By Brother Guy Ames
“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” John 10:11
Have you ever visited a shepherd or seen sheep being sheared? Have you ever watched a sheep dog work a flock of sheep or heard the bleating cries during lambing season? Most of us are removed from the world of sheep. For Jesus and the first century Israelites, sheep and shepherds were everywhere. No wonder the Bible refers to God as Shepherd.
In Jesus’ day, shepherds were the most common industry in Southern Israel. The Judean wilderness, filled with rocky, mountainous terrain, still is mostly good only for vineyards, olive orchards, and – sheep. Bedouin shepherds still herd their flocks in the same rocky terrain that those Christmas shepherds sat “watching their flocks by night.” Shepherds are all over the Bible: Moses, David, and Amos among them; both Isaiah and Ezekiel refer to Israel as sheep needing a shepherd.
Jesus had just completed the healing a blind man he met along the way, which caused tremendous consternation among the religious leaders who couldn’t imagine that a man (Jesus) could heal and questioned giving him credit for this miracle. Jesus answers them: “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.” (John 9:39) Remembering that the Old Testament prophets referred to Israel as sheep in need of a Shepherd he builds on this declaring, “I am the good shepherd.”
Sheep being vulnerable in the open range of Southern Judea needed safety and security. At night the shepherd created an enclosure, a “fence” to protect the sheep, and then would lay across the opening (the gate) to prevent sheep from leaving or to catch any predator (human or animal) trying to invade the flock. The shepherd provided safety for the flock and security for each sheep. The relationship between sheep and shepherd allowed the shepherd to keep track of each lamb in the flock, as sheep knew and responded to the shepherd’s voice, and knew the shepherd by sight when called. Watching a YouTube video of shepherds calling their flock you notice that they only respond to their shepherd’s voice and none other. This is the picture Jesus paints in his story of the lost sheep. Knowing each sheep, he knew one was missing and left both his safety and the flock to find the one that was lost.
Jesus said, “I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it (abundantly)… “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me—just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep” (John 10:9-10, 14-15).
Jesus, our Shepherd, knows each of us. Scripture says that God calls us by name; this is not a distant, judgmental god, but God whom the psalmist says has known us before our conception, who knows our “going out and our coming in.” Like David’s psalm 23 – “the Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.” Jesus, God in the flesh, has come to walk among us, to heal our broken spirits, to bring us into relationship with God, and to keep us even during the most difficult of times. “Though I walk in the shadow of the valley of death, I fear no evil…” Why? Because the One who knows us best and calls us by name, knows us, knows our need, and offers us a life in his peace. “We are like sheep,” Isaiah wrote, “who have gone astray..” Indeed, our world and our lives are invaded by other voices who don’t know us or care for us, who lead us astray and our tendency is to follow those other voices. Thank God for a Savior who, like the shepherd brings us out of those valleys and back into the places of peace and joy and salvation; this Savior/Great Shepherd will abandon all to come and rescue us. Yes, and through the cross, Jesus has done just that! Who else loves us like this? Have you felt lost? Do you need to be brought back to the (sheep)fold? Jesus, the Good Shepherd, opens his arms, picks us up and brings us home, and all heaven rejoices.
“For he walks with me and he talks with me; And he tells me I am his own. And the joy we share as we tarry there; None other has ever known!”
Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you that out of your great mercy you have laid down your life on the cross on our behalf that we might know the true peace that comes from God. We pray for those who have become entangled by other voices that have attracted them away from your path and pray that you will surround these whom we name even now with your love and presence, so that they may fully surrender themselves to your Lordship. And even now, we surrender our lives and will over to you, knowing that by following you we may come into the abundant life and live with you and all the saints in the life to come. In the name of Jesus, who Is Lord. Amen.
