Shepherd (Luke 15:1-7)
The description of Jesus as a shepherd is one of the well-known titles that he has been given. Most people have heard of the opening lines of Psalm 23, ‘The Lord is my shepherd,’ and they think of Jesus when they hear it. Many hymns have been written about this title and millions of sermons preached about this role of the Saviour. It is likely that there are several books about this theme found in Christian bookstores.
But what kind of shepherd is he? Here are some suggestions.
Omniscient shepherd
Jesus said on one occasion that he knew all his sheep. This means that he knew every circumstance in which they would be. He not only knows about them after they become members of his flock, but he also knew all about them before they became members. Jesus knew them when they were like lost sheep, far away from the heavenly fold, heading toward divine punishment and a lost eternity.
Their lostness was not accidental, nor was it caused by anyone else. Each of them had chosen the life they were living. They imagine that they are free, but the truth is that they are lost. There may be many others in a similar situation, but lostness is never limited by a large number. It makes little difference if you are lost by yourself or lost with a group. What matters is that you are lost.
It may be that you don’t believe that you are lost. How would we define lostness? I would say that a lost person does not know how to get to the destination he would like. The destination we want is heaven at the end of the journey, but a person who does not know how to get there is lost, and so is the traveller to heaven who does not consider the map to heaven, and the outcome is that he is lost.
Wealthy shepherd
It was good for the sheep, even if they did not realise it, that the shepherd knew where they were. This means that he would be able to find them. Yet before he could do that, he would have to purchase them. In order to be able to purchase them, he had to have a unique form of wealth.
Other types of rescue could have been suggested to them regarding how they could cease to be lost sheep. One suggested rescue would be to suggest to the sheep that all he had to know was try and recover himself by his own efforts. But the more a person attempted to do this, the more he discovered that he was truly lost. Another suggested rescue is to conclude that God would never fulfil his threatenings to those who broke his law, that he is too merciful to let that happen. But that method does not rescue any lost sheep – they remain where they are. The fact is that no one can provide the payment that is required apart from Jesus.
So what are the riches that he possesses which makes it possible for him to find lost sheep? His riches are twofold – first, he lived a perfect life and, second, on the cross he paid the penalty for sin. The value of his riches are sufficient to meet the needs of every lost sheep because they deal precisely with the two areas where each sheep is in debt. They have not lived perfect lives and they are not able to endure the punishment that God will demand for their sins. But Jesus lived a perfect life and he endured divine wrath against the sins of his sheep.
It is useful to remind ourselves at this point that Jesus was appointed to this role by his Father. The prophet Zechariah contains this prediction: ‘“Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the man who stands next to me,” declares the Lord of hosts’ (Zech. 13:7). The sword of divine justice was unleashed against the One who had never sinned, but who was now paying the penalty for sin. How can we measure the love of the Shepherd for lost sheep? We can do so by observing his willingness to receive the awful sword wielded by his Father.
Seeking shepherd
Having paid the penalty for sin, and provided a message to be proclaimed about himself as the good shepherd, Jesus from heaven seeks for lost sheep. He is involved in the process. Perhaps the most graphic account of this is in Ephesians 2 where Paul reminds his readers that Jesus had preached peace to them. Yet we know that Jesus had never been to Ephesus in a literal sense. So how did he preach peace in Ephesus? He did it through his servants and through the work of the Holy Spirit.
How does Jesus seek lost sheep? He comes to them and informs them of the fact that they are lost because of their sins and need to repent. Sometimes he tells them this for a long period of time and with different degrees of intensity. They may think that no- one can help them. At other times he calls them to trust in him for pardon and encourages them by informing them of the freeness of divine pardon. He may tell them of other lost sheep whom he found, lost sheep like Saul of Tarsus or the dying criminal or the Ethiopian political treasurer who came to see how they could be rescued by the seeking shepherd.
The question that comes to us is a straightforward one – have we been found by the good shepherd? Or are we still listening to him, but keeping him at a distance? We hear his call offering forgiveness, but we do not call back saying that we would like to be forgiven. We listen to his offer of a place in heaven, but we do not tell them that we would like to have it. Indeed, we may even have seen him find a lost sheep that we know well – our parents, our children, our brothers and sisters, our neighbours, our friends. Instead, we refuse to be be found by the seeking shepherd.
Dedicated shepherd
After he has found them, Jesus looks after his sheep. This is what is described in Psalm 23. The psalm mentions several different locations where the shepherd meets the needs of his people by fulfilling his many promises in the Bible. He protects them from powerful spiritual enemies (described in the Bible as the world, the flesh and the devil).
No doubt Psalm 23 is one of the favourites among the psalms and believers everywhere love to sing it. Yet we should remember that it is not only the sheep who are singing. Jesus in his parable of the lost sheep stated that the shepherd, when he finds the sheep, puts it on his shoulders rejoicing and carries it back to the fold. And he never stops singing about his sheep along the way. The dedicated shepherd is delighted to serve in this manner.
Perhaps we find it hard to understand why saving sinners makes Jesus so happy, indeed makes God so happy. Yet we should remind ourselves that the gospel is the gospel of the glory of the blessed God, the happy God. Jesus said that there is joy in the presence of the angels of God when one sinner repents. After all, it was for the joy set before him that he endured the cross, and part of that joy was his involvement in bringing lost sinners into the family of God.
Shepherd and sheep together forever
Jesus told a story in John 10 of how a shepherd makes a fold for his sheep and then counts them in to the fold. Shepherds in those days may not have had big flocks, but a good shepherd did not want any of the sheep to be missing. He knew that they would be safe in the fold. We can apply that illustration to heaven. Jesus counts his sheep into the heavenly fold as one by one they cross the river and reach the place of perfect and permanent safety.
Although they will then be in different pasture lands, the sheep of Jesus will still need him to lead them into all their future experiences. In Revelation 7:17, we are assured that ‘the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water.’ Who can say what those springs are, except to say that they are eternal, and also suitable for the royal Shepherd and the sheep to visit them together?
As we close, we can recap a little. Jesus is the good shepherd who gave his life on the cross for his sheep. Jesus is the seeking shepherd who comes to where the lost sheep are and calls to them to repent. Jesus is the strong shepherd who will carry all his people to glory. And Jesus will be the satisfied shepherd when all his people will be with him eternally in the world of glory.
And what do we say as sheep? We can say that he is our God, that he is our Guide, that he is our Guardian, that he is our Glorifier.