Misericordia Domini, the 2nd Sunday after Easter + John 10:11-16

Grace and Peace be unto you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Is God good? The world certainly doesn't think so. Thousands die in an earthquake. Countless homes are destroyed in wildfires. Hurricanes ravage cities and the world asks, “Why did God allow this or that to happen?” A terrorist destroys innocent lives in the name of his false God. Nihilists murder unsuspecting people in the name of an ideology. People wring their hands and ask “Where was God as that happened? Is God really good?” It’s tempting even for us who know the true God to look at the injustice in the world and believe that God may not be quite as good as He says He is. Do you ever look at the wicked and wonder why their lives seem so much better than the lives of the righteous? Asaph ponders this in the seventy-third psalm. He confesses, “I was envious of the boastful, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For there are no pangs in their death, but their strength is firm” (Psalm 73:3-4). Asaph sees the ungodly increasing in riches and having comfortable lives while the godly are destitute, suffer lack, and even persecuted by the world. Is God really good? The world answers with a resounding “no.” And there are times when even the baptized believer is tempted to look out on things and doubt the goodness of the Lord.

David writes in Psalm 33:5, “The Earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.” David looks out upon the creation and sees it as a testimony to God’s goodness. The world scoffs at this as well, imagining that everything in our world evolved, that order came from chaos, life from non-life. But the author of Hebrews reminds us that “every house is built by someone, but He who built all things is God” (Hebrews 3:4). Just as houses and buildings don’t come into existence by chance, neither did the cosmos. The creation itself shows us the goodness of the Lord. There are earthquakes and fires, hurricanes and droughts but these exist not as a part of the goodness of the Lord but are the result of sin. “The whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now” says the Apostle (Romans 8:22). Natural disasters don’t prove that the earth isn’t full of the goodness of the Lord, but that creation has been marred because of mankind’s rejection of the true God. Similarly, wicked and evil men perpetrate evil deeds in every age of their own will, not God’s, though God often brings good from what man intended as evil in divine providence. We should look at the creation for the goodness of the Lord. But it is not the clearest place to look.

To where do we look for the goodness of the Lord? The scriptures point us to the Christ who today says, “I am the good Shepherd.” Against what the world thinks about God, and against what the sinful nature wants to believe about God’s goodness, here are the words of Christ. In the midst of all of the bad that's happening in this world, in the midst of your trials and sufferings, Jesus tells you “I am the good Shepherd.” He’s not a hireling. The hireling “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.” But Christ cares for you. He has compassion on you. He loves you fervently and will not abandon you when the wolf comes. “I am the Good Shepherd.” He is good in that He offers everlasting life. He's good and that he doesn't count our sins against us when we come to him in repentance, confessing our sins and believing that his death satisfied God's wrath against our sins. He is good in that He gives us daily bread. He is good and that He defends us from all harm and danger. Even when He does allow hard and danger to befall us for a brief time, He allows it to strengthen our faith and to grow us in our understanding and appreciation of His goodness. This means that whatever He sends upon His Christians is good. Our flesh may think it's bad but since God sends it, it is truly good.

This week at the yearly Colloquium and Synod of our Diocese I had the pleasure of speaking with a brother pastor who has been diagnosed with mesothelioma. He has no idea how long he will live. He told me that his treatments, painful though they may be, are simply to give him more time on this earth because there is no cure for this cancer. In spite of this cross he bears, he repeatedly said, as he spoke of his situation, “God is so good to me.” He can say that because although his body wastes away, he knows the word of the Lord. He knows that Christ is his good shepherd who only gives him good things in this life and has promised him good things, heavenly things, in the life of the world to come. On the day in which God the Father no longer gives him daily bread and no longer gives him earthly life, he trusts his Good Shepherd to call him into paradise far from sin and death and all of its consequences, just as He promised.

We are no different. We're all dying. It doesn't matter how young you are or how healthy you are that day is coming and it could very well come at any moment. Tragedy could strike and not even necessarily the tragedy of death. Bad things happen in this life to people even to Christians, especially to Christians in our godless age! The pagan looks into the skies and cries, “Why isn't God good?” but that's because the pagan is not one of Christ’s sheep. Jesus says in the verses after today’s gospel lesson, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27). Christ’s sheep don’t hear His voice in their heads or hearts as something audible. They hear His voice in the words of Holy Scripture since Holy Scripture is the very Word of God. His sheep hear His word and meditate upon it, think about it, mull it over, and in faith apply its promises to themselves. In the midst of the vicissitudes of life, that is, the changes and chances of life, they trust the Divine Word over that which they see what their eyes and experience in their bodies and even at times, feel in their hearts. In the midst of trials, hardships, and sufferings, the sheep look not to themselves, and not to the world for counsel, but to Christ, their Good Shepherd.

How do you know He is good? “The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.” He shows you how good He is by dying your death for you, to atone for your sins because you cannot pay for a single one of them. He lays His life down and He takes it back up again on the third day, rising to new life so that He might be with you in His church and in His Supper as He promised you. He has shown you His goodness by calling you by the Gospel, creating faith in your heart, and preserving that faith to this very day. He shows you His goodness by baptizing you, adopting you as a child of the heavenly Father and making you His brother and co-heir of all His blessings. He shows you His goodness by feeding you with His body crucified and His blood poured out on the altar of the cross to forgive your sins and strengthen your faith. 

The world says God is not good. But you are not of the world. By faith you are justified and have peace with God. By faith you are “the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand” (Psalm 95:7). And since you hear His voice in His holy word, which calls you by His gospel and which gives you all of these things as you believe, you are able to confess that no matter what happens to you in the body, or in situation, or estate, Christ is your Good Shepherd. He has laid His life down to pay for your sins. He takes His life back up to gives you the blessings His death earns. He is truly your Good Shepherd.

Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. Alleluia!