The Shepherd and the Sheep

This is written in the context of my own congregation.

10 “Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. ² The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. ³ The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. ⁴ When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. ⁵ But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.” ⁶ Jesus used this figure of speech, but the Pharisees did not understand what he was telling them.

⁷ Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. ⁸ All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. ⁹ I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.^[a] They will come in and go out, and find pasture. ¹⁰ The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

The picture of the shepherd and his sheep assumes a Middle Eastern understanding of shepherding and draws on Old Testaments traditions.

-          God was shepherd of Israel

-          Spiritual and political leaders of Israel were also shepherds of God’s people

-          And then in this parable Jesus presents himself as the only good shepherd.

At night, Sheep were often gathered into a sheepfold to protect them from thieves, weather and other wild animals.

A sheep fold could have been a cave, shed or a pen made with low stone walls topped by thorny branches.

Whatever the sheepfold was, there was always an opening, and the shepherd would sleep across the gateway to protect the sheep.

The sheep know their shepherds voice. The shepherd would spend a lot of time with them. They would sing, talk and play music to them. The sheep trusted their shepherd so much that if someone else tried to lead them, they wouldn’t go because they didn’t know the person’s voice.

Picture a young child for a moment, say maybe 3 or 4. You take them to a mall and they stay with you at the beginning until their little legs become tired and they start to lag behind. The adult who is with that child will either ‘say come on Junior, keep going’ and the child will continue following, or the adult might take the child’s hand and guide them. That child is feeling confident and trusts the adult because they know their voice, they know their guidance, and they feel safe.

This is kind of like the sheep, they become so engrained with the shepherds precesne and voice there is a deep trust.

The Shepherd

In the parable Jesus talks about two types of shepherd.

 The first is the Good Shepherd. A Good shepherd never drives his sheep – so he is never behind the sheep, but he leads them. He walks in front of them and they follow him because they recognise is voice and they trust him. He has put many hours into gaining their trust. He even sleeps in the gateway so that they are protected; he gives up comfort to be with his sheep – that’s dedication right there!

A shepherd would also name each of their sheep and the sheep would know it’s name, so when the shepherd called out to it, it would come. Get a stranger to call out the name and they won’t come.

The second type of Shepherd is the bad shepherd. I guess it’s self explanatory really. He would be opposite to the Good Shepherd – He wouldn’t care if one sheep went missing. He would probably do his job and go home rather than spend time with his sheep teaching them to follow his voice.

So if we bring this story into our context today – picture yourself as a sheep. It’s pretty much what we are, we follow something right?

We are the Sheep, We are called by name (Actually what does your name mean? Maybe we don’t know why our parents gave us our name but we can believe they are God given.

My name was given to me by my Mum who was adamant I was going to be a Suzanne whether I was a boy or girl because my aunty passed away a year before I was born. As I have grown up I have learned a lot about who my aunty was and I have a lot of her similarities. It’s an honour to have her name sake, but interestingly enough, when I trace my name back, it turns out it is in the bible, there was a Susanna who ministered to Christ. I like that! Names are a fascinating thing.

Our name is special – it might not seem like it if it’s a common name, but actually if we really look at it, how many of those other people with our name are just like us? None!

I remember when Malachi was born. We had chosen his name, and I always thought it was an uncommon name but when we told people his name I had a number of people say to me “What a cool name, I know two other Malachi’s too…” It kid of burst my bubble for a bit, but when I think about it – there is no other Malachi like my Malachi.

We are unique and called by God, by our name. He even has our name written on the palm of his hand! We are that special to him!

The shepherds relationship with his sheep was special.

  

Psalm 139 says:

You have searched me, Lord,
    and you know me.
² You know when I sit and when I rise;
    you perceive my thoughts from afar.
³ You discern my going out and my lying down;
    you are familiar with all my ways.
⁴ Before a word is on my tongue
    you, Lord, know it completely.
⁵ You hem me in behind and before,
    and you lay your hand upon me.
⁶ Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
    too lofty for me to attain.

⁷ Where can I go from your Spirit?
    Where can I flee from your presence?
⁸ If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
    if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
⁹ If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
    if I settle on the far side of the sea,
¹⁰ even there your hand will guide me,
    your right hand will hold me fast.
¹¹ If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
    and the light become night around me,”
¹² even the darkness will not be dark to you;
    the night will shine like the day,
    for darkness is as light to you.

