Thought for the Week beginning 21st April, 2024

The Good Shepherd

John 10. 11-18

When I first started attending church regularly as a teenager I noticed in the vestry a picture entitled The Good Shepherd. It was a slightly hazy depiction of Jesus with golden hair and manicured beard with children on his knee and a sheep on his shoulder. It was even then very dated but was somehow quite cosy, kind and comforting. We have become used to this image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd - one who is gentle, calm and reassuring. The hymn The Lord's my shepherd is probably the most popular one in the book.

However, the real business of being a shepherd is rather different. Our daughter, Ilona, discovered this some years ago on holiday near a farm in south Wales. She spent some time "pulling lambs" (that is helping them being born), putting tags in their ears, noting the ones which were unlikely to survive, and finding foster mothers for those whose own mothers had died. For that farmer shepherding means long hours, cold hands, blood, mess and stress  - a mucky, life and death business altogether.  Nonetheless there is real devotion to his flock of ewes and to his family's way of life. In biblical times in Palestine there were additional hazards too - lions, bears and wolves roaming around the countryside  which the shepherd had to deal with if they attacked. That is why they always carried a slingshot. The life of a shepherd was and is tough.

By describing himself as the good  shepherd in John's gospel Jesus was saying several important things and they are appropriate for this season of Easter:

1. He lays down his life for "the sheep" (i.e. us);

2. He cares for the sheep and is utterly committed to them;

3. He is not like the hired hand who is not committed and runs away as soon as there is trouble;

4. He know his sheep and they know him;

5. There are other sheep who Jesus must bring in as well as those of his own sheep pen;

6. He lays down his life voluntarily for them, and with authority from the Father.

In the Jewish scriptures God himself is the Shepherd of his people Israel - the caring but strong ruler who seeks out  his sheep (Ezekiel 34.11).

This is the message of Good Friday and Easter. God himself came in to this world to rescue all of us from everything that oppresses us - illness, pain, fear, anxiety, poverty, wealth, excess, and even death itself. In the person of Jesus he willingly accepted the very worst that life could throw at him. He not only got his hands dirty, like the farmer in Wales, but he put his whole body, his whole life, on the line for us. No-one is too weak, too lost, too stupid, too poor, too trapped  for him to find, pick up and bring home. He is utterly committed to each and every one of us  and he will never give up. The resurrection is the the great sign of God's power and victory over these things.

That old image of the Good Shepherd, meek and mild as he seems to be, is definitely comforting and reassuring, but it does not do justice to the power of the Good Shepherd whose obedience, suffering, death and resurrection mean that nothing can ever separate us from God.

Tony Bushell.