The Good Shepherd

John 10:11 "I am the good shepherd.  The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep."  

If you've ever read anything on sheep, you might know that a shepherd's job is to watch over the sheep, day and night and keep them from harm.  The sheep know the shepherd's voice.  Jesus says in John 10:27, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them and they follow Me."  Someone who does not own the sheep or care for the sheep is called a hireling.  When the hireling sees a wolf coming he leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them.

What you may have not heard is what a shepherd does when one of his sheep has gone astray.  The shepherd will leave his flock to find the one sheep and when he finds it, he breaks its legs and carries the sheep over his shoulders until its legs have healed.  This teaches the sheep never to leave the shepherd.

I love sharing this with you because I think it's one of the most vivid images of how God loves us.  So often we turn away and chase things that don't bring glory to the Father.  We choose a relationship or a job or some other thing instead of God.  While for me there have been times in which I felt as though the Lord allowed me to stray for a time before coming to get me, I know His eyes were always on me.  I know that when I left Him, He would come find me.  The hardest part is when he has to break me.  He does this because He loves me, and His desire is for me to trust in Him.  That He is the only way.  And He is the only one big enough to hold me.  He is the only one willing to carry me through until He has healed me.  

As I was using my time wisely at work one day, I was reading John's story about Christ' crucifixion on the cross.  I realized that the gospel of John is the only book that mentions what the Jews do with Jesus' body immediately following the moment in which His spirit left His body.  John 19:31 says, "Therefore because it was preparation day, that the bodies should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath, the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.  Then the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who was crucified with Him.  But when they came to Jesus and saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs....vs. 36 reads, "For these things were done that the Scripture should be fulfilled, 'Not one of His bones should be broken."

Christ was tempted, mocked, shamed, broken and crucified for you and I.  Christ walked and lived the same life you and I are living, but without sin.  He even suffered as you and I suffer.  He paid the ultimate sacrifice.  The only difference?  God never had to break His legs, because He was never led astray.  Sheep listen to the Shepherd's voice, but when fear and trials come we often tend to try and flee.  We look to other things to help us find a way out.  But without Christ, we're lost.  It is only by His grace that He breaks us in our sin, and carries us until we have healed.

Be blessed today.  In Christ's love.