In the midst of the pushing and shoving comes a Good Shepherd
Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep.” -John 10:14-15
I once learned a Bible study method of re-writing verses so that they had the opposite meaning. For instance, “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matt. 5:44) could be re-written into its opposite: “hate your enemies and curse those who persecute you.”
The idea is that by spending time thinking about what the passage is not saying, we may discover something new about what it is saying. Or, maybe it will stir us to see the message in a more powerful way. (“Hate your enemies” sounds so much like basic common sense….but Jesus says the opposite!)
When it comes to Jesus’ words in John 10 – “I am the good shepherd” – we don’t even need to do the exercise: its opposite version already exists in scripture, in passages like:
“...thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who shepherd my people: It is you who scattered my flock, and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them.” (Jeremiah 23:2)
“Thus says the Lord God: Ah, you shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep? You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fatlings; but you do not feed the sheep. You have not strengthened the weak, you have not healed the sick, you have not bound up the injured, you have not brought back the strayed, you have not sought the lost, but with force and harshness you have ruled them.” (Ezekiel 34:2-4)
“Shepherd” was a common metaphor for kings and other leaders in ancient Mesopotamian cultures. In these passages, God was not talking to people who cared for sheep; God was talking to the people charged with caring for God’s people: Israel’s political and religious leaders.
Jesus knew his Bible, and he referenced it constantly in his teachings. So when Jesus looks at the Pharisees (a group of religious leaders) and says, “I am the good shepherd,” he knows exactly what he’s doing. He knows that they know exactly what he’s doing. Without saying it, he’s pointing back to those old scripture passages about bad shepherds and implying, Hey, that’s you. It’s shots fired.
“I am the good shepherd,” Jesus says, and goes on to describe a shepherd that is the perfect opposite of the bad shepherds described in those Old Testament passages. The good shepherd knows the sheep, and they know him. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
When you hear the word “king” or “ruler” or even “politician” or “boss” – is what you imagine closer to a “bad shepherd” or a “good shepherd”? Are they protecting their own interests, or those of the most vulnerable? Would they lay down their lives for the people they govern?
With good historical reasons, many of us have developed a distaste and distrust of rulers. And when we name God “king” or “lord,” there is a danger that we will carry our negative experiences into our understanding of God. And so we live with images of God as a harsh ruler, a terrifying judge, someone more focused on his own glory than on his people.
But God Incarnate said, “I am the good shepherd,” the one who really does care for and sacrifice for the sheep – and he lived it out in the way he spent his time: among the common people, healing the suffering, feeding the hungry, advocating for their needs. As an ancient hymn sang of Jesus:
though he was in the form of God,
[he] did not regard equality with God
as something to be exploited,
but emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death—
even death on a cross. (Philippians 2:6-8)
This is who God is. This is the kind of Lord we follow. The kind who will lay down his life for us – in everyday actions of compassion, in powerful teachings and advocacy, and in the cosmic sacrifice on the cross. And therefore, we can trust in God like we can no one else.
Prayer:
In the midst of all the pushing and shoving among us, in the world and in the church, propelled by anxiety and acted as brutality, you have planted yourself in all your fidelity.
You have placed yourself among us in steadfastness and abiding care, present in the day, alert in the night, making us all safe and noticed and cared for. So evidence your fidelity as to curb our anxiety, as to restrain our brutality, as to overcome our alienation.
By your fidelity, renew us, renew church, renew city, renew world. Give us the safety to love you fully, to love neighbor well, in glad obedience. Amen.1
Pastor Kate
Nov. 16, 2022
Rev. Katherine Museus Dabay takes turns writing weekly devotions with Rev. James A. Wetzstein at Valparaiso University, where both serve as university pastors.
1 Walter Brueggemann, “In the midst of all the pushing and shoving,” Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth, (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2003), p. 118.