The Good Shepherd? - John 10:14-15
29th February 2012 - A leap day. So I have decided to ‘leap’ into tricky subject.
I am much perplexed by Christians falling away - former pastors, elders, ministry leaders, even missionaries. Why is this? What’s going wrong? Is Christ failing? God forbid!
Jn 10:14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.
Jesus is the Good shepherd. If he is the Good Shepherd why are there so many casualties in his flock. One answer is that they were never of the flock in first place - that is sometimes true, but not always. But that leaves no place for pastoral care or the title ‘shepherd’. I don’t know too much about sheep but I did work as a jackaroo for two months on a huge Queensland sheep station at shearing time.
First thing to point out: Sheep are stupid. They follow one another blindly. If there are three right ways to go and one wrong way they will choose the wrong way. If there is a gully to get stuck in … in they go. If there is no wire for miles, they will go and find it and get hung up on it. Sheep are stupid – too many Christians are stupid and do stupid things, go to stupid places, have stupid acquaintances and then wonder why they get into trouble. They will die for something to do!
But we have a wonderful and Good Shepherd. He knows us all by name. He lays down his life for us.
Another portion of the New Testament with strong pastoral concern for people who are in danger of falling away is Hebrews, those being tempted to fall back into the easier path of Judaism away from Christianity.
The Letter to the Hebrews encourages the Hebrew Christians in three ways.
He talks about who Jesus is and warns about who and what they were falling away from. As this is done, the author shows Jesus’ superiority to all the heroes of the Old Testament.
The greatness of the message. (I cannot but hang on to Jesus for the power the message had on me originally). The author of Hebrews repeatedly tells his first readers that their sins have been forgiven; he writes of the work Jesus has done for them as their Great High Priest. He sets before them the examples of those who have gone before. Those whom Jesus has shepherded as they looked to him.
He also reminds them that they are in a real relationship with the Good Shepherd. They are real children, with real discipline as children.
But he also gives very practical advice – Jesus also seems to ‘contract out’ the shepherding to one another: let us encourage one another. There is no such thing as true solitary Christianity, and which usually ends in the solitary Christian walking away from Jesus altogether. So let us keep meeting together. In ministry we are meant to work together in teams and to help one another practically.
Yesterday we looked at a book in our staff meeting, “Why the Rest Hate the West”. One problem with Western post-Christian culture is the abandonment of the old ways, tradition, family life etc. This entails a rejection of authority in Western countries (though we submit to new authorities instead, without realising it). This affects Christians too. They want to be their own man, with their own new ideas and to be their own sheep outside the flock. Outside the flock we have no shepherd, it’s a declaration of independence and doomed to failure. No Shepherd means there will be dead sheep.