Shepherd

 

If you’re an artist, especially on social media, you might be familiar with the art challenge that comes every October: Inktober. It used to be much more popular on Instagram in the mid 2010’s, but from what I’ve seen, it’s still going strong. I myself decided to attempt it myself this year on my art Instagram. But when looking through all the different prompts, I found one called Inspired Inktober by Indie Beginning, a Christian creative page I follow. I thought, why not do some of these for this page and blog? So here we are with the first day I decided to do, which is Day 3: Shepherd.

              Time and time again, Jesus is referred to as “The Good Shepherd”. But what exactly does that mean? Jesus explains this in John 10:1-15;

“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.” This figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.

So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.”

            First, the Good Shepherd is loving. He says “The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” Later in this same book, Jesus says: “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15: 13). Jesus displayed the ultimate form of love by dying on the cross for you and me, and there is no greater love than that. It truly shows how much God loves us. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

              Secondly, The Good Shepherd is close to his sheep. Jesus says multiple times in this passage that “the sheep follow him, for they know his voice,” and “I know my own and my own know me.” Jesus is not just close to His sheep, but He is the one person that is able to be the closest to them. The hired hand is just there to help watch the sheep, but the sheep follow the shepherd. Scripture reminds us constantly that the Lord is near. Psalm 34:18 says, “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted.” Psalm 145: 18 says again, “The Lord is near to all who call on Him.” Because He is near, He knows us better than anyone else can, and we know Him as well. Once again, the Psalms remind us how the Lord knows us better than anyone else. Psalm 94:11 says, “The Lord knows the thoughts of man.” Psalm 1:6 says “The Lord knows the way of the righteous.” The Lord knows us as His own because He is near to us and we are near to Him.

              Lastly, the Good Shepherd gives us life. In verse 10, He says, “The thief comes only to steal kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” The enemy seeks to snatch and scatter the sheep, but the Good Shepherd lays down his life to destroy the enemy and give us life. After all, if the enemy is unable to destroy and kill us, we receive life, life from Jesus’s work on the cross, destroying the power of sin, death, and Satan. The Good Shepherd allows us to live abundantly, as said in Psalm 23:6, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”

              By allowing Christ to be our shepherd, we get to have life abundantly when we know Him and the work He did for us on the cross. No matter what we face, we do not have to fear, as said in Psalm 23:4, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” Jesus is the Good Shepherd, as shown through His life. He is the one you want to lead your life as such.