¹³ For you created my inmost being;
    you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
    your works are wonderful,
    I know that full well.
¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you
    when I was made in the secret place,
    when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
¹⁶ Your eyes saw my unformed body;
    all the days ordained for me were written in your book
    before one of them came to be.
¹⁷ How precious to me are your thoughts,^[a] God!
    How vast is the sum of them!
¹⁸ Were I to count them,
    they would outnumber the grains of sand—
    when I awake, I am still with you.

What a picture! Because if we are the sheep that is our shepherd!

I guess I don’t need to ask the question - Who is our Shepherd? Who is the Good Shepherd?

Jesus is our Shepherd, we follow him and he calls us by name. We know that with all our hearts but how often do we fight that?

Think of the story of the lost sheep for a moment – Obviously 99 sheep followed their shepherd but one went away from his shepherd, what happened? The man went looking for it?

Have we strayed away from the flock? Have we strayed away from the good that Jesus has for us. I know I would prefer to be in the flock with the gentle singing and talking of Jesus calling me. At least I know if I stray he will come and find me – do you agree? Do you feel that way too?

I want to bring your attention to verse 9:

If we imagine our Christian world and the things we are called to, as the sheep pens, then when he calls us to something we can trust his voice and enter the gate. We don’t have to do anything except walk through that gate and we need to follow him when it’s time to move on.

Jesus is our shepherd, we can imagine ourselves living in a fenced of area for our safety while we live out the calling he has for us at that point – for example one sheep pen might be to work a job outside of our comfort zone. Another sheep pen might be to talk in public, and another might be as simple as taking some baking to someone w might not necessarily know, hey it might even be to talk to someone who has hurt us!

What sheep pen is God leading you to this year? Maybe it’s happening now, maybe you don’t know yet – but do you trust him enough to know it will be good?

We can trust him with our entire being because he loves and cares for us. He would do anything to keep us safe.

We can go into whatever it is knowing that God is with us because of his soft gentle whisper calling us by name to something.

Jesus is also the gate. He is 100% committed to us, he laid down his entire life for us so why would we not want to follow?

Verse 10 says

¹⁰ The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

Who is the thief?

We instantly think – Satan right? And that is right but what about life in general?

Things like money, gaming, bad relationships, gossip, - anything that is not of God – is a thief. Sometimes it’s so easy to live life according to our own will, we know what God is calling us to but we don’t go, we follow our own voice rather than God’s voice. And we can often separate ourselves from rest of the flock. We need the encouragement and love from the rest of those who are in the sheep pen with us.

So, this morning let’s be reminded of a few important things here:

We are sheep, we follow someone but who is that someone? Is it Jesus, the Good shepherd or is it wandering off on our own path, not listening to the shepherd?

Jesus loves us. Just like the Good shepherd he laid down his life for each of us, he gave us a name and calls us because he wants us. He wants us to follow him, so he can protect us and loves us. He is the gate that protects us from evil. And he came to give us full life, he doesn’t want us to pick a pen that has a bad shepherd that doesn’t care for us or protect us, he doesn’t want our lives to go to the thief to be stolen, killed and destroyed, he wants to give us full life.

There are going to be times when God calls us to a sheep pen and we might not like it. There are going to be times where it feels like Jesus has walked away from the pen not protecting us or calling us – or maybe we have wandered off like the lost sheep or  maybe we feel like he isn’t calling us but in actual fact – he has left all the other sheep to look for this one. We are important enough for him to walk away from his hundreds to find the one lost sheep. – he is calling us.

We might not like the thing he wants us to do but he knows the reason for it but Do we trust him enough to be our shepherd who will look after us? Or are we going to allow the thief/bad shepherd to guide us instead?

I know which one I want to be. I know the challenge that comes with fully trusting and following him, but when I look back all the times I have trusted him and done what he has asked, my life has been filled with far more joy than the times when I have wandered off in my own direction.

We have a choice to make this year.

What’s it going to be?

Follow the Good Shepherd and have a full life of joy or is wandering off on our own opening ourselves up to be destroyed by the thief because we are protected by our shepherd?