Shepherd of Souls

Christ is Risen! Alleluia!

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

Many people struggle with taking what you hear on Sunday in the sermon and connecting it to the rest of your daily lives. This is one of those things that pastors spend time and effort trying to do, to give you something that will stay with you through the week. Of course, the hope is that the Gospel – that Christ has borne your sin to the Cross, suffered and died taking on the punishment and paying the price for your sins there upon the cross, and is raised for your justification that you may be his own and have eternal life – that this Gospel is the thing that stays with you throughout the week.

But if we were to be honest, it is quite easy to forget just what the sermon was about. How often have you sat here, listened to some preacher hold forth for ten, fifteen, twenty minutes, sometimes eloquently and persuasively, sometimes not, and then forgotten what he said by the first distribution hymn? How many of you, if quizzed on Wednesday, would remember today's sermon?

I pray that you take home a bit more than that. Today, the Holy Spirit speaks to us through His Word and addresses this problem we have, of having the Gospel speak to us and impact us in our daily lives.

Our Epistle reading is really framed by what comes before:

God has built us up into the spiritual household of God, has made us a royal priesthood of the Baptized, and God has snatched sinners out of the darkness of sin, and brought them into His family; this we call the Church.

And then you go about your lives in all sorts of vocations: as husbands and wives, as citizens, as employers and employees. And, as it is often the case, you find out that you are not at the top, you are not the king of the hill – you have to answer to other people.

Here is the shocker: this is actually a good thing! God has designed the world to work in just this way. Call it hierarchy or subordination – it is the created order of things. Some are placed above others in this world. And the whole reason is so things get done, so that through these roles you take care of the needs of one another.

But it also does not take long to figure out that when sin enters the mix, this whole structure gets messed up. Kings, Emperors, Presidents, even pastors and church councils let power get to their heads. They become tyrants, despots, and downright unbearable.

Of this fact Peter really did not need to convince anyone. With Julius Caesar came the military occupation of Rome, the fall of anything resembling a Senate with actual power. Then Augustus, who ruled at the time of Jesus' birth. While he brought much peace to the Roman Empire, it was not without a great deal of bloodshed. Under him, 2,300 of his political opponents, friends of political opponents, and third cousins of people who once said “hello” to his political opponents were put on a list; their land, freedom, and – for those who did not escape – their lives were taken from them.

Following Augustus was Tiberius, who completely lost it and went senile only after outdoing his uncle Augustus as a tyrant. So much of a tyrant was he that the crowd cheered when little Caligula smothered his grand-uncle.

But those cheers turned to horror as Caligula’s reign of insanity – he was the emperor who caused his horse to be made a senator – brought much persecution to Christians, only to be outdone by the now emperor Nero, who caused this very dispersion of the faithful to whom Peter was writing this epistle.

The point is that having a lousy ruler is far from a new phenomenon, and even though there may be financial threats levied against churches and their health insurance programs or threats of losing our tax exempt status, that is insignificant compared to what the Christians Peter addressed faced. But nevertheless, abuse of power still happens.

And then there are lousy bosses, managers, supervisors, husbands (and sometimes we recognize that we may even be the lousy bosses, managers, supervisors, or husbands). You might try to do the right thing, but sometimes doing the right thing seems to come back to bite you.

You want to scream with the voices of the world - Greed is Good! You see the easy path of sin and vice and think, what is the point of virtue? What is the point of doing the right thing when those who cut corners, who are not afraid of stepping on toes, cutting corners, and simply doing the wrong thing all seem to come out ahead?

The Holy Spirit, through the Apostle Peter, puts the image of Christ, specifically the Theology of the Cross, before your eyes. Verse 21 we have translated as “an example”; really the word here is more of a model, an image. Look to Christ.

To be more specific, look to Christ, and see that Jesus suffered as well, being subject to the authorities, to the governor. He committed no sin, did not lie, and yet He was persecuted. He was mocked, spit upon, beaten and crucified. He did not fight back, He did not lash out with His tongue or strike back with His fists. He submitted himself willingly for you and trusted His Father who would be the ultimate judge. “Not my will, but Thine be done.”

He was the one who bore your sin to the cross. There on the cross, the sins of the world were judged. Having become sin, He was put to death, dying for those sins, and all sins. By means of His righteousness you live. Through His wounds, you have healing.

The theology of the cross teaches us not to look for glory. Do not look at the outward circumstances of your life, especially as an indicator of the favor of God or how “blessed” you are. Rather, look at what God’s Word already says – that Word which stands when the grass and the flowers fade.

If you are in need of something to do, if you need some good work to take away from this, then think on this: “forgive people that tick you off.” But do not stop there. In spite of everything, do the best you can at your callings in life. Be the best worker, spouse, citizen, child, parent, parishioner that you can be. Good luck with that if you are going to go about that by the way of the Law. That is impossible. Forgive the politician, the tyrant boss, the lousy husband, and the pastor who drops the ball.

This forgiveness can only truly come by way of the Gospel, by holding the image of Christ and what He has already done before you. Because you must remember that you are the one who has constantly done evil, who has abused the One who is Good through your sin, and yet He subjected Himself to the Cross for you. Through that subjection, through His suffering He gives His persecutors forgiveness.

Therefore, in your callings, you reflect that suffering of Christ. He did the right thing, He did Good in the midst of persecution. This is the way of the Gospel, this is the way God’s grace works in and through your lives.

You see, you do not do the right thing in your vocations to earn your way to heaven or to receive some kind of blessing from God. That is already yours!

You do not suffer for the sake of Christ, as though you might earn God's favor or merit His grace. That is already yours, thanks to your having been baptized into Christ. You suffer, because you know that the grace of God is sufficient for you, because you know that the power of God is made perfect in your weakness, because you know that nothing – not even tyrant rulers, infuriating employers, or irritating pastors – can take away from you the free gift of God's grace and mercy.

When you suffer injustice patiently, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. Not because God delights in your suffering, but because He delights in your faith. He delights that you should trust Him for your strength and security, for your welfare and protection. He delights that you should trust in His grace so completely that you pray “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us,” and then live as though you believe it.

Forgive those who do you harm. Forgive those who misuse and abuse you. Forgive those who speak falsely against you, who revile you, who heap insults and shame upon you. “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” You do not deserve the forgiveness, grace, and mercy of God, but you have it anyway. Therefore, you too “will sincerely forgive and gladly do good to those who sin against” you.

This is the foundation of the communion of saints, which you confess in the Creeds. You live together, not just as individual little spiritual islands who happen to line up next to each other occasionally at the same feed trough. You live together as the collected members of the Body of Christ, each individually forgiven and redeemed, but altogether made into one Body, with one Lord Christ as your head. And you are knit together by the forgiveness of sins that you receive from Christ your head, which then in turn enables you to gladly forgive and do good to your neighbor. If God forgives him, who are you to hold his sin against him?

And he needs to hear it from you. There is an old axiom: “The Gospel assumed is the Gospel denied.” You must not assume that your neighbor simply knows that he is forgiven. He may well know it, owing to his faith in Jesus. But he needs to know that you forgive him for his sins against you. He needs to hear from your lips that you bear no grudge, no ill will, no sour feelings against him. He needs to hear that you live with him in the grace of Christ which flows freely over both your heads.

Do not seek to bear your own sins. And do not seek to make your neighbor bear his, no matter what he may sin against you. Look to Christ. “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live in righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.” This is indeed a gracious thing.

In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

Christ is Risen! Alleluia!