The Good Shepherd

John 10: 9 - 15 (NIV): 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.

    Jesus often used illustrations that his hearers could easily understand. They knew that a person hired to watch sheep would not take as good care of them as their owner. Jesus said he is not some hired-hand sent to watch us – we belong to him and he loves us so much he would lay down his life for us.
  Jesus, then, is a the Good Shepherd. We are all a bunch of sheep and the only safe place for us in under his care. He states clearly that he is the only way to salvation; the only way to right standing with God. He knows us by name and loves us.
  And the life that Jesus offers is a full life. This doesn't mean it is full of materialistic value or that it is devoid of pain. It means it is satisfying, joyful, full of goodness, and meaning. We, lowly sheep as we are, can have a relationship with God himself. We can know we are part of something greater than ourselves.
  David used this same illustration – from the sheep's perspective – in Psalm 23. He said he received comfort and courage from God, his life was full of goodness and love, God took care of him, and his cup overflowed. And if all of this wasn't enough, he would also live in God's house forever.

The Ebenezer Stone

1 Samuel 7: 10-13 (NIV): While Samuel was sacrificing the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to engage Israel in battle. But that day the LORD thundered with loud thunder against the Philistines and threw them into such a panic that they were routed before the Israelites. The men of Israel rushed out of Mizpah and pursued the Philistines, slaughtering them along the way to a point below Beth Car. Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, "Thus far has the LORD helped us." So the Philistines were subdued and did not invade Israelite territory again. Throughout Samuel's lifetime, the hand of the LORD was against the Philistines. 

    We sing the song "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" in church and the second verse says, "I will raise mine ebenezer...", but we may not know what it means. This Scripture passage happened while Samuel was judge in Israel, before Saul and David became kings. The Israelites were under attack from a hostile neighbor and cried out to God for his help.

    The people had just repented and stopped worshiping and following other gods. They assembled together to cry out to God. But while they were together, the enemy drew plans to attack them. Samuel sacrificed an innocent lamb and the people fasted and prayed. God "thundered" against the enemy and threw them into confusion. Israel won the battle and the war.

    So Samuel set up a stone to mark the occasion. He called it Ebenezer, which means "stone of help", saying "Thus far has the Lord helped us." It is good for us to set up markers to remember what God has done for us. It is good for us to remember how he has brought us through, walked with us, intervened on our behalf when we prayed, and shown us his mercy and grace.

    This Holiday season, I encourage you to mark the occasion by being thankful. I gave everyone in my churches a small stone Sunday and told them it was an "ebenezer stone" to help them remember that God is good -- and God has been good. Thus far has the Lord helped us.

A Blind Man is Healed

John 9: 1 - 7 (NIV): As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" "Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.  As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world." Having said this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man's eyes. "Go," he told him, "wash in the Pool of Siloam" (this word means Sent). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.

     The disciples made a couple of wrong assumptions. First, they assumed that someone sinned to cause the man to be born blind. Why else would God have allowed him to be born this way? Their only question was who sinned? Could this man have somehow sinned before he was born -- or was he being punished for sin his parents committed?

    This implies that God must be pleased with people who are doing really well. If we are ill or broke or injured, God must be upset with us. If things are going well, God must be happy with us. Simple.

    But Jesus busted this theory on the spot. He told them that no one sinned to cause the man to be born blind. He was born that way so that God could be glorified. He was born that way so Jesus could heal him and demonstrate his power in his life through the healing. It gave Jesus to opportunity to prove he was the Messiah. 

    Was this fair to the man -- to live the first years of his life in darkness so that Jesus could use him to demonstrate his power? We must realize that God is God and he is our creator. We wouldn't have life without him. We wouldn't be here if not for him. It is our privilege to serve him whatever it costs.

    But we have this promise from the Word: Paul tells us that all things work together for our own good if we belong to Jesus. It's not always easy to trust in God in all things, but it's always best.

Throwing the First Stone

John 8: 3 - 11 (NIV): The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?" They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" "No one, sir," she said. "Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin."

    Jesus was being set up in this situation. John tells us it was a trap. If Jesus had condemned her to death, as the Jewish law stated (Deuteronomy 22:22), he would have gone afoul of the Roman authorities -- who alone had the right to condemn a person to death. But if he failed to condemn her to death, he would have openly broken the Jewish law and shown himself to be a lawbreaker. 

    They thought they had him in a no-win situation. But Jesus was too smart for them. He neither condemned her to death, nor showed himself to be a lawbreaker. What he did showed his genius: he said, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her."

    Where was the man? The law also stated that the man must be stoned to death. But their hypocrisy is not the true message here, the true message is that we have all sinned and none of us has the right to throw that first stone. None of us should tell our neighbor he has a splinter in his eye when we have a plank in our own eye (Matthew 7:3).

    Jesus did not condone or overlook her sin; he told her to stop doing it, but he used this occasion to teach us not to judge others. We should hate sin and stand against it, but we should love people and offer them grace, not judgment. That's God's job.