Jesus is....the Good Shepherd

 When I was in high school, I had an English teacher who was pretty fierce.  Her nickname, which she bore gladly, was “Evil Woman.”  She wasn’t really evil, we happen to still be close today. But she was a strict teacher and she didn’t cut any corners for her students.  In writing, she would regularly tell us, “Show don’t tell.”  She wanted us to use descriptions to convey our point, not just statements of fact.  People believe stories. They are compelled by illustrations.  Words are just words until they come alive. 

So when someone asks the question, “What is Jesus like?” We could tell them…he is kind, he is loving, he is inclusive, he is generous, he is humble, he is devoted.  Or we could show them…he is the bread of life.  He is the light of the world. He is the good shepherd.  The titles help us remember, but the stories show us who Jesus was. 

This story of the good shepherd shows us quite a lot about the nature of Jesus.  This story tells us Jesus is the shepherd and the gate. He is the one who tends the flock, and the one who lets them into a safe place for rest and protection.  Jesus is the protector, the caregiver, and the provider.  He comes to us to protect us from harm, to shield us from danger, and to care for us in all of our needs.  And where others would cut and run, he’d risk anything fighting for us because our lives matter even more than his.  That’s the nature of Jesus. 

So the bigger question becomes—why does he do it?  Verse 10 tells us, “I have come that they may have life and have it abundantly.” Jesus watches over us and cares for us not so he can profit and gain but so we can—so that we might have life and have it abundantly. The purpose of his existence, the value of his sacrifice is not for his sake, but for ours. 

He doesn’t want us to simply live, he wants us to flourish. He doesn’t want us just getting by—he wants us to be successful and fruitful.  We’re on board with that, right? So how do we get from here to there? How do we get from the mess that life offers to the abundance Jesus died for? 

We seek after him. He is the good shepherd—that means we have to follow him.  We have to heed his voice and follow his instructions. We have to go with him.  You see the shepherd can’t protect us if we refused to be near him.  We have to choose to follow the shepherd and let him lead in our lives. 

The benefit is when we are near, he cares for us, he comforts us.  A lot of people wonder how they are going to get through a particular trial or struggle. And the cliché answer is to draw close to Jesus.  But, the truth is, if we understand the nature of Jesus as good shepherd, we’d know that it’s not just a cliché, but that drawing near to him would give us peace and assurance. His voice is reassuring. He takes away our fears.  He holds us close to protect us.  I don’t mean to sound overly simplistic or like I’m throwing platitudes at you.  But I’ve experienced the peace and comfort of Christ and it’s worth having.  I’ve had a lot of moments where I was scared to death and the thing that has always helped me is prayer.  Now, I can’t explain why or how prayer works, I only know that it does.  And I know that in the scariest moment of my life, when I was rushed into an OR because Ruth was at risk when I was pregnant and they performed an emergency c-section, I needed prayer. I was petrified.  It was one of the worst experiences of my life. And I was so scared.  Rick was out of the room and the doctors were there doing 100 things to me to get me ready for surgery and I didn’t understand it all and I couldn’t control any of it, and I was scared.  I was given the meds and put on oxygen so I couldn’t talk even when Rick was allowed in.  Fear just took over.  When she came she was purple and the NICU team was already there to work on her.  There was just more fear.  It was awful and I couldn’t name it in the midst of the chaos, but afterward I knew, if that ever happens again, just pray with me.  Just say the Lord’s prayer and pray with me.  Sing the old hymns and pray with me.  There is comfort there. There is something familiar that draws me into the presence and power of God in a way that nothing else can. 

Now, there are other ways to draw close to Jesus.  Different ways will work better for different people.   We can go to him—in worship, in study to get familiar with his voice, in spending time with others who are near to him, in being in nature,  in giving to others, through music—through any of the means of grace.  And in him we can find solace and refuge from the stress and struggle of life. 

Now there are others who aren’t so invested in our welfare. Actually, they’d much rather profit from our struggles than help us through them.  They’re out to steal our joy, our strength, and our peace.  Those are the bandits. Now, they may not have a name, but they’re out there.  Bandits may be people, or they may be situations. They may be stressors, or temptations, or distractions.  They take our attention and draw us away from the shepherd. 

Remember, the bandits, whoever they may be in each of our lives, only seek to steal, kill, and destroy.  Their goal is not to build us up.  They want what’s ours. And the easiest way to get us to let it go is to convince us we don’t deserve it in the first place.  The bandits in life will denigrate us so we wouldn’t even dare believe, let alone trust, that someone like Jesus really cares about us and would do anything for us.  The bandits tell us we’re useless and worthless. They tell us we’re lazy, stupid, hopeless, and ignorant. They call us failures before we even try. They tell us we are unworthy, undeserving, and unimportant.  And most of us buy it.  Not all the words at once. We don’t have to believe it all. We just have to believe one or two for the bandits to gain power.  And unfortunately, we believe them.  We aren’t good enough, smart enough, thin enough, successful enough—we just plain don’t measure up—or so says the bandit. 

But the shepherd says something very different. He says we’re precious, important, and valuable.  We like those words, but after we’ve bought into all the other stuff, they just wash right over us. But the good shepherd tells us to stop and listen—he has a truth for us and the truth is we are so important, so incredibly valuable that there isn’t anything he wouldn’t try and do to help us and protect us.  He tells us over and over and over again:

You are worthy.

You are important.

You are beloved.

You are enough.

And as we seek after him, we have to let the other words go. We have to let Jesus’ truth speak into our lives.  We have to stop confusing his voice with other voices and their lies with his truth. We have to claim his truth for ourselves:

I am worthy.

I am important. 

I am beloved.

I am smart enough.

I am successful.

I am enough.

Remember the shepherd came and does what he does SO THAT you might have life and have it abundantly.  The question is will you choose to follow him and claim his truth for yourself?