John places this teaching of Jesus about being the
good shepherd right after the story of
Jesus healing a blind man, but the Pharisees won’t accept that Jesus has been
given the gift of healing by God. They actually throw the healed man out of the
synagogue. Jesus finds the man and asks him a rather strange question, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” The healed man
wants to believe in him, so Jesus tells him, “You have
now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.” The man
worships Jesus and Jesus tells him, “For judgment I
have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will
become blind.”
Now there’s some Pharisees there and they realize that
Jesus is talking about them being the ones who see but who
are actually blind, so they ask, “What? Are we blind
too?” Jesus doesn’t pull any punches here, he wants them to be perfectly
clear about the consequences of rejecting him, “If you
were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see,
your guilt remains.” The Pharisees have no excuse for not recognizing
that Jesus is the Son of Man.
Daniel 7:13–14 gives us some insight into what Jesus is referring to when he refers to the Son of Man, “In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one
like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient
of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and
sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His
dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is
one that will never be destroyed.”
Hardin and Brown observe that “Daniel 7 is concerned with the encroaching
pressure among exiled Jews to worship the king of Babylon…. Daniel sees “one like a son of man, coming on the clouds of heaven”
… who is given privileges normally reserved for God: authority, glory,
sovereign power, the worship of men of every language, and an eternal kingdom. Daniel’s vision is one of suffering and exaltation…. Jesus
may have used Daniel’s “one like a son of man”
to communicate ideas of… suffering, enthronement, and authority.” In our passage this morning, Jesus is on the road
to the cross and he’s preparing his disciples for what’s coming, and gives them
glimpses of his power, hinting at the suffering that lies ahead.
Now John moves into Jesus’ teaching about who he is as the good shepherd, with the themes of authority
and suffering in the background. Jesus talks about robbers,
strangers, and thieves who come to steal and kill and destroy the sheep,
echoing Zechariah 10 which talks of how the sheep need a shepherd who will care
for the flock properly, “Ask the Lord for rain in the springtime; it is the Lord who
sends the thunderstorms. He gives showers of rain to all people, and plants of
the field to everyone. The idols speak deceitfully, diviners see visions that
lie; they tell dreams that are false, they give comfort in vain. Therefore, the
people wander like sheep oppressed for lack of a shepherd. “My anger burns
against the shepherds, and I will punish the leaders; for the Lord Almighty
will care for his flock, the people of Judah.” The Lord himself is coming
to be their shepherd, to care for them, to help them flourish again. Zechariah’s
talking to the people after their return from exile. You’d think they would be more
careful in listening to God and his ways after being in exile for not listening
to God, but they keep listening to idols and diviners: to bad shepherds, who
keep telling them lies instead of listening to the prophets God has sent. Zechariah
points to the coming of the Lord as Judah’s good shepherd.
In Advent we looked at Jesus as the good shepherd and reflected on how his sheep know his voice and
recognize him and how Jesus laid down his life for us. Today, we’ll dig deeper
into Jesus as the good shepherd. The people would make the connection of Jesus
to King David, the Shepherd King who wrote Psalm 23 “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters.
He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s
sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear
no evil; for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head
with oil; my cup runs over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the
days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” Phillip Keller, author of A Shepherd Looks at
Psalm 23 writes, “David in this psalm, is speaking not as a shepherd,
though he was one, but as a sheep, one of the flock. He spoke with a strong
sense of pride and devotion and admiration. It was as though he literally
boasted aloud, “Look at who my shepherd is—my owner—my manager! The Lord is!”
Keller goes on to marvel that “the Creator of this enormous universe of
overwhelming magnitude, deigns to call himself my Shepherd and invites me to
consider myself his sheep—his special object of affection and attention.”
Being a shepherd’s not an easy job. Sheep need an incredible amount of attention and care.
We’re like sheep in so many ways: we can be stubborn, we can be really dumb, we
can think ourselves so brave and yet in reality are timid and afraid; just
consider how difficult it is for many of us to share our faith in our good
shepherd with others. Sheep have some strange habits, and if we’re honest, we all
have our own strange habits, and yet our good shepherd still chooses us, buys
us, and makes us his own in a spirit of joy and delight. He takes care of us,
provides for us as a good shepherd provides places of safety, places to rest in
green pasture, providing for us. When we find ourselves in fear and worry, in
strife or conflict, our good shepherd guides us to still quiet waters to be
refreshed and to rest.
Keller notes that the master in people’s lives makes the difference in their destiny, where they end
up. I’ve had a number of wise caring people who have offered me guidance over
the years and have always reminded me that the first person I need to keep
looking to is Jesus. He’s the shepherd I need to always keep listening to. Paul
encourages Timothy, “For God has not given us a spirit
of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” This spirit of
power and fear comes from the Holy Spirit, a gift from our good shepherd. The
Holy Spirit helps us to listen for, and recognize the voice of the shepherd,
especially when we’ve followed our noses and stomachs and unwittingly wandered
away. That moment of fear of not seeing our shepherd is calmed when we hear the
voice of the shepherd come close.
Sheep require more handling and direction than any
other livestock. Without a conscientious
shepherd, the flock would easily overgraze their area, keep going back to the
same places, eating the grass right down to the roots, destroying the fields.
The shepherd has to keep guiding them to fresh field and clean water, otherwise
they become sick and waste away. The shepherd has to be aware of their
destructive habits and to keep them on the move in what Keller calls, “a
predetermined plan of action, a deliberate, planned rotation from one grazing
ground to another in line with right and proper principles of sound management.”
This speaks to our own tendency to simply repeat our own habits, whether good
or bad. We need to keep our ears and hearts open to our shepherd’s guidance
into new ways of living as his sheep so we can grow and flourish, trusting his
guidance. Sometimes our habits devotionally can become just a habit and we lose
sight of our shepherd and who he’s leading us to become as his sheep. Our faith
life can be more habit than obedience.
Phillip Keller shares how sheep often fight among
themselves, that rivalries and jealousy are
not uncommon, and yet “the shepherd’s presence puts an end to all rivalry.”
He noticed how “the less aggressive sheep were often far more contented,
quiet, and restful,” which reminds me of Paul’s encouragement to the
Thessalonians to “make it your ambition to lead a quiet
life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told
you, so that your daily life many win the respect of outsiders and so that you
will not be dependent on anyone.” When we’re attuned to our shepherd’s
voice and presence, we find contentment and peace, even when we walk through
hard times and feel overwhelmed by life.
The good shepherd restores our
souls. When we look to Jesus as our
good shepherd, we see how his willingness to lay down his life for us, his
obedience to his Father’s will and plan to restore us to the Father through the
cross, washing away our sin. But there’s more to this image, Jesus restores and
brings healing to our souls when we go through times of sorrow, times of doubt
and fear, times of loneliness, times when we walk through the valley of the
shadow of death. Shepherds tend to the hurts of the sheep; they will carry a
lamb or sheep when they’re unable to go any further. There is something so
personal in Jesus calling himself the good shepherd and claiming us as his
sheep. He knows our names; he knows us, even the us that we wish he didn’t
know, and yet he still claims us as his, takes responsibility for us.
There is so much more to Jesus as our good shepherd, but the big and most important questions is, do you know this good
shepherd as yours?
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