Jesus our Good Shepherd
Isaiah 40:1-11
8 March 2021
Most of us, having been brought up in a Christian culture, have this mental picture of a shepherd, as one who is gentle and good, concerned and caring, protective and providing. But in reality, today, shepherds are just selfish. They are in the business of shepherding, not because of their love for the sheep, but because of their love for the profit they will earn out of the sheep. They will go after a lost sheep not because they love their lost sheep but because they hate to lose their profit. The shepherd is always quick to dispose the weak and the diseased sheep, as he does not want to suffer loss. And when it is time for a big feast he selects the best sheep from the lot and slaughters it. Indeed, he can never be a good shepherd, because he does not understand how a sheep feels, because he has never been a sheep.
There is only one Shepherd who is Good . Who by His Word created the universe and by His hands with love fashioned man in His image. When man walked out of God’s love, mankind from being an object of God’s love became subjects of God’s wrath. Yet the Good Shepherd went after the lost sheep. Was mankind so precious that God needed to save them? Was the worth of mankind so great that He needed to redeem them with His own life? This is what the Bible says of mankind’s worth “All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the LORD blows on it; surely the people are grass” .Isa 40:6-7 Mankind is worth NOTHING. Yes, lost mankind is like the grass of the field which will be consumed by the fire that comes out of the throne of God.
Yet, the Good Shepherd chose to become a Lamb. “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself NOTHING, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness”. Not only Jesus became nothing, the spotless Lamb of God was stained and marred by our sins and on the Cross bore the wrath of a Just God. Having won victory over Sin and Death, He rose again to become our Good Shepherd. Everyone who trusts and believes in Jesus, is a precious , invaluable sheep , made worthy by the precious blood of the Lamb, to be in the fold of the Chief Shepherd. And as we His sheep trudge through this difficult life “He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart…”Isa 40:11 Oh!! What a loving shepherd we have in Jesus. He alone deserves our total love, adoration, worship and obedience.
- The King of love my Shepherd is,
Whose goodness faileth never;
I nothing lack if I am His,
And He is mine forever.
- Perverse and foolish oft I strayed,
But yet in love He sought me,
And on His shoulder gently laid,
And home rejoicing brought me. - And so through all the length of days
Thy goodness faileth never;
Good Shepherd, may I sing Thy praise
Within Thy house forever.
Henry Williams Baker 1821 – 1871