The Good Shepherd

John 10:11-18

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."

while waiting for the bus, Qin Yan was just sharing with me about a decision she had to make - the decision of rising up to take care of a sheep.. as I got back home, was just prompted to think about what makes a good shepherd and God brought me to this passage..

the single most important characteristic of a good shepherd is that he lays down his life for his sheep (appears 5 times in the passage) of his own accord.. no one can force him to lay it down but he himself chooses to lay it down..

(to all shepherds) as shepherds, we must learn to stop looking at our sheep like the hired hand.. true.. both the hired hand and the shepherd take good care of the sheep (yes, even a hired hand can take good care of the sheep) and feed the sheep (in our case, with the Word of God) but the hired hand would never lay down his life for the sheep.. maybe the next question to ponder is, "What are some of the times we have to lay down our lives for our sheep?" In the passage above, the situation is that the wolf is coming but more often than not, we as shepherds don't find ourselves in such a situation where both our sheep and ourselves are in danger.. the truth is, many times I find myself complaining (when my sheep is difficult to teach/handle) about my sheep without recognizing the wolf that is coming his way.. even if I do see that wolf coming, the truth is I'm not willing to lay down my life to chase that wolf away (even though it usually does not mean I have to risk my life, just that I have to spend a lot more time and probably even some frustration to 'chase' the wolf away).. I'm sure each of us as shepherds have moments where we are unwilling to lay down our lives for our sheep, either not recognizing the wolf (a possible obstacle which might be causing our sheep to be more difficult to teach/handle, like perhaps persecution) or refusing to 'chase' the wolf away because it takes so much of ourselves.. let's all learn from Jesus the Good Shepherd.. btw 'chasing' the wolf away does a lot of training to ourselves too.. just remembered that David got his 'combat' training from fighting bears and lions which tried to harm his sheep.. his 'combat' training helped him defeat Goliath later..

this next part is dedicated to the shepherds-to-be (aka all other brothers and sisters).. haha.. that's a big bomb for all you not-yet-shepherds.. yes you'll one day be called to tend to God's flock as well.. anyway, I believe the litmus test for whether you are ready to be a shepherd is if you are willing to lay your life down for another brother or sister.. (Qin Yan, so are you willing to lay your life down for a fellow sister?) if you are willing to do that, all the others will fall into place.. even the hired hand knows how to feed his sheep because he's given the grass.. my point is that when we respond to being a shepherd, God will provide us all that we need, the only thing He can't provide (and it is because He wants us to have free will still) is a heart that is willing to lay down his life for his sheep.. if we can't teach the Word of God, God will show and teach us how to (just as the owner of the sheep will provide a hired hand with the grass with which to feed the sheep).. we need not let not knowing how to teach the Word of God be something that is stopping us from becoming a shepherd.. back to the bus stop when me and Qin Yan were waiting for the bus, we were sharing quite extensively about having the correct motives when we want to take care of God's flock.. I believe only with the right motives will anyone in the right mind be willing to lay down his life for the sheep.. so if you say you are willing to lay down your life for your sheep, you probably have the right motives about taking care of God's flock..

another something to share from the above passage.. Jesus said 'and my sheep know me'.. how many of us shepherds can say our sheep know us? yes, we probably all know our sheep well because in some ways, our leaders make us know our sheep well.. but do our sheep know us well? has it become a working relationship? that you need to report to your leaders about how your sheep is doing that you know your sheep well or is it really a very close relationship with your sheep? shepherds, let's all start sharing our personal victories, struggles, feelings and deepest concerns with our sheep.. it is biblical that our sheep know us so let's make it happen!

Chingster

P.S. This was supposed to be posted yesterday before I sleep but apparently blogger is a bit cranky yesterday.. dunno why.. or maybe it was my internet..