Scripture John 10:7-18
Who Jesus Really Is
I don't know where life may be defeating
you this Advent. I don't know how Jesus may be disappointing you this Advent.
But I would suggest to you this Advent that any disillusionment you feel may
not necessarily be a bad thing. For what is disillusionment if not, literally,
the loss of an illusion? And, in the long run, it is never a bad thing to lose
the lies we have mistaken for the truth.
Did Jesus fail to come when you rubbed
the lantern?
Then perhaps Jesus is not a genie.
Did Jesus fail to
punish your enemies?
Then perhaps Jesus is not a cop.
Did Jesus fail to
make everything run smoothly?
Then perhaps Jesus is not a mechanic.
Jesus and Santa Clause are not the same – one promises to
deliver temporary earthly objects of happiness (an illusion) and the other
promises to bring permanent heavenly joy (a reality).
Our disillusionments can draw us deeper and deeper into who Jesus really is ... and what Jesus really does. Who he is has everything to do with what he does. Jesus carries many titles and many descriptions, none may be more helpful to understanding who he is and what he does than that of Shepherd. Like Peter was a fisher of men, Jesus is a shepherd of his people.
Let’s begin by looking in the Bible at who a shepherd was and what they did.
SHEPHERDS IN THE BIBLE
Abel (the first Shepherd, he brought an acceptable
sacrifice to God and out of jealousy was killed by his brother),
Abraham (faithful to go where God sent
him and his flocks multiplied with God’s blessing).
Lot (Abraham’s nephew who was given privilege and
got in all kinds of trouble)
Isaac (Abraham’s son who worked out a deal with the
Philistines to Shepherd his sheep in Beersheba)
Jacob (Son of Isaac, father of 12 sons who became
the 12 tribes of Israel)
Rachel (Laban’s youngest daughter who was a
Shepherdess and married Jacob)
Laban (Father
in law to Jacob and father of Leah and Rachel)
Jacob’s 12 sons: Reuben Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali,
Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, Benjamin
Moses (Grew up in Pharoah’s palace till he was 40,
then Shepherded sheep in the wilderness till he was 80, then led God’s people out
of Egyptian slavery toward the promised land)
David (Shepherd boy in Bethlehem who killed the
lions and tigers and bears /oh my/ to protect his sheep and killed Goliath with
a shepherd’s tools and became King of Israel)
Mesha (King of Moab who paid Israel in wool –
stopped paying and Moab was decimated),
Doeg (King Saul’s chief Shepherd, killed Ahemilech
who aided David, then killed everyone in Nob)
Amos (A shepherd who lived near Bethlehem who
became prophetic against injustice and cruelty and the social sins of Israel)
The shepherds of Bethlehem (Let’s read their story)
For unto you is born this day in the city
of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” Luke 2:11
There they were, the shepherds, watching their flocks
of sheep, protecting them from predators just like any other night of the year.
Then suddenly, out of nowhere, the angels of heaven appeared to announce the
greatest of all news in the history of news!
Luke 2:8–20 lays out the story for us.
“There were shepherds in the same
country staying in the field and keeping watch by night over their flock.
Behold, an angel of the Lord stood by them, and the glory of the Lord shone
around them, and they were terrified.
“The angel said to them, ‘Don’t be afraid,
for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be to all the people.
For there is born to you today, in David’s city, a Savior, who is Christ the
Lord. This is the sign to you: you will find a baby wrapped in strips of cloth,
lying in a feeding trough.’
“Suddenly, there was with the angel
a multitude of the heavenly army praising God, and saying, ‘Glory to God in
the highest, on earth peace, good will toward men.’
“When the angels went away from
them into the sky, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let’s go to Bethlehem, now, and see this thing that
has happened which the Lord has made known to us.’
“They came with haste and found
both Mary and Joseph, and the baby was lying in the feeding trough. When they
saw it, they publicized widely the saying which was spoken to them about this
child. All who heard it wondered at the things which were spoken to them by the
shepherds. But Mary kept all these sayings, pondering them in her heart.
“The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, just as it was told to them.”
The usual version we hear about these shepherds is
that they were poor and dirty. It’s usually followed up with the idea that
Jesus appeared to these poor shepherds because it was God’s design to first
appear to “the least of these.” That by appearing to them first, Jesus was
conveying His heart to reach the have-nots of society before appearing to any
authorities because it was the disenfranchised, He was most concerned with.
Well…that’s at least partly true.
So, who were these shepherds then? If they weren’t the
poorest of the poor and specially chosen by God because of it…then why these
guys? A quick look at Jewish priestly duties explains it all…without totally
messing up the “First Noel”.
Jesus, of course, had (and still has) a heart for
those who are downcast and hurting and everyone else. But these shepherds; they
were not outcasts of society.
Mishnah Regulations
The shepherds we read about in Luke were actually fulfilling
Temple duties, and the only ones who could perform Temple duties were priests.
We know they were priests because of the Mishnah.
The Mishna states it “expressly forbids the keeping of
flocks throughout the land of Israel except in the wilderness — and the only flocks otherwise kept
would be those for the Temple services (Bab K.7:7; 80a).
These shepherds were in the fields surrounding
Bethlehem, not out in the wilderness where regular sheep were kept. So, they
must have been connected to the priesthood.
