Our Sacrifice and Shepherd
Second after Easter
Text: 1 Peter 2:24,25
Here is the part of God’s Word I want us to consider this morning, 1 Peter 2:24,25: He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
What would Jesus do? That is what many people think Christianity is all about. Jesus is our Example. We should think as he thought, live as he lived, do as he did. And, yes Jesus is our Example. Peter says so: “Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.” Peter is writing to Christians who suffer under unjust authority: citizens living under pagan government, servants working in households with harsh masters, wives living with unbelieving husbands. Peter says Jesus is our Example. Be like him when you suffer.
But Peter does not leave it at that. Jesus is much more than our Example. He is our Sacrifice and our Shepherd.
1. Jesus is our Sacrifice.
“He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree.” There was an elaborate sacrificial system in the Old Testament. At the heart of it was how to deal with sin. An animal, such as a bull, or goat, or sheep, was chosen and taken to the altar. The person offering the sacrifice confessed his sins over the animal. That symbolically transferred the guilt of the sinner onto the animal. We can imagine a sinner saying, “I have sinned. I have broken the commandments. I have not loved God with my whole heart and my neighbor as myself.” Then the priest would plunge a knife into the body of the animal. The animal would bleed out. Then the priest would put the body on the altar where it would be consumed by fire. The animal died in the place of the sinner. However, the writer of Hebrews tells us “...it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” (Hebrews 10:4). Those sacrifices could only point to the Sacrifice that takes away the sins of the world. Jesus took our sins on himself and died in our place.
But Jesus was not placed on an altar. He died on a cross. His body hung on a tree. That is very important. God told his Old Testament people: “And if a man has committed a crime punishable by death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God” (Deuteronomy 21:22,23). A man who was executed and whose body hung on a tree died under the curse of God. This is one of the stumbling blocks that kept Paul and other Jews from considering if Jesus might be the Messiah. How could the Messiah hang on a tree and die under God’s curse?
Have you ever wondered why Jesus cried out on the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” It was because Jesus was dying the cursed death for sins on the cross. Whose sins? Peter says, “(Jesus) committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth” (1 Peter 2:22). When Jesus died our sins were transferred to him, and he suffered the penalty our sins deserve. He died in the outer darkness cut off from the mercy of God, under God’s curse. Paul came to see this and wrote: “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree” (Galatians 3:13).
Some of us probably grew up singing, “What can wash away my sin?” an answering, “Nothing but the blood of Jesus.” And perhaps the words of the Anglican poet William Cowper, “There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel’s veins, and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.” Sin makes us guilty before God. Sin brings down on us the curse of God. But Jesus took our guilt and died the cursed death we deserve. He is God’s sacrifice for sin.
Why? “that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.” Our natural condition is that we are alive to sin and dead to righteousness. We are sinners by nature and by conduct. We cannot do anything that is truly righteous as God judges righteousness. But Jesus took our sins into his own body and died under God’s curse so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.” When we put our faith in Jesus and his sacrificial death for ours sins, we die to the power of sin to condemn us and send us to hell. We become alive to the righteousness that is in Christ. We are freed from the guilt and curse of our sins, and God treats us as though we possessed the perfect righteousness of Christ.
It is our death to sin’s curse and this coming alive to righteousness that makes it possible for us to begin to live lives that please God. The death of Jesus enables us to die to sin’s controlling power and and to come alive to the renewing power of God’s righteousness. Sin is a lying dictator. It promises us life and pleasure. It tells us that doing God’s will is not in our best interests. But Christ died so that, freed from sin’s condemning power, we no longer have to do what sin tells us to do but are able gladly to conform our lives to the righteous life of which Jesus is the Example.
And, “By his wounds (we) have been healed.” What does Peter mean? He is thinking of the prophet Isaiah who makes it clear what the sufferings and death of Jesus accomplished: “But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The chastisement that was necessary for us to have peace with God was laid on him. His wounds are those that heal us from the chronic and incurable sickness of sin the infects every part of us. The worst sickness we have is not the physical ailments we have and which one day will take our lives. The worst sickness is the sickness of sin. The wounds of Jesus heal us from sin’s power to condemn and control us.
Jesus died with the guilt of our sins laid upon him. He died on the cross under God’s curse. He died that we may die to the curse of sin and come alive to the blessing of Christ’s righteousness. He suffered that we might be healed from fatal disease of sin.
