A Modern Shepherd
John 10
What a “good shepherd” would look like today
John 10:10 “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
Some
of the Bible’s rural illustrations simply do not transfer easily into
modern life. What is a “good shepherd” like? What did Jesus mean by the
term?
A small drama that took place on the slopes of
Washington’s Mount Rainier may shed light on the meaning of the “good
shepherd.” One Memorial Day weekend a Christian dentist named James
Reddick was teaching his 12-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son the
joy of mountain hiking. A sudden storm came up, battering them with
hurricane-force winds and thick, wet sheets of snow. A blinding
“whiteout” made it impossible to see or move on the steep slopes.
Willing to Die
Reddick
laboriously dug an oblong trench with an aluminum mess kit, then tucked
his children into sleeping bags away from the entrance. He covered the
opening with a tarp, but it kept blowing away, exposing the trench to
the swirling snow outside. Reddick found he had to lie directly across
the opening, using his own weight to hold down the edges of the tarp.
His body protected his son and daughter from the howling wind.
Two
days passed before searchers finally noticed the corner of a backpack
protruding from deep snow. They rushed to the site, hoping the
snow-covered mound would contain the three missing hikers. Inside, they
found Sharon and David Reddick, very much alive. But the stiff body of
their father lay against one wall of the snow cave. He had “taken the
cold spot,” in one searcher’s words, by using his own back as the outer
wall.
An image something like that must have filled the
minds of Jesus’ listeners as he described a good shepherd who “lays
down his life” for his sheep (John 10:11).
Nothing—not ravaging cold, thieves or wolves—would come between the
good shepherd and his sheep. He would die for their protection.
Popularity, for a While
As
Jesus headed toward his final days in Jerusalem, the theme of death,
his death, kept surfacing in his parables and direct statements.
Ironically, his followers were growing in numbers. His popularity had
reached a peak with the feeding of 5,000 people on a handful of morsels,
a miracle mentioned by all four Gospel writers.
The groundswell of support to make Jesus king deeply impressed his followers; Jesus, however, escaped into the hills (see John 6:15).
He would not be a king on the crowd’s terms. He continued on his lonely
mission, stirring up controversy and hatred by healing people on the
Sabbath and by proclaiming himself equal with God.
Ignoring an Impressive Miracle
Many
Jews came over to Jesus after one of his most impressive signs:
bringing Lazarus back to life. But, simultaneously, religious leaders
concluded callously that it was best for one man (Jesus) to die rather
than to upset the whole nation (see John 11:50). Four separate times they tried to seize him.
Jesus
came to offer “life”—one of those one-syllable words, swollen with
meaning, that John threaded through his narrative. Lazarus received that
life in an astonishingly literal way, providing yet another sign of
Jesus’ ultimate power. Jesus, though, made preparations to give up his
own life, making the ultimate sacrifice of the good shepherd.
Life Questions
What have you sacrificed for the sake of another person?