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Both Shepherd and Lamb

Jesus was many mutually exclusive things that, humanly speaking, He couldn’t be. He was the God of Sabaoth, and He was the Prince of Peace. He was Lord and Master, and He was the humble Servant. He was “true God, begotten of the Father from eternity,” and He was a mortal man Whose life left Him on Calvary’s cross.

He was also both
Shepherd and Lamb.

We get this, of course, but it is nonetheless remarkable when you actually take the time to consider it. That both are true is beyond dispute. Jesus once said this of Himself: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.  He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.  He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.  I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.” (John 10:11-15 ESV) Clearly then He is a shepherd. Yet John the Baptist, on two separate occasions, identified Jesus as “the Lamb of God.” (John 1:29, 34) Read More »Both Shepherd and Lamb

“BREAD OF LIFE” READINGS April 2019

TLH = The Lutheran Hymnal, 1941; WS = Worship Supplement 2000; LSB = Lutheran Service Book, 2006

Date Hymns Reading Comments

Apr 1 TLH 24 Genesis 47:13-27 Through Joseph, the Lord extended many a person’s time of grace. I would hope that some Egyptians were brought to faith in the Lord during that time!

Apr 2 TLH 152 Psalm 38 When we are troubled by our sins, the answer is not to ignore our nagging consciences, but to confess our guilt to the Lord and find comfort in Him.

Apr 3 TLH 403 Luke 12:49-53 There are times when following Jesus may set you against friends and family who are not following Him. This happens. Stay the course and stay with Him!

Apr 4 TLH 149/LSB 435 Luke 13:1-9 How important is repentance? Those who do not repent of their sins will eventually perish.Read More »“BREAD OF LIFE” READINGS April 2019

Risen with Christ!

“Do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.”  

(Romans 6:3-4)

Baptists and others like to ask, “When where you saved?” They like to be able to point to a specific time and experience when they “accepted” Christ and committed themselves to follow Him. A friend in Northern Ireland recently gave me a good response to that question. When he is asked, “When were you saved?” he responds, “About two thousand years ago.”

We were not saved by some decision we made or by committing our life to Christ. We were saved by Christ’s death and resurrection alone. When Christ died, we died. Jesus bore all the pain, suffering and shame of our death for us, and by faith we have received all the benefits of His death. So when we celebrate Jesus’ resurrection, we are also celebrating our own resurrection.

Now we have a totally new and glorious life. We died to sin. We died to the Law. Now we live with and for Christ. We have been raised with Him to “walk in newness of life.” It is a glorious, joyful life with God.

We cannot describe that new life any better than God Himself did when He inspired Paul to write Colossians 3:1-17. Read these words slowly, thinking of how this is your new life, for you are risen with Christ.Read More »Risen with Christ!

Answering for Themselves

Jeslyn just looked at me. I had some very important questions for her, but she gave no answer. “Do you renounce the devil and all his wicked works and all his ways?” Obviously, that is a question to which you would hope to hear an unambiguous “YES!” answer. But, Jeslyn said nothing—she just looked at me.

Why the silence to such an important question? Well, Jeslyn was three weeks old. Her parents had brought her to be baptized in the name of the Triune God. As a three-week-old, of course, she couldn’t answer for herself the questions that have traditionally been asked as part of our Lutheran order of Baptism. So at her Baptism her parents were asked to answer for the child.Read More »Answering for Themselves

Come, Ye Faithful, Raise the Strain TLH 204, WS 726, LSB 487

Because of editing deadlines, I am writing this Easter piece for the Spokesman today, though Easter itself lies many weeks in the future. Looking out my office window, I see nothing but snow, the thermometer stands at -9° F, and most schools in the state are closed for the next two days. It’s the end of January, and all anyone is talking about right now is winter. Can there be an Easter hymn somewhere in all this?

One line in particular came to mind from the second verse of a very old hymn by John of Damascus. It dates from the eighth century: “All the winter of our sins, / Long and dark, is flying from His light. . . .” So there it is, Easter springing from the depths of a polar vortex!Read More »Come, Ye Faithful, Raise the Strain TLH 204, WS 726, LSB 487