Easter 3 2021 Misericordias Domini

John 10:11-16

“Here I Stand” Commemoration Sunday

April 18, 2021

Zion Lutheran Church + Nampa, ID

It could have all ended the evening of Thursday, April 18, 1521. The sun was beginning to set on the city of Worms. The heat was stifling in the packed room of the bishop’s palace where emperor, electors and German princes all waited with anticipation to hear the answer Martin Luther would bring. Would Luther recant? Would he take back what he had written and said against abuses in the church and against papal tyranny?

It was asked of him, “Do you or do you not recant your books and the errors in them?” If Luther were to recant and admit that he was wrong, all would be well before the emperor and the Roman Catholic Church. On the other hand, if he did not recant, his own life would be at risk. He could be burned as a heretic.

This was it: recant or stand firm.

And so Luther responded: “Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures or by clear reason (for I do not trust either in the pope or in councils alone, since it is well known that they have often erred and contradicted themselves), I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not retract anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. I cannot do otherwise, here I stand, may God help me, Amen” (LW 32:112–13).

At this bold confession, the room erupted in noise. Some rejoiced; some demanded fire! Yet, in the midst of such commotion, the truth of Jesus Christ rang forth. The gates of Hades had not prevailed over the confession of the Gospel. The proclamation of justification by grace through faith on account of Christ’s work alone did not bend to spiritual tyranny.

On this third Sunday of Easter, sometimes called Good Shepherd Sunday, the same week of the Church Year in which Luther took his stand at Worms, it stands to reason that the same Epistle and Gospel readings we heard today were fresh in the mind of the reformer. The passage from John where Jesus says that He is the Good Shepherd no doubt granted comfort and strength as he took his stand on the Word of God as the foundation of the Christian faith and life. 

At Worms, Luther held fast the confession of his hope without wavering. He refused to be moved from his teaching except by the Holy Scriptures’ correction.  He was happy to let his sharper or exaggerated statements fall away.  But he could not discredit those writings that had rested on the Word of God because in the Scriptures we hear the voice and promise of the Good Shepherd, of Christ Himself — He who promised, who alone is trustworthy. 

Does this have some practical application for us today?  You bet it does!  The Gospel is under attack in our day and age as it was 500 years ago, and maybe even more. Where do we take our stand?  Where do you take your stand in your daily life?  Who do you listen to?  Do you conform to the words of the world?  Do you cave to the daily pressure to simply accept the sinful lies of transgenderism and homosexuality; of the cold-blooded murder that is called abortion; of the evil and the antichristian ideology of socialism; of evolution as the rejection of God’s creative will; and the list could go on and on. 

Repent.  Recant of your sin. Remember your confirmation vows, “Do you intend to continue steadfast in this confession and Church and to suffer all, even death, rather than fall away from it?  I do, by the grace of God.”  Remember the words of Hebrews 10:23–25: “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”  And when you find this too hard for you to do, too tiring, too complicated, too much, know that it is only by the grace of God, by the grace of the Good Shepherd who laid His life for you, has brought you into His flock and calls you by name and who keeps you faithful.

On Good Shepherd Sunday we are reminded what the Church stands for and what it stands on: Christ’s death and resurrection for the forgiveness of sins and the certainty of peace with God and eternal life in His name. Whatever political power struggles, social and ethical debates, or humanitarian disasters we must engage, our mission and existence does not begin or end there. We preach Jesus Christ crucified and raised for eternal salvation, by whom God justifies through faith alone by grace alone. That is the center and focus of the Holy Scriptures, to which every other scriptural truth in its own place also leads.  The Good Shepherd who laid down His life for the sheep and relentlessly pursues them, calling them into the one flock under the One Shepherd. In them we hear the voice of our Good Shepherd, who gathers us together as His flock, the Church. As Luther would later famously state in the Smalcald Articles, the Church is simply “Holy sheep and believers who hear the voice of their Good Shepherd.”  For it is only through the Word of God that sheep can hear the voice of the Good Shepherd, that they may know Him and be brought and kept into the flock of Christ. They hear, listen and discern His voice with faith. 

We stand in the footsteps of Martin Luther 500 years later to the very day. We do not stand on Luther, but we will gladly stand with him, firm on the testimony of the Holy Scriptures to confess the saving Gospel of Christ, our Good Shepherd, who died and rose, in whose name is forgiveness of sins for all people. Our Church’s purpose today is the very same as it has always been: to hear the voice of the Good Shepherd, to hold fast to the confession of Christ, to stand firm on this Word of God because it is the only comfort our consciences can find that profits eternally.  We stand boldly, proclaiming the One who has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. We stand boldly, renouncing the devil and all his works and all his ways. We stand, by the grace of God, steadfast and ready to suffer all rather than fall away. We stand boldly on the sure testimony of the Holy Scriptures alone as the source and norm of faith and life, to repent of sin and pride, and to trust in our Good Shepherd for the forgiveness of sins. In today’s cancel culture, the Gospel of Christ cannot be cancelled, not even the gates of hell can overcome Christ, and Christians need to stand firm before God Himself but also before the world, “Here I stand! I can do no other, may God help me. Amen.”