FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2023 - SHEEP AND SHEPHERDS

  Friday, November 3, 2023 - Spiritual Thoughts - Shepherds

The Gospel of John starts with Jesus as the Good Shepherd.

I’ll admit to not knowing much about shepherds. I have seen sheep, and I have been around a few sheep - but I’m definitely not a shepherd.  

Sheep have two primary purposes - to give wool and to die for meat. These days, sheep are primarily in fenced areas. There really isn’t a shepherd. In first-century Israel, other than rock walls, there weren’t fences and definitely not barbed wire fences.  

Even in the United States, in those early days of the westward movement, there were cattlemen versus sheep ranchers in Wyoming. Sheep overgrazed the land and polluted the water that cattle wouldn’t drink. That really wasn’t settled until barbed wire surrounded the land.

The Biblical shepherd took care of the sheep. King David in the Old Testament was a shepherd (and when Samuel came to anoint somebody as King, he was tending the sheep while Samuel looked at all the other brothers. The 23rd Psalm is about shepherds - but even higher - “The Lord is My Shepherd.”

I’m looking at the Gospel of John - chapter 10, about good shepherds and hired hands. The good shepherd protects his sheep (I’ll use the male pronoun here).  

 But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him, the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. Yet they will by no means follow a stranger but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.

Then Jesus said to them again, “Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before Me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.

The thief does come to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I (Jesus) have come that they may have life and have it more abundantly.

A second shepherd story: “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?” (Luke 15:4) 

I’ve made the analogy that I could be the sheep that ran away - and ate some “loco weed.” Did the excellent shepherd come after me?

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Do we have shepherds today? Do we have “shepherds” that care for people - rather than sheep?  

The obvious one is clergypeople. But, in some congregations, one pastor might serve thousands of people. He might not even know the names of his/her people.  

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Let me go another way - do you mentor anyone? Are you a teacher? Then, maybe you are a shepherd!!!

Shepherds look out for their sheep. Good mentors look out for their mentees. Good teachers look out for their students.

How about politicians? Are they shepherds? Do they look after their sheep? (Or do they look after their significant contributors? 

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And, one more shepherd scripture - maybe the most famous one - Psalm 23

The Lord is my shepherd;
I shall not want.
He makes me to lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside the still waters.
He restores my soul;
He leads me in the path of righteousness
For His name’s sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil;
For You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You anoint my head with oil;
My cup runs over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
All the days of my life;
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord
Forever.

LOVE WINS

LOVE TRANSFORMS

KAREN ANNE WHITE, (C), NOVEMBER 3, 2023