Why would priests? perform menial shepherding duties
for the Temple? It’s because the sheep were intended to be sacrificed for
Passover. It was the priests’ job to make sure the lambs were without blemish
and completely unharmed before being sacrificed.
Watching Over Their Flock
Another statement in the Mishnah says that the Messiah
would be revealed from the Migdal Eder, which translates as “tower of the
flock.” It was an actual tower that stood just outside town and within the
Temple priests’ fields. It was a kind of lookout tower, you might say.
It
was a priest’s job to stay in the Migdal Eder all night. So, with the tower
being so tall, the shepherd priest was “watching over the flock by
night” while the other shepherds were on the ground also keeping watch. (Isn’t
it amazing that such a little word can have so much meaning in the Bible?)
The shepherds stayed in the fields continually, so
they were most likely quite dirty, but they were not a group of poor shepherds.
Their service to the temple leaders — the Pharisees — elevated their social
status. But, no matter how you look at it, they were still shepherds.
And
that’s when the angel showed up with some very good news.
Good Tidings of Great Joy
The belief that the angels appeared first to poor, uneducated,
country shepherds makes a lot of sense, but the truth is even better.
See, these shepherd/priests were a part of the animal
sacrifice system of the temple. It was their job to prepare the sheep for
Passover and other Jewish ceremonies. Then, out of nowhere, breaking the silent
night, an angel from heaven appears to them with an update to Moses’ Law.
Though
the shepherds probably weren’t fully aware of what was happening, the angel was
hand-delivering a message telling them the time for animal sacrifice was nearly
over, and they were the first to know.
“For
there is born to you today, in David’s city, a Savior, who is Christ the
Lord.” Luke 2:11
The Christ, the promised Messiah the Shepherds had
heard about from the prophets, the Savior of the world was finally born. Animal
sacrifices were no longer necessary. Now, Jesus would be the ultimate and
perfect sacrifice to pay for man’s sin once and for all through His death and
resurrection.
No wonder these Shepherds ran “with haste” to see the
baby the angel spoke about. I’d be running too, wouldn’t you? I can only
imagine how big their eyes got and how far their jaws dropped when they found a
baby lying in a feeding trough, wrapped in swaddling cloth, just as the angel
said.
The Swaddling Cloths
These weren’t ordinary cloths. They weren’t rags Mary and Joseph brought from home or happened to find in the stable. No, they were the same cloths used by the temple — specifically, the shepherd priests — to keep the lambs clean and free of blemishes as the lambs were prepared for the sacrifice.
How Mary and Joseph got the cloths is unknown, but
some suggests they were a kind of baby shower gift from Zechariah (the priest)
and his wife Elizabeth when Mary visited them. That makes sense as Elizabeth
believed Mary's baby to be the Messiah.
So, the shepherds found baby Jesus wrapped in priestly
cloths. Jesus is the lamb of God (John 1:29) and the great High Priest, it’s only fitting because
one day He would be sacrificed like a lamb for all mankind.
Great Rejoicing
How wonderful it is to know the Messiah has come! After the shepherds saw Jesus with their own eyes, the Bible says they “returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen (v. 20).” The Message, says that the shepherds “let loose, glorifying and praising God.” Knowing the Savior of the world has come should move all of us to let loose with our praise.
If the first ones to receive the
announcement about God's incarnation in Jesus were these shepherd priests it
makes all the sense in the world that Jesus would grow up to be our great high
priest (the priests above all priests) as well as the Good Shepherd (the
shepherd above all shepherds) King of
kings, Lord of lords, but also Priest of priests and Shepherd of shepherds.
For a moment let's consider what it means that Jesus becomes the good shepherd.
John
10:7-18
Therefore Jesus said again, "I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. All who
ever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to
them. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in
and go out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and
destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
I am the good
shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is
not the shepherd who owns the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he
abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters
it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the
sheep.
I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— just as the Father knows me and I know the Father — and I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life — only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father."
The shepherds of Bethlehem were ALL IN
as they came with haste. That is how we should respond to God's good news -
come running to see what great things God is doing.
Those Shepherds were merely a backdrop - a hint - a precursor to show us how Jesus would be ALL IN for us as the GOOD SHEPHERD.
We are dumb sheep. We get led astray.
We drift away from the flock and end up all alone. We get sucked into the wrong
flock. We follow the wrong shepherds. We become the black sheep. Yet, the Good
Shepherd knows in kindness how to find us and remind us that we are His. He is
looking out for us. He is not a hired hand who runs away at the sight of
predators. He stands up for us and defends us and feeds us and leads up beside
quiet waters.
Economist E.F. Schumacher tells a
story about an old shepherd. "Don't count
the sheep," he said, "or else they
won't thrive." By this he meant that counting the sheep turned each
live, unique animal into an abstraction, a symbol of a sheep, each one like the
next one. In this way one would begin to lose sight of them as individual
sheep. One would fail to notice whether they looked healthy, acted normal, and
in general were becoming their best sheep selves.
Jesus said in John 10:3 The Shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them.
Jesus
knows you by name. He cares about you and your struggles. He did not create you
and leave you to fend for yourself. He cares for you and feeds you. He wants to
lead you as the Good Shepherd who has laid down his life for you. Will you allow the story of the Shepherds to
remind you that the baby they saw in the manger has become the Good Shepherd? A Shepherd/Priest! Will you follow him?
No comments:
Post a Comment