Thought for the Week

The relationship between shepherd and sheep is not the same everywhere. In some countries, i.e. Australia, New Zealand, the United States, sheep are simply possessions. The care they receive is for them to be fenced in or guarded by dogs to keep them safe. In the Middle East, or Holy Lands, sheep are more like family members. Flocks are small. Sheep are known by name or at least identified as individuals. Care for sheep is individualized. The Prophet Nathan gave a parable in order to help King David see his sin and get back into a right relationship with God. The parable is found in II Samuel 12. In it there is described a man who owned a lamb. The lamb was like a child to him. He hand fed it. It drank from his cup. It slept in the house. King David could understand this story. He too was a shepherd and understood how special and precious was the relationship of a shepherd to each of his sheep. David had shepherded his father’s sheep. As a boy, he defended those sheep from attacks from a lion and a bear. He put his own life on the line to protect and defend them. David, perhaps as a boy, wrote Psalm 23. In it we can see the special care a shepherd has for his sheep. Of course David, in this Psalm is speaking about God as the Shepherd and himself being the sheep of God’s flock. Jesus told the story, in St. Luke 15 and St. Matthew 18, of a shepherd who had “lost” one of his sheep from his flock of 100. That would be a large flock for the day and economy of Jesus’ time. But He illustrates how precious that lost sheep is and the trauma and effort the shepherd put forth to get it back. We also glimpse the joy and excitement the shepherd experienced on retuning that sheep to the flock. Jesus parallels that joy with the joy among Heaven’s angels when one lost sinner (human, of course) is returned to a right relationship with God. I hope you can see how special and precious you and I are to God. He desperately wants us to be in right relationship with Him. Jesus, God the Son and the Lamb of God, also went through great trauma and effort to provide opportunity for us to return to that right relationship with God, lost to mankind when our original father rebelled against God’s only command at that time. God certainly knows us as individuals. Scripture tells us He has even numbered the hairs on our heads. He also well understands no two of us are alike. Some of us are much more prone to test the limits of God’s mercy and grace. Others are desperate to do all we can to please God. God does not love one more than the other. We have seen parents whose children are radically different. Some children are kind, loving, gentle, and extremely obedient. Other children are a real test and challenge to their parents, always ready to disobey and get into mischief. I don’t want to minimize our disobedience by comparing it to the mischief of a child. We need to see our sin as wicked and terrible. We must remember it is sin, any sin, every sin, that can and will separate us from God and break our relationship with Him. It is why Jesus was willing to lay down His life to make available reconciliation between God and man. He most certainly did not want to suffer the required death but knew it was the only way and therefore paid the price of a horrendous death for us.