Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Hear, dear Christians, what your Lord did for you. “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” John 10:11

One particular day Jesus visited Bethesda. This was a healing pool in the city of Jerusalem where invalids gathered. Recent archeological discoveries have uncovered the remnants of this ornate structure which was covered by a roof and had pillars and colonnades. It was impressive that such a noble place was built for the disabled. Jesus saw a man and asked him a few questions.

What he was doing there. Well, he had been there a long time. Angels came down and stirred that pool occasionally, but only the first person to make it in was healed of their whatever malady they had. The man, though, had a problem. He was paralyzed and had been so for 38 years. And as he scraped and pulled his way to the pool, every time someone stepped in ahead of him. Maybe next time, was the mantra he lived by. Maybe next time I will catch a break.

In my mother’s journey to faith in her early 20’s the comment her agnostic and bitter father had told her was, “God helps those who help themselves.” It was one of the Scripture passages she knew well. Years later when she started reading her Bible what did she find? “Dad, I’ve searched scriptures, and that verse isn’t in there.”

The pool was by a sheep gate. Jesus had come to lead that sheep out, to do for that sheep what that sheep could not do for himself. He showed care for his condition. Angels stirred the water of that pool, but none other than the Son of God was sent for that man and for the world, even for one lone struggling sheep. But even more, Jesus came to lead that man out of Judaism, out of that sheep gate, out of living life based on what you do, to bring Him to the new free life of what God will do for you. A pool to help is nice. But what of those cripples who are too weak to get there, and what of those who search for God but who have only weakness, spiritual inadequacies, and whose knowledge is only small. The good news is not that God helps those who help themselves, but that God comes to help those who are dead in their trespasses and sins, who have failed God and others, and suffer under the curse of sin in this present life, and to lead them out of their death to give His life.

What is that gate? The gate that Jesus comes to lead us through is the Gate of the Law and the Gospel. It is the gate of who we are and what we have done, the truth of our sin and the gate of what God has done for us sinners. Jesus had a different pool, He had a different place for the people to go. That pool was his death and what He would do for the sheep, what He would lead them in and out from, the pasture of eternal life that they had by reason of His suffering for them, the forgiveness and peace they had with God. It was not about their strength, intention, labor, hard work, dedication, which all fall short, not about their reaching to God, but about His reach to them, what He did for them which fully did what they needed. Jesus death isn’t just for those who can jump in and be healed. His is the pool for sinners who have not done any better.

Who are paralyzed, blind, and lame. Jesus was going to lead out of the law and into the Gospel. Our congregation, by God’s grace has become such a gate where the paralyzed and dead have found Jesus. I have had the privilege of welcoming people to our parish gate these last years. It is not that people have come because they are better, but because they are worse. They are not marked by their spiritual riches, but by their poverty, and the need for the food and meal of Jesus and what He has done. Some during Covid were denied Jesus for extensive periods of time, months and even up to a year later, congregations were more concerned about their physical well being and thinking that Jesus was optional. Church was cancelled, or so much was cut from the service to make it short that the service was hardly recognizable. When one family came in and crowded around the guest registry, they had that look on their face like, “We can’t take it anymore!” For some it was works based religions that speak of spiritual progression in such a way where the center of the cross and death of Jesus is lost for the only message of “ten tips to a better you.” For some it was where social Gospel replaced the real Gospel and Good News of what Jesus has finished and completed for us, where guilt trips and acts of penance and reparation that could never be paid replaced that Christ’s life is given for the undeserving. The Sheep need a pasture to rest and Jesus comes to lead us out of whatever muddy and fouled pasture we have been living in, to the pasture of His life.

Jesus was teaching in the temple courts and those courts were like a sheep fold. But because of the false messages of that day, Jesus came to lead the sheep out. He was going to lead them out of works based Judaism. Outside the city this Shepherd will lead them to the new temple and the new place of worship. He will suffer outside the gate and will give His life for the sheep. We follow what God our Father wants for us. He opens the gate to Jesus. This is God’s will for us that we have this.

Jesus also becomes the gate Himself. As people came in and out of the gate in the temple they come to go to the altar and meet with God. We must go through the gate of Jesus. Only through the Gospel of what God has done, can we go in and out and find life and pasture and find peace.

One of God’s promises from the OT was that he would destroy the shepherds that spoke falsehood and did not care for the sheep. Those shepherds took the sheep into their mouths, well the sheep existed for them, they ate the fat, destroyed the young, took the wool, and drank the milk. They did not seek the erring, carry the weak, lead the young, find the straying, heal the sick, bind up the broken, yet ruled with harshness. God cared enough for the sheep to deliver them from the mouth of false shepherds. It is God’s desire that you be taken care of, that you be gone after, that you know the truth. This is the goal of our congregation. Are we doing that job? Are we considering it our task? Have I done this? Where have we failed the sheep? Our congregation thrives not as budgets are met, building projects are completed, new places are made for the sheep, but as the Word of God is taught truly, and every sheep and lamb is given what they need, the Law to call the straying, the Gospel to bring sinners back to the fold, and where the little lambs are brought to the good pasture of Jesus Word.

Jesus would come down to personally settle scores. He would rescue the sheep. He would bring them from all the places that they were wandering on a dark and cloudy day. He would bring them back home to Israel. There would be one flock and one shepherd. He would take the sheep away from the false shepherds of Israel. God is a tender shepherd to His sheep, but a mighty shepherd to His foes who would speak lies and falsehood to them.

Jesus comes to lead His sheep out from the pools of works, and from temples of lies, to graze on the pasture of what He has done for them. He makes them lie down there. Underneath His cross and empty tomb. Their life is following Him, what He has done for them, and how He will continue, by His death to love and care for them. That their lives are built not on the foundation of what they do, or what they could never do. But on the solid foundation of what He has done for them.

I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I know my own and my own know me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

The peace of God which passes all human understanding, guard your hearts and minds through faith in Jesus Christ. ~ Pastor Seifferlein