Silly sheep in need of a sublime Shepherd

A few thoughts on John 10:11

Pandemic or no pandemic, we humans are all fundamentally crazy, confused sheep. The current situation just highlights the human predicament - we don’t have the answers to the mysteries and challenges of life.

We don’t need to look far at the moment to see evidence of our sheepness. Whether it’s rushing headlong to the beach as soon as the sun shines, selectively listening to politicians giving hokey cokey advice on easing lockdown - in, out, no-one knows how it’ll all turn out; hunkering down at home, not knowing what day of the week it is because every day has morphed into the same amorphous blob; battling to keep on top of our children and their education, embracing the good, productive times and taking cover during the meltdown moments; lying awake at night trying to breathe through an avalanche of anxious thoughts; figuring out ways of feeding our families on drastically reduced incomes; stuck in dysfunctional, unsafe situations; lonely and longing for human contact; exhausted and emotionally spent from the daily trauma of human suffering and pain. Whatever our situation, we are all sheep in need of a shepherd. We all need to know that someone, powerful enough and unconditionally loving enough, cares about us.

We are crazy, helpless, shaggy sheep in need of a good shepherd.

When Jesus said “I am the Good Shepherd” it was in response to a meeting with a man born blind, whom he had healed - and the subsequent run in with religious leaders, self-appointed shepherds of their flock, who firstly tried to blame the man’s congenital disability on his or his family’s sinfulness, a claim Jesus summarily dismissed, then threw the healed man out of the synagogue, before taking Jesus to task for healing someone on the Sabbath.This man cannot be from God because he has broken our rules!

No wonder Jesus called them thieves & robbers who destroy the sheep. Crazy helpless sheep need radically loving shepherds, not rule keeping religious zealots.

I think we have done Jesus - and shepherds - a disservice by portraying him just as the gentle shepherd cuddling the little lamb close to his chest. It’s a beautiful image - but it only represents a small fraction of the metaphor. Jesus was deliberately being radically subversive by describing himself as a shepherd. Shepherds were tough guys doing a tough job looking after probably the most daft, unruly, stupid animals on the planet, so Jesus is not trying to woo us with flattery by describing us as sheep. Shepherds were also on the lowest rung of the social ladder. The Jewish nation had a long history of heroic shepherds, from Abel and Abraham to Moses and David, but by Jesus’ time the two most despised sectors of society were shepherds, and women. More about women at another time. Shepherds were, literally, the rough sleepers of their day. Only women & shepherds were banned from testifying in court because they were considered untrustworthy and incoherent. And here, pointedly, is Jesus, the Son of God, aligning himself with the lowest in society, saying He is the Good Shepherd.

He is also, pointedly, reminding the Jewish leaders of the time in their history when, through the prophet Ezekiel God had said “should not shepherds take care of the flock? . . . you have not strengthened the weak or healed those who are ill or bound up the injured . . . I . . .will tend my sheep and make them lie down . . . I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak” (Ezekiel 34). “These are my sheep! They know me and I know them, and I love them”.

That’s the sort of shepherd I need, not a jobsworth, but a shepherd who loves me and values me as I am, in all my silly, vulnerable, confused sheepness.

In this Covid world it is so easy to lose my identity. I have no role, other than to heed the advice of the medics. If I were a key worker or a parent of dependent children, I might find my identity in that - but even then, when emotionally and physically exhausted, and the light at the end of the tunnel is disappearing into the distance, no-one can’t rely on weekly applause and social media messages to give them self-worth.

However helpless or heroic I am, I am still deep down a silly sheep in need of a loving, powerful good shepherd who knows me by name, understands my failings and cleans up my mess. A shepherd who knows just how needy I am; who sees beyond the illusion of competence I reserve for the rest of the world; who knows just how stupid, how scared, how vulnerable I really am . . and who who loves me, unconditionally, completely, sacrificially.

A shepherd who protects me. In the middle of John 10 Jesus changes the metaphor from shepherd to gate. Eastern shepherds would lead their sheep to the hillside where they would graze, and then in the heat of the day would provide a shelter made from brush, where they could rest, while the shepherd lay across the entrance and kept them safe from predators, before leading them out once more to graze.

There is both freedom and security in Jesus: “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10) Is that possible right now? Most of us are just getting by - but if life to the full is not dependent on physical circumstances but rather on the love of the Shepherd, who lays down his life for his sheep, then, even in lockdown I can fully live.

The primary job description of a Good Shepherd is to be willing to die for his sheep. Jesus is no self-interested televangelist, no self promoting politician. The good shepherd has become the sacrificial lamb who gives his life for the sins of the sheep. He knows me, knows that however much this pandemic may change me for the better, I am still going to be a fundamentally flawed, silly, sinful sheep in need of a Saviour Shepherd.

Like any Good Shepherd, He will not leave me alone in these dark and sometimes frightening times. He knows me. I don’t need to pretend I have it all together, that I am never shaken, never fearful, always full of faith - because he will take care of all of that. When I became a Christian he didn’t issue me with a satnav and leave me to my own devices (pun intended) - he loves me, leads me, looks after me, lays down his life for me.

“The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing” Psalm 23:1