To our faith the fact is presented that Christ is the Shepherd, the only one who lays down His life for His sheep. No human being, no saint, no angel could accomplish the great work of redeeming fallen man, whom the devil, through the sin committed in paradise, had hurled into death; Christ alone could be this Redeemer through His death. This was this Shepherd’s proper work, which no one else can imitate, as little as any other of His works done for our salvation can be equaled. No one can therefore appropriate to himself the words which Christ here uses: “I am the good Shepherd: the good Shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.” With these words He would teach us to trust in Him, to regard the sufferings of all the saints as naught when compared with His sufferings in our behalf. Moses, the prophets and the apostles were eminent men, true and watchful shepherds and rulers among the people of God; they taught and preached aright what it behooved men to believe and to do; they also suffered much on that account, the most of them even dying the martyr’s death; yet notwithstanding all this they can in no wise be compared with Christ. He is the Only Begotten of the Father, the Lord of glory, the true and only Shepherd over all, who from the foundation of the world spake through the patriarchs and the prophets, and in the fullness of time became man, revealing His Father’s will. He indeed “laid down His life for the sheep,” for all who believe in Him, who trust in Him in life and in death, assured that in Him there is redemption from the power of the devil who held the whole human race in the bondage of sin and death. He also established an everlasting Church throughout the world, and keeps it through His Word, continually increasing her boundaries, that His name may be hallowed and worshiped and confessed. To this end He gave unto the Church His Holy Spirit, the Comforter, who protects her by power divine against the wrath, fury and murderous assaults of the devil and his servants. And though very many lose their life as martyrs of their faith and confession now, yet will they, in the great day of resurrection, be brought by Him into life eternal with all the elect, where there is inexpressible joy and happiness unalloyed; and this to the utter confusion and everlasting shame of His enemies and theirs. (Luther’s House Postil, Second Sunday after Easter, Volume 2, p. 526-527)

These are most precious words, by which Christ invests the disciples with the office of preaching, making arrangements for the application of the glorious results of His sufferings and resurrection. For if this great occurrence had not been preached in its various bearings, if it had remained a mere historical event, it would have been of no avail for us. This we learn from the condition of the Papists. They are acquainted with the event and its record as well as we, but they do not preach it as Christ directs; hence their mere historical knowledge of it benefits them no more than if it were the story of Dietrich of Bern, which one hears and learns; they have simply the recollection of the occurrence. It is therefore absolutely necessary to make a proper use of the narrative of Christ’s sufferings and resurrection. How to do this we learn from the words of the Lord Himself when He says: “As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.” And how the Father sent Christ was described long ago by the prophet Isaiah in the 61. chapter, where it reads: “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; He hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” With such instructions Christ was sent, and now declares that in no other way will He send His disciples. He entrusts to them the office of preaching, that it may remain in force even to the end of time, and He orders them to preach just as He preached while in the flesh. This command then, and this mission to preach, has reference only to the doctrine to be taught; the disciples are instructed to preach no other doctrine than that which Christ Himself proclaimed.  (Luther’s House Postil, First Sunday after Easter John 20:19-31, Volume 2, p. 515)

This glorious victory we celebrate today. Above all we must firmly believe that in Christ there was a contest between God and the devil, between righteousness and sin, between life and death, between that which is good and that which is evil, between purity and all manner of corruption, and that the triumph was on the side of God. This scene we ought to cherish fondly and earnestly, and often to contemplate. In the former scene of suffering and death we witnessed our sin, our sentence of condemnation and death resting heavily upon Christ, making Him a distressed, pitiable Man; now, on Easter, we have the other scene unalloyed with sin; no curse, no frown, no death is visible; it is all life, mercy, happiness and righteousness in Christ. This picture can and should cheer our hearts. We should regard it with no other feeling but that today God brings us also to life with Christ. We should firmly believe that as we see no sin nor death nor condemnation in Christ, so God will also, for Christ’s sake, consider us free from these if we faithfully rely upon His Son and depend upon His resurrection. Such a blessing we derive from faith. The day will come, however, when faith shall be lost in sight and full fruition.

