Saturday of Easter 3

Sheep to Be Slaughtered

Romans 8:35–39 (ESV) Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

“My sheep follow Me,” says Jesus, the Good Shepherd. The result of hearing the Shepherd’s voice and being known by Him is that we follow Him. Following Him only comes about because the Holy Spirit moves us to do so through the Shepherd’s voice. We do not make a decision to follow Him; He knows and chooses us. Jesus promises incredible grace to those who follow Him: “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12). The light of eternal life is given to those who follow Him.

But we also know that following Him is not easy: “If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23). The Christian life is shaped by the cross, which involves suffering and death. St. Paul describes this reality in the Christian life when he speaks of “tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, sword” (Romans 8:35). But these were always part of the life of the children of God, as the Psalmist cried out in Psalm 44:22, “For Your sake we are killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” The Lord does let His sheep face hardship and even death, but His promises are even greater. “We are more than conquerors” and absolutely nothing “will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

This is certain because Jesus says that no one can snatch His sheep from His hand, and that God is His Father and that no one can snatch the sheep from His hands (John 10:28-30). In other words, Jesus’ hands are the same as the Fathers’ hands because they are divine hands. This means that when He holds us in His nail-scarred hands, we have nothing to fear.

In Revelation 7, the ones who have come out of the “great tribulation” and are in heaven are those who “have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Revelation 7:14). In other words, those sheep who, in Holy Baptism, have had their wool dyed in the blood of the Lamb of God will pass from this life of “great tribulation” into eternal life with the Good Shepherd. Even in eternity, Jesus will be our shepherd (Revelation 7:17). We will never be snatched from His hands, even if we are like sheep to be slaughtered in this world!

Prayer:

Through Jesus’ blood and merit

I am at peace with God.

What, then, can daunt my spirit,

However dark my road?

My courage shall not fail me,

For God is on my side;

Though hell itself assail me,

Its rage I may deride.

There’s nothing that can sever

From this great love of God;

No want, no pain whatever,

No famine, peril, flood.

Though thousand foes surround me,

For slaughter mark His sheep,

They never shall confound me,

The vict’ry I shall reap. Amen. (LSB 746:1-2)