In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
With a little coaching, animals will usually go easily if they can see where they are headed, but if they are unaware of what is coming. Pigs generally refuse to make right-angle turns, but are fairly willing to walk around a curve, as long as they don't know that they are heading into a truck or a new confinement. Jewish and Islamic law regarding the slaughter of meat recognizes this trait in animals, and therefore prohibits allowing subsequent animals to witness the slaughter of those before them in line. Herd animals will very often follow a lead animal, regardless of where that animal leads.
“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned – every one – to his own way.” Every one of us has turned to his own way. My way, your way, the way of the day, the way of yesteryear. Whichever way suits you at the moment. Each of us thinks that we know best how to get where we are going. My way is not your way is not his way is not yesterday's way. Of course, this world says to us, you take your way and I'll take my way, and we'll all meet up at the finish line.
It is not enough that we each wander off in our own directions, but we try to haul as many people as possible off the path along with us. We war and rage against “those people”, whoever they may be, who try to derail us from following the path of our hearts. I would love nothing better than a world of people who saw things from my perspective and did things my way; likewise you yours. This world is filled with people kicking and screaming and scratching and clawing to pull people this way and that, without really knowing which way that way is.
Of course, this world would like to assume that all roads lead to somewhere good. All roads lead to Rome, or all roads lead to heaven, or all roads lead to nirvana, or all roads lead to wherever you'd like to go. But they don't. My road leads to the depths of depravity in my own heart, and ultimately to hell. When each of us follows his own road, there is no one to walk with us. We isolate ourselves by wandering away from the road and off into the hither and yon. Then, this isolation leads us into despair. We despair of ever finding our true way, or of ever finding fulfillment, or of ever finding joy in the midst of this dark world. And that despair carries us further along into the wilderness of sin, on toward death. For when the devil picks you off from the herd, then you are easy prey for that roaring lion to devour you.
“The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” Jesus is the perfect sheep. He knew what lay ahead when He started His life on this earth. By most standards, that would make Him crazy – to walk into a situation, knowing that it means certain death, and expect to walk out the other side. But that is precisely what Jesus knew and did. Jesus bore what was heaped upon Him. Just as the sins of the people of Israel were heaped upon the scapegoat and expunged from the people, so our sins were placed upon Jesus, and His load increased by the step as He made His way toward Calvary. Burdened with the sins of the world, the spotless Lamb of God made His way along the path laid out for Him.
And yet, our Lord kept silent before His enemies. Though they tried to taunt and mock Him into sin, Jesus held His tongue and proclaimed the message for which He was sent – the repentance of sins and forgiveness through grace. He made no power plays. He staged no protests against the ruling parties. He engaged in no backroom boilerplate politicking. No, “like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth.”
And yet, our Lord did not simply follow blindly along to His death. From before the foundations of the world, Jesus knew where His path would lead. He knew that we would sin and fall short of the glory of God. He knew that we would require a sinless, spotless Lamb to expunge our sins. And so He came to be that Lamb for us. He came to walk the path prescribed. He came to do all that the Law demands. He came to bear our sins and be our savior. He came to die. And He did all this fully aware, and voluntarily. No one could take away the life of the Son of God, but He laid it down for us in accord with the will of the Father. And though the way was hard and painful, all this He gladly suffered, out of love for His fallen creation, to redeem us from sin, death, and the devil.
“Upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His stripes we are healed.” Our Lord Christ died the death to sin once for all, that you and I would not have to. But He did not remain dead, or else death and Satan would have won. No, the Lord of Life has defeated death. He beat death at its own game, because it could not hold the one in whom there was no guilt. And so Jesus rose again on the third day, to proclaim freedom from the power of sin, death, and Satan. He sits now in heaven as our own great high priest, washing us in His blood and making us pure and holy and presentable to stand before our Father. In His death, we have life, and in His resurrection, we have life eternal made certain. He was given over to death in order to give us over to life.
Some look at the sacrifice of Christ, and they conclude that He was crazy. But we who believe know that our Lord did what was required to save us because of His great love for us. We are humbled that our Lord Jesus would do such a thing for us. We are continually amazed at the richness of His grace and blessings for us. We rejoice and give thanks to our heavenly Father that through Jesus Christ death has died and Life has triumphed.
Now, we can lead where our Good Shepherd leads us, and we need not go quietly. For He leads us to His banquet table, where we receive a foretaste of the feast to come, for the forgiveness of our sins and the strengthening of our communion with Him and with one another. And He leads us into the home of our Father in heaven, where we shall see Him face to face, and we shall rejoice unceasingly with the angels and archangels and the whole heavenly host. And along this path, we most certainly should bring others.
In the Name of Jesus. Amen.
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