2. Jesus is our Shepherd.
Jesus is not only our Sacrifice. He is our Shepherd. We were straying like sheep, but have now we have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls. Again Peter is thinking about the prophecy of Isaiah: “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6).
We may think that what we need most is to be under our own control. This, we think, is freedom - doing what we want to do. But Peter and Isaiah tell us that freedom is an illusion. This kind of freedom is like the freedom of sheep who have no shepherd. They do not know where to go to find food, water, and safety. They need a Shepherd to guide them, provide for them, and protect them.
If we are left to ourselves we will make a ruin of our own lives. We may not perceive it at first or for a very long time, but, if we do what we want, we are headed for danger and ultimately destruction. But Jesus is our Shepherd. He is the Good Shepherd who laid down his life in order to save ours. He is the Shepherd who knows us personally and intimately. He calls us by our individual names to be his sheep. We hear his voice, and we follow him. He unites us to his flock, the church, which he loves and died for. He leads us to green pastures where there is wholesome spiritual food and to quiet waters where there is refreshing spiritual drink.
When our path leads us to dark valleys - valleys where there may be danger lurking, valleys where we face the unknown, valleys that make us afraid - we will not be alone. He will be with his. His rod by which he protects us and his staff by which he leads us will comfort us. And, when at last we must walk through that last dark valley that leads from this world to the world to come, he will be there with us, to protect us, and to guide us safely home.
He is not only our Shepherd, but our Overseer or Bishop. Shuler and I are under the oversight of our Bishops. Our Bishops are our pastors who care about us, watch over us, and protect us. Bishops also watch over the churches, the people of God whom we serve, in the same way.
But our Bishops are “under-Bishops.” Jesus is the true Bishop or Overseer of our souls. When we were children, our parents were our overseers - they watched over us. If we had good parents, they loved us, provided for us, protected us, disciplined us, and guided us. Good parents are not harsh but tender overseers whose great concern is the true welfare of their children. Sometimes, as adults, we long for the days when we had parental overseers.
We wish there were someone to watch over us, to care about us, to protect us, to make sure we are OK. When I was a child I learned that my Daddy was trustworthy, that he was absolutely committed to me. As an adult, sometimes when I was in trouble I would call him and just hearing his voice would comfort me.
You may have been disappointed to find that someone you thought cared about you and would watch over you for your good is not there. My Daddy is not there because cancer took him away from me. But there is One who will watch over you everywhere you go, day and night, twenty-four seven, no matter what. That is Jesus.
After Jesus fed the Five Thousand he made his disciples get into their boat and set out across the Sea of Galilee, while he stayed to pray. It was a tough night on the sea for the disciples as they sailed against a contrary wind and waves. But Mark tells us something important. From the mountainside where he was praying “(Jesus) saw that they were making headway painfully for the wind was against them” (Mark 6:48). They thought they were on their own but Jesus was watching over them. He went to them walking on the water, and when they became terrified because they thought they were seeing a ghost, he said, “Take heart; it is I; do not be afraid” (Mark 6:50). It may feel to us that we are on our own with no one watching over us, but Jesus is always watching over us. He comes to us by his Word and the sacraments, made alive by the Holy Spirit, and says, “I am here; I am with you. It’s OK. Don’t be afraid.”
We were wandering astray, but we have returned to Jesus our Shepherd and Bishop. We did that when we first put our faith in Jesus as our Savior and Lord. But we have strayed since. Peter knew that. On the night Jesus was betrayed Peter was very confident that he would never forsake Jesus. He believed he would die for Jesus. But, when Jesus was arrested, Peter, like the rest of the disciples, ran away. Eventually he made his way to the courtyard of the house where Jesus was being tried by the Jewish authorities. Three times he was questioned about his relationship with Jesus, and three times he denied his Lord. Peter went astray. But Jesus, the Good Shepherd, after his resurrection found Peter on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, and gently led him back to the Shepherd and Bishop of his soul.
That’s one of the most wonderful things about Jesus. When we stray, he goes and finds us, and we brings back. How often can you return to Jesus, your Shepherd and Bishop? As often as you wander astray.
Perhaps that is the word he is speaking to you now. He says, “You’ve wandered away. But I have not rejected you or given up on you. Come back to me. Come back to the flock from which you’ve wandered. It’s OK. It’s not too late. I am still the Good Shepherd. I am still the caring Overseer of your soul.”
