June 10, 2025 

Today's Reading: John 10:1-10

Daily Lectionary: Numbers 22:21-23:3; Luke 22:24-46

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. 

When folks look around the sheepfold, it’s a lot easier to find the robbers than the Lord. Jesus says, “The thief comes to steal and kill and destroy.” That part, I see. That part we can’t miss. The death. The destruction. The evil that doesn’t just persist in a world of chance where storms and plagues come and go. There are the evils men do to each other. Sometimes even in the name of religion. Our Lord never contends the robbers being present. He warns us about them. Expect them. They're actually a sign you're in the right place. That He won’t chase them out is the cause of all kinds of frustration, but He promises something even more peculiar.  

Jesus doesn’t stand back from what’s wrong. He doesn’t demand we earn His favor to fix it. He doesn’t promise a perfect world. He promises the cross. He promises to come to the sheep. To rescue them. To carry the lost and bind up the wounded. He comes to make the dead live. He comes to bear the cross, not for the righteous, but for sinners. He came to die for you and for me. He came to be the lightning rod for everything wrong so we could finally stop pretending things were fine, blaming each other for what’s wrong, and desperately trying to fix it without success. We cast each sin and evil upon the cross, where God bears them to the bitter end for us. And we hear the voice of the shepherd. It is finished. Your sins are forgiven you. Death is destroyed. And Jesus is risen from the grave.  

Understand what the resurrection means. It is an apologetic of hope. Evil raged as hard as it could and still failed to keep Jesus dead. This is a religion carried forward on the backs of martyrs, not afraid to die because they saw someone prove it’s not so permanent. They died alone and afraid. They saw what the robbers and thieves could do. And they sang hymns about the shepherd while they died at the hands of the thieves. And even here, Jesus leads them through the door. From the cross to the empty tomb. He rose. They live. And that’s beautiful. And it’s something that we can still hear today. The shepherd still speaks. He sends his undershepherds. They preach the gospel. There will still be others. Robbers. Don’t hear them. They speak of not Jesus. But we’ll sing hymns no matter what because the measure of our hope is still the voice of the risen shepherd.  

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Perverse and foolish oft I strayed, But yet in love He sought me And on His shoulder gently laid And home rejoicing brought me (LSB 709:3)

- Rev. Harrison Goodman, Higher Things Executive Director of Mission and Theology.

Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Jonathan Lackey is the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, Vine Grove, KY.

In Clarifying the Great Commission, Rev. Daniel Christian Voth identifies common omissions from our collective understanding of Jesus’ farewell discourse—omissions that turn Christ’s promises of forgiveness, life, and salvation into a legalistic command. Come and discover a richer understanding of The Great Commission.