Our Good Shepherd isn’t like a hired hand who is placed in charge of sheep for whom he has no true concern. Once there was a man who grew up in an area of Africa where there were lots of sheep ranches and who, as an adult, made his living as a sheep rancher. There was a spread next door operated by a tenant sheep rancher whom he soon came to recognize as having no real concern for his animals. He saw how the tenant rancher let his sheep pretty much fend for themselves as best they could. Each year they were forced to gnaw away at barren pasture land and drink from polluted water holes. The sheep would often fall prey to roaming predators. When rainstorms blew in they had no shelter to resort to for protection. In their sickly condition they would stand at the wire fence dividing his ranch for the neighbor’s staring wistfully at the lush pastures on the other side, as if to say: “If only we had a shepherd who cared for us like the shepherd running that ranch.”
Thank God we never need feel this way as sheep who are part of the flock of the Good Shepherd. Jesus isn’t like that tenant sheep rancher. He has true for concern us. He showed His loving shepherd-heart most wonderfully by giving up His life on the cross for our sins. Now, each day He administers His tender care in the Gospel Word we hear and learn from undershepherds He supplies for our welfare (Christian pastors, teachers, parents). He guides us in His ways and protects us from the predator, Satan, with the rod and staff of His Word. He comforts our hearts bruised by sin in a personal way in the Sacrament of His Supper where we receive His body and blood given and shed for our forgiveness. Each night we may lay our heads on our pillows knowing:
Jesus, shepherd of the sheep, Who Thy Father’s flock dost keep,
Safe we wake and safe we sleep, Guarded still by Thee. |
