Following Our Shepherd

For the past three weeks, my Sunday School class has been working through Jesus’s teaching, “I am the good shepherd”. Yesterday’s discussions were particularly meaningful in regard to the ebb and flow of our faith, and I thought I’d share. There’s quite a bit more meat I’d like to share beyond this, so I may actually make this a series of posts.

Anyway, on to our passage…

John 10:1-21
¹“I tell you the truth, the man who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. ²The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep. ³The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. ⁴When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. ⁵But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.” ⁶Jesus used this figure of speech, but they did not understand what he was telling them.

⁷Therefore Jesus said again, “I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. ⁸All who ever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. ⁹I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture. ¹⁰The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

¹¹“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. ¹²The hired hand is not the shepherd who owns the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. ¹³The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.

¹⁴“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me — ¹⁵just as the Father knows me and I know the Father — and I lay down my life for the sheep. ¹⁶I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. ¹⁷The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life — only to take it up again. ¹⁸No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”

¹⁹At these words the Jews were again divided. ²⁰Many of them said, “He is demon-possessed and raving mad. Why listen to him?”

²¹But others said, “These are not the sayings of a man possessed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?”

You know, there’s something about being compared to sheep that just doesn’t settle well. Think about it… what are some characteristics of sheep? They’re pretty well defenseless, not all that bright, sometimes a bit stubborn, they flock together, and usually just go along with the crowd, they don’t smell very well… need I go on? If we’re sheep… we really don’t have a lot of desirable qualities.

If you read the scripture above, where Jesus shares that He is the good shepherd, you’ll notice a couple things about sheep that stand out as notable… even desireable. Look at verses 3-5… “the sheep listen to his voice”… “the sheep follow him because they know his voice”… “they will never follow a stranger… they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice”.

In thinking about my life, I’m forced to realize that I wouldn’t make a very good sheep. The ebb and flow of my faith confirms it, and if I were to venture a guess… yours as well.

How so?

Sometimes, we’re good little sheep… following our shepherd just a few steps behind. His voice is crystal clear… it’s easy to follow, not only because we can’t help but hear him, but because we find ourselves comforted by his love and protection. In those times, we find that we can follow Him anywhere… even when we can see the wolves waiting for us up ahead, because we know our shepherd will protect us. We might get bitten or clawed while passing through them… but we won’t be devoured wholly… our shepherd takes the brunt of the attack.

However, in spite of going through those experiences, walking closely to our shepherd and coming through the troubles unscathed, we often find ourselves walking behind him through green pastures. Trouble is nowhere to be seen, and we sheep, in our stupidity, allow ourselves to fall far behind our shepherd. He continues on ahead of us… and His voice gets harder and harder to hear. We go astray as night falls, mistaking a stranger’s voice for our shepherd’s… and we fall under attack. By the time we call out to our shepherd and he arrives to rescue us, we’ve been beaten, bloodied, and scarred.

Isn’t it frustrating? We know our shepherd… our Savior Jesus. We know how much He loves us… we know how He protects us… we know that He will never lead us astray… we know that following Him closely results in blessings beyond our imaginations. Yet we stray. We think we can do it on our own. We think we can provide for ourselves better than He.

And we always find ourselves wrong… scarred and battered. And yet we do it anyway.

How awesome would it be if we were all better sheep?