Misericordias Domini, 2023
Rev. Thomas Van Hemert
1 Peter 2:21b-25; St. John 10:11-16
Misericordia Domini (Easter 3)
April 23, 2023
In the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit.
One day as Moses was walking around in the land of Egypt, he went out and saw his own people and looked on their burdens. Then he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people. So Moses looked this way and that, and seeing no one, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. He thought this would be the perfect cover up for his crime.
But then the next day, Moses saw two Hebrews struggling together. Moses said to the man who was in the wrong, “Why do you strike your companion?” The Hebrew answered, “Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and fled to the land of Midian.
Later in the beginning chapters of Exodus, as many of you know, Moses got married and kept the flocks of his father-in-law, Jethro, who was the priest of Midian. One day as Moses was out shepherding the sheep, he saw the Angel of the Lord appear to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. It was an odd sight to behold because the bush was burning, yet it wasn’t being consumed. The Lord spoke to Moses and told him that He is “the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” That’s the name that the Lord God was known by for generations leading up to Moses. Because He is their God. He is the God of the living. The Lord saw the affliction of His people and had heard their cry and commanded Moses to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt to a good land, a broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to good pasture.
But Moses still was not convinced. He wanted to know that if he tells the Hebrews, “The God of your fathers has sent me to you,” and they ask him, “What is his name?” Moses wanted to know what he should say to them. Then God answered, “I AM who I AM. Say this to the people of Israel: I AM has sent me to you.” God further reveals His name. He reveals even more about Himself and His nature to Moses and thus, the people of Israel. Our God is the God “WHO IS.” “I AM is my name,” He says. He is the only God who exists. His name is I AM. His name is the “to be” verb. This, of course, is a condemnation against all other false gods. Because, if our God is “I AM,” that is, He is the God Who is, then by contrast, all other gods, “ARE NOT.”
“Tell them, I AM has sent you.” Now Moses knows His name. This is the name Yahweh in the Hebrew. Yahweh means “I AM that I AM.” “I AM,” says the Lord God. “I AM because no one else is. Everyone and everything else has their beginning and end in Me.”
Throughout the chronology of Holy Scripture, God reveals more and more about Himself and about His nature. He has many names, all of which are revealed in His Holy word. He is known as “God”— “Elohim” in the Hebrew. He is known in the Old Testament as “The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” He reveals to Moses that His name is “I AM.” One of the most common names of God that He gives to the prophets and thus the children of Israel later in the Old Testament, is “I AM the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt.”
If someone who is not God were to call himself I AM, this would bring about charges of blasphemy, which according to Levitical Law and would carry the punishment of death by stoning. This is why Jesus is condemned to death during the trial when He’s before the Sanhedrin. Because Jesus was asked by the high priest, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” and Jesus responds and says, “I AM. And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.” We know that this is truth. But the high priest, of course, does not believe this. He thinks that Jesus is simply a man and is speaking blasphemy, which is why they then condemn Him to death. This is also why in John’s Gospel, when Jesus says, “I AM He” in response to the guard saying, “We seek Jesus of Nazareth,” that the guards drew back and fell to the ground. Jesus says, “I AM.” He invokes the Holy Name of God, which is of course His name too but because it is such a holy name, the sinful guards cannot stand to hear it, so they draw back and fall to the ground. That’s because Jesus is holy and they are not. Woe are they. Woe are we, for we are a people of unclean lips and we dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. Dare we speak the Holy name of God in our sinfulness? Who knows what could happen to us.
But at the same time, God be praised that He reveals His name to us out of love and further reveals His name to us in the Person of Jesus Christ. Jesus’ name means “Yahweh, Who Saves.” We can speak the name of God and not fear death because of our sinfulness. We are also given the fullest and most complete name of God that He reveals to us in Holy Baptism. We are given the name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We are marked with the sign of the cross and brought into this Holy Family of a Father, His Only-Begotten Son, and their Spirit.
Now what does this have to do with the Gospel reading today, where Jesus calls Himself “The Good Shepherd”? There is something here that tends to get lost in translation from the Greek to English, and it’s something that we can easily overlook of we’re not careful. Jesus is speaking to the Pharisees when He says, “I am the Good Shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep. But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep. I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own.”
First of all, in the Greek translation, when speaking, Jesus adds emphasis when He says, “I AM the good shepherd.” What He’s saying here is “I, Myself, AM the Good Shepherd.” Which of course, then He compares Himself to a hireling or a hired hand and we know that a hireling or a hired hand cares nothing for the sheep or for the cattle. He’s hired to look after the sheep and gets paid money for it. And if a wolf or some other danger comes his way, he flees because the hireling’s life is more important to him than the life of the sheep. But not so with Jesus, who is the Good Shepherd! Why is He “good”? Because He is the only Shepherd who lays down His life for the sheep. He says “I, Myself, AM the Good Shepherd. No one else. Only Me.” A similar saying would be if we had a visitor to this church and they asked me, “Are you the pastor?” If I simply say, “I am,” this could be interpreted as though I am one of many pastors. But if I say, “I, myself, am the pastor,” it’s pretty clear and obvious that I am the only pastor.
This is what Jesus is saying to the Pharisees and the disciples. He, Jesus, is the only Good Shepherd and He is good because He lays down His life for His sheep. Of course, another aspect that is often overlooked are these “I AM” statements where Jesus is, again, invoking the name that He gave to Moses in the burning bush. Jesus says, “I AM,” from the burning bush. But now He adds to it. He says, “I AM the good shepherd.” He reveals to us more about His nature and grace. This is an act of mercy—to know God, to know who He is and what He wants to do for us in love in an act of mercy. We get to know who God is. Just as Moses, like a shepherd, led the people of Israel at the command of God out of the land of Egypt, now Jesus, the Good Shepherd, who knows His sheep and is known by His own, now leads us all into green pastures where we hear His voice and there will be one flock and one shepherd.
No longer is God known simply as I AM. He is known as Jesus, Yahweh who saves, Who saves His people from their sins by being the Good Shepherd. And again, how is the Good Shepherd good? St. Peter, speaking in the spirit of Isaiah describes this exactly in the Epistle reading, “Christ suffered for us…who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously; who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”
This is how He is the Good Shepherd. He brings us who are sheep into green pastures and to which there is an altar. But instead of the sheep, the lambs being sacrificed for their own sinfulness, the Good Shepherd lays down His own life and is sacrificed for the sheep in their place so that just as the Father knows Him and He knows the Father, because of the death of the Son, the Good Shepherd, we are made into sons of the Father.
In +Jesus’ name.
