I AM (#4): The Good Shepherd
October 23, 2023
John 10:11-18 | 1 Samuel 17:32-37
We’ve got back-to-back shepherd-sheep images yesterday and today (it’s actually the same conversation). However distant it may be from our experience today, it’s a strong and lasting image in the scriptures from Abel in Genesis to Christ the sacrificed lamb in Revelation. Abraham, Jacob, Moses, David, and Amos - they all keep flocks (among other people in the Bible).
If you’ve heard this passage your whole life - that Jesus is the good shepherd - you might take it for granted that an actual shepherd would actually die for the sheep. Is that true? Most of today’s commerce and industry would not go to such lengths. The standard belief would be that our jobs should never kill us, right?
Jesus is making a statement here, one that he will live up to.
John 10:11-18
“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. When the hired hand sees the wolf coming, he leaves the sheep and runs away. That’s because he isn’t the shepherd; the sheep aren’t really his. So the wolf attacks the sheep and scatters them. He’s only a hired hand and the sheep don’t matter to him.
“I am the good shepherd. I know my own sheep and they know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. I give up my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that don’t belong to this sheep pen. I must lead them too. They will listen to my voice and there will be one flock, with one shepherd.
“This is why the Father loves me: I give up my life so that I can take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I give it up because I want to. I have the right to give it up, and I have the right to take it up again. I received this commandment from my Father.”
1 Samuel 17:32-37
“Don’t let anyone lose courage because of this Philistine!” David told Saul. “I, your servant, will go out and fight him!”
“You can’t go out and fight this Philistine,” Saul answered David. “You are still a boy. But he’s been a warrior since he was a boy!”
“Your servant has kept his father’s sheep,” David replied to Saul, “and if ever a lion or a bear came and carried off one of the flock, I would go after it, strike it, and rescue the animal from its mouth. If it turned on me, I would grab it at its jaw, strike it, and kill it. Your servant has fought both lions and bears. This uncircumcised Philistine will be just like one of them because he has insulted the army of the living God.
“The Lord,” David added, “who rescued me from the power of both lions and bears, will rescue me from the power of this Philistine.”
“Go!” Saul replied to David. “And may the Lord be with you!”
Prayer
God,
As I begin this new week, give me the confidence of David, in that you’ve got my back. I don’t think I’ll be facing any actual lions, but I do got some stuff coming up. Even so, as you give me confidence, keep me even more in the humility of Christ.
I know I have agency in it all, but I do ask for the guardianship promised in Christ as my shepherd. Protect me from that which would bring me down, even as I face it. Give me the strength to say “Yes” and the wisdom to say “No.”
By your spirit & in Christ,
Amen.