The Good Shepherd

“Jesus said, "Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers." Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.

So again Jesus said to them, "Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly (John 10:1-10)."

In Philo’s, Life of Moses ( 1.60-62), a kid (a baby sheep) from Moses’ flock wanders away from the herd. Moses follows at a distance and watches the kid stop to drink water. After the kid finishes, Moses full of compassion and mercy, without anger, picks up the kid gently and carries it back to the herd. Because of this tendency toward mercy God chooses Moses and declares that he will be the shepherd of his people Israel and lead them from out of bondage and into liberation. Throughout the Old Testament and in other cultures of the ancient world the image of the shepherd is used to describe one who is a protector, a caregiver, a defender, a leader. One of the first Christian images was not of Christ on the Cross (the Crucifixion) or of the Crowned Risen Christ (the Christus Rex) but of Jesus as a shepherd boy bearing a kid across his shoulders.

Those who belong to Christ recognize that Jesus Christ is our protector, caregiver, defender, and leader. And like Moses who led God’s people Israel it is Jesus who leads us out of the bondage of sin and death and into righteousness and life. It is Jesus who calls us to follow him.

We hate to follow. It seems un-modern. It seems un-American. It seems wrong not follow our own counsel or follow our own lead. We hate to have to trust someone else and put our fate into their hands. We are the captains of our own fate. We don’t need leaders. We don’t want shepherds. We despise authority. Many people in our culture say such when they state with pride that “they don’t believe in organized religion”. (Do they believe in disorganized religion?) However, when we try to live our lives without trusting others and even without trusting God we often find that our lives become unanchored and rootless and that we can become faithless and lost. We live in a culture where people will choose to live desperate lives rather than the life that God offers.

So what is the life that Jesus offers? Jesus offers us a fully human life. He offers us a life that becomes full of promise and hope. Jesus reveals that it is only when we have an intimate connection with God that our life blossoms into the life God has created for us. Jesus is the only one who can reveal and lead us into that life. Modern day gurus and the founders of fictitious belief systems may charge us thousands upon thousands of dollars so we “can find ourselves” and dangerously fanatical leaders may convince the hopeless and the fervent to maim and kill in the name of God and for salvation’s sake, but Jesus offers a life that is not only life-giving to us but is also life-giving to others. Yet, we can only live into this life if we accept that Jesus is our shepherd. We can live into this fully human life when we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior and allow God’s self-revelation in Jesus Christ to impact, inform, and nurture our lives at home, work, and play. Jesus does not want thousands upon thousands of dollars nor does he want to destroy and corrupt our wisdom and conscious but he does want our entire life.

Jesus wants to be the shepherd of our entire lives. He wants to be the Lord of all that is best in us and all that is worst in us and everything else in between. Jesus wants to transform, bless, and redeem both our private and our public lives. And even though we like to hang on to the lives we now have with a death grip, the promise of a life holding onto Jesus with a “life grip” can lead to an experiencing of God filled with life and power-The Reverend Adrian A. Amaya.