Nevertheless, while we are here on earth sin, death, disgrace and reproach, and all kinds of wants and infirmities remain with us, and we must patiently bear them. These all relate, however, only to the flesh; for in our faith we are already happy. As Christ arose from the dead, and has a life eternal, free from sin and death, so have we these treasures in faith. And as surely as the devil could not prevail against Christ, but had to flee, so surely will he also flee from the Christian who believes. In the end our body will also be perfected, so that neither sin nor death can have power over it. For the present we are as weak and sinful as other people, only that we strive to shun open and gross sins. It is true, Christians may also, now and then, be guilty of these, but they remain not in them; they flee them again through earnest repentance, and obtain through faith forgiveness of all their sins. (Luther’s House Postil, First Easter Sermon, The Power and the Benefit of the Resurrection of Christ Matthew 28:1-10, Volume 2, p. 492-493)

In the strength of this faith the early Christians composed and sang in Latin and German so charmingly and truly: “Christ is arisen from the grave’s dark prison. So let our song exulting rise.” {LW 124} And again: “The Lamb the sheep has ransomed; Christ, who only is sinless, Reconciling sinners to the Father. Death and life have contended in that combat stupendous: The Prince of life, who died, reigns immortal.” {LW 10} Whoever composed these old hymns must certainly have had a proper and Christian conception of the great event, else he could not have depicted so skillfully the scene when death assaulted life, and when the devil madly rushed against it. Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ permitted Himself to be slain; yet death was much mistaken in his aim; for the life in this Person whom he attacked was eternal. Death was not aware of this, that an eternal and divine power was enclosed in the mortal body, and was vanquished in the tilt; he attacked Him who cannot die, though He did die on the cross. For as surely as the human nature in Christ was dead, His divine nature was incapable of death, though it was so concealed in Him during His passion and death, as our old teachers represent it, that it manifested itself in no wise, and this for the very purpose that Christ might die. Death did all that he could do; but since the Lord, according to His divine nature, is life itself, He could not remain dead, but freed Himself from death and ail his auxiliaries, vanquished sin and Satan, and now rules in a new life, exempt from all disturbance of sin, the devil, and death. This is indeed a strange, perplexing declaration: Christ, though He died, still liveth, and by His dying despoiled death of all his power. Reason cannot comprehend this; it is a matter of faith. But to us it is a source of great comfort to know and to believe that death has lost his reign, and that we owe this, praise be to God, to that One whom death attacks and overcomes as he does all mortals, but whom he cannot hold; for, in the struggle ensuing, death himself perishes and is swallowed up, while Christ, who had died, lives and reigns forever. (Luther’s House Postil, First Easter Sermon, The Power and the Benefit of the Resurrection of Christ Matthew 28:1-10, Volume 2, p. 490-491)

The other scene presents to us Christ no longer in woe and misery, weighed down with the ponderous mass of our sins, which God has laid upon Him, but beautiful, glorious and rejoicing; for all the sins have disappeared from Him. From this we have a right to conclude: If our sins, on account of the sufferings of Christ, lie no longer upon us, but are taken from our shoulders by God Himself and placed upon His Son, and if on Easter, after the resurrection, they are no more to be seen, where then are they? Micah truly says: They are sunk into the depth of the sea, and no devil nor any body else shall find them again. This article of our faith is glorious and blessed; whoever holds it not is no Christian; yet all the world reviles, slanders and abuses it. The Pope and his cardinals generally treat even this narrative as a fable to be laughed at; they are full-grown Epicureans, who smile with scorn when told of an eternal life to come. Our nobility, our burghers and our peasants also, believe in a future life, rather from custom than from true conviction, else they would act otherwise and not busy themselves solely with the cares, honors and employments of this temporal life, but would rather seek after that which is eternal. But we may preach and explain as we will, the world regards it all as foolishness. Thus we see that this article meets with opposition on every side; even they who possess and believe the Word of God do not take it to heart as earnestly as they should.
If we desire to be true Christians it is necessary for us firmly to establish in our hearts through faith this article, that Christ, who bore our sins upon the cross and died in payment for them, arose again from the dead for our justification. The more firmly we believe this, the more will our hearts rejoice and be comforted. For it is impossible not to be glad when we see
Christ alive, a pure and beautiful being, who before, on account of our sins, was wretched and pitiable in death and in the grave. We are now convinced that our transgressions are removed and forever put away. (Luther’s House Postil, First Easter Sermon, The Power and the Benefit of the Resurrection of Christ Matthew 28:1-10, Volume 2, p. 489-490)