of your sin as well. Like Israel,
you have received God’s command, “You shall have no other gods.” And yet you never cease to follow the culture
in finding other things that you put first in your life; other things that give
you a sense of security and value. Like
Israel, you have received God’s command, “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping
it holy.” And yet you give those Means
of Grace by which God sanctifies you a miniscule place in your life compared to
what you allot to sports, entertainment and hobbies. Like Israel, you have received God’s command,
“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” And yet, your first inclination is to share that
piece of news that casts your neighbor in the worst possible light.
We know these things to be
true. And if we knew nothing about God
except his law and judgment of our sin we would have no hope. But the good news is that God is a God who
wants to save. In the previous chapter,
Yahweh instructs Ezekiel, “Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord GOD, I
have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his
way and live.” God wants to save. And because he wants to save he has acted in
his Son Jesus Christ to give forgiveness and salvation to you who could do
nothing to save yourselves.
In the book of Ezekiel, the turning
point occurs in chapter 33 – the chapter just before our text, - when a refugee
arrives from Jerusalem with the news, “The city has been struck down.” God’s judgment had come upon the city. Yet from that point on, the rest of
Ezekiel’s prophecy is one of hope and restoration – it is one of Gospel.
We hear that clearly in our text
this morning. The people who were
supposed to be shepherds for God’s people – the kings – had in fact led the
people into idolatry and unfaithfulness.
Just before our text Yahweh says, “My sheep were scattered; they
wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. My sheep were scattered
over all the face of the earth, with none to search or seek for them.”
But now, Yahweh was going to change
this. As he says in our text, “For thus
says the Lord GOD: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek
them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that
have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from
all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick
darkness.” God was going to seek them
out and bring them to a land of good pasture.
God began this when he used King
Cyrus and the Persians to defeat the Babylonians and grant release for the
people of God to return to their land.
But the language of this chapter points to something more – something
even bigger. Later in chapter 34 God
says, “And I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall
feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd. And I, the LORD, will be
their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them. I am the LORD; I
have spoken.” God promised his servant
David – the Messiah – who would be the shepherd of his people.
In our text God says, “I myself will
be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the
Lord GOD. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will
bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak.”
This is what God has
done not just for Israel, but for all people in his Son, Jesus the
Messiah. As we saw during Holy Week, Jesus
is the good shepherd who lay down his life for the sheep. By his death on the cross and resurrection
from the dead on Easter he has
given us forgiveness. He receives those
who are injured and weak because of sin, and he gives healing and strength. He provides
the peace of knowing now that we are justified – that we have been
reconciled to God. We have peace with
God now because of Jesus’ saving death and resurrection, and we know the
verdict that will be spoken on the Last Day.
We know that it will be not guilty, innocent.
We know this because we already hear
that verdict now. That’s what happens
every time Holy Absolution is spoken.
You hear the called servant of Christ say by the authority of the Lord,
“I forgive you all your sins.” This word
from Christ is the same word that he the judge will speak on the Last Day as he
declares you innocent because he lay down his life on the cross of Good Friday
and then took it up again on Easter.
Jesus the Good Shepherd has gathered
you his sheep into the flock of his Church.
And here he feeds you so that you may be strengthened. Here he gives you his true body and blood,
given and shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins. He nourishes and sustains you in the faith as
you look for the day of his return when you will see with your eyes what you
now know by faith – that there is one flock and one Shepherd.
