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Or ask at the Hub for a printed copy. Taken from the Luther’s Small Catechism with Explanation, CPH, 2017)

by Faye Schmidt

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… by his wounds you have been healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls (1 Peter 2:24b,25).

Read 1 Peter 2:11–25

If you are wounded, you expect that your wound will heal – your wound. But our text tells us that while Jesus is the wounded one, we are the ones who are healed. We are the beneficiaries of his sufferings: the beatings, mockery, nails, spear and lash … all those wounds, so that we may be healed.

While Jesus’ wounds may have healed, the evidence of them did not go away. We read in John 20:27: ‘Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”’

This healing, which is God’s gift to us, is in the form of freedom from the consequences of our sins and the power that sin holds over us.

As we repent of our sins in the knowledge of God’s forgiveness, we ‘return to the shepherd and overseer of our souls’ (verse 25). We are now equipped through the Holy Spirit to strive to live a life of righteousness – that is, being right with God and living a life worthy of the love and grace given to us through Jesus’ suffering.

While Jesus suffered for us and took our sins to the depths with him, we live in the knowledge of the resurrection that is our hope that as we share in Jesus’ death, we also share in his resurrection and eternal life with him.

Heavenly Father, grant me again your forgiveness. Give me faith to lay hold of your holiness and so rejoice in the righteousness of Christ my Saviour that, resting on his merits rather than my own, I may more and more become like him for his name’s sake. Amen.

Faye Schmidt continues her diaconal calling through governance, having served on the Vic–Tas District Church Board, the General Church Board and currently as chair of her congregation, Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Adelaide. Having lived and worked in many locations within Australia and overseas, Faye has a heart for the stranger and the newcomer and for being open to new ideas, learning from others and responding to needs.