December 23, 2024

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY: Faith, Peace, Joy, LOVE

“He tends his flock like a shepherd.
  He gathers the lambs in his arms.
He carries them close to his heart.
  He gently leads those that have young.” (Isaiah 40.11)

“And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby. They were keeping watch over their flocks at night.” (Luke 2.8)

REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD during the Fourth Week of Advent 2024:

Jesus said to His disciples, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15.13) Jesus said to His disciples, “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” (Luke 19.10) Luke writes, “When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.’” (Luke 2.15) If you listen to most Bible teachers and pastors, you will hear two descriptive words given as fact where it concerns sheep and shepherds: dirty and dumb. You don’t even have to worry about which word applies to which as the same is applied to both. As I mentioned in yesterday’s reflection on the transformative power of “love,” the sheep and shepherds of Bethlehem were not ordinary. They belonged to two houses: the House of the Lord in Jerusalem and the House of David in Bethlehem. Their representation in the story of Jesus’ birth and consequently His death is significant. It is significant because of their mission and purpose in all of Israel. By default, it is significant because of the mission and purpose to all of us. They are vital elements in the act of redemption and salvation.

The act of redemption is seen in the “sacrificial lamb.” John the Baptizer, Jesus’ cousin, announced to those who had come to the Jordan River where he was baptizing, “Behold, the Lamb of God who comes to take away the sins of the world.” (John 1.29) Luke would include the story of the Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch to elaborate on the sacrifice which Jesus made for our sins. He cited the passage from Isaiah 53, which the Eunuch was reading that said, “He was led like a sheep to the slaughter. As a lamb before its shearer, He remained silent and did not open His mouth.” (Isaiah 53.7) But, not just any lamb would suffice to serve as the offering of redemption. The lamb had to be perfect and spotless. It was the shepherd’s duty and responsibility to provide such lambs for the Temple rituals. I believe they were emblematic of the same sacrifice which God made in the Garden of Eden to provide covering for Adam and Eve upon their confession of sin which served also as they profession of faith in God alone. God redeemed them from the clutches of their failure to follow His command to not eat of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Their eyes were opened to the shame which Satan used as a tool to drive a wedge between God and His people. In the Garden there would have only been pure and spotless sheep. No other sheep would do. So, too, is said about Jesus who gave His life as an atonement for our sins in order to redeem us, reconcile us and restore back to the flock of favor in the eyes of God, the Good Shepherd.

Here we are given to the understanding of salvation in the role of “the good shepherd.” As mentioned above in the introduction, Jesus taught the disciples, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” We know that Jesus comforted His disciples by telling them they were no longer servants but friends because servants do not know the will of the Master. Jesus was revealing the will of God in that moment. He was going to lay down His life for their sake and for ours. It was an act of great love which He shared with His Father. They were “good shepherds” who desired the salvation of everyone. Jesus professed, “I have come to seek and to save what was lost.” He was willing to lay down His life for our sake. He was without sin, yet He took sin, our sin, upon Him and bore it on the cross. He sacrificed His life to save what was lost. There was no other way. The Bethlehem shepherds were emblematic of that mindset and commitment. Their intentions were pure and holy. Their lives sanctified and set apart for the good work of God.

So, as I listen to the “poor” image given to shepherds and how they represent a life of deficit, I shudder to think how wrong we have been. To be “lowest of low” does not intimate unworthiness. God has always revealed Himself in ways of humility so as to bring in “the least of these.” In so doing, God includes the whole spectrum of people as being worthy of salvation. Of course, that salvation is freely given. It must be taken as well. The effort to “be saved” and to “receive one’s salvation” is required. It is this effort we see in the birth narrative of Jesus in Bethlehem. The shepherds did not “abandon” their flocks. They put into practice the sharing of responsibility. We do not know how many shepherds the angel of the Lord appeared to. It may well have been them all as a hugely shared event. What we do know is that some of those “certain poor shepherds” decided to go into Bethlehem and see what had been “done” to them. When Jesus tells the story of “The 99 and 1,” I have to consider that He was reflecting on this story which His mother Mary shared with Him later. Those certain shepherds left the 99 and went in search of the 1. Was Jesus lost? No, but He wasn’t “found” yet either. He had to be sought after and claimed as one of their own. They did this as the sun broke gloriously over the eastern horizon. They were not dishonorable, lazy, ill-informed shepherds. They were of the line of royal shepherds descended from David, King of Israel and a shepherd boy himself and the son of Jesse. Their story was one of a great love for the flock entrusted to them and the message as well of the Lamb of God. It is our legacy, mighty ones of God, which we must commit to and put into practice lest the lost be lost and never given the opportunity (as Philip gave to the Eunuch) to profess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, before we were conceived in the womb, You had already formed us in Your love and by Your Spirit brought us into being. Each one of us is blessed with the opportunity of doing right, being good and producing the fruit of the Spirit in order that others be fed the truth of that same love so that the two will become one. It is our soul’s sincere desire to embrace the oneness You have in mind so we would know we are Your people and You are our God. Lead us in that discovery of the truth and the manifestation of that love for us all. In Jesus’ name, we pray. AMEN.