Storyteller - Day 17

Thank you for joining me back here for Day 17 of this series, where we're blogging through "Storyteller", the latest online Bible study from Sarah Koontz at livingbydesign.org.

Today’s passage is one of my favourites - the parable of the Good Shepherd, which we read in John 10: 1 - 11 ...

“I assure you: Anyone who doesn’t enter the sheep pen by the door but climbs in some other way, is a thief and a robber. The one who enters by the door is the shepherd. The doorkeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought all his own outside, he goes ahead of them. The sheep follow him because they recognize his voice. They will never follow a stranger; instead they will run away from him, because they don’t recognize the voice of strangers.” Jesus gave them this illustration, but they did not understand what He was telling them. So Jesus said again, “I assure you: I am the door of the sheep. All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep didn’t listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved and will come in and go out and find pasture. A thief comes only to steal and to kill and to destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance." “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep."

Sheep are mentioned more than 200 times in the Bible, more than any other animal. They were important in the Ancient Middle East as sources of wool, milk, and meat, and throughout the Bible, sheep served as symbols for God’s people, while God is portrayed as the shepherd of His chosen flock. Why sheep, you might ask? Well, they do share certain characteristics with people, especially people who claim to belong to the one Good Shepherd. 1. Sheep are followers. They will follow another sheep, even to slaughter, or over a cliff. Following isn’t something sheep have to think about, it’s an instinct. Sheep will follow a shepherd they know well, but they are more inclined to follow other sheep. 2. Sheep remember faces. They recognize faces of other sheep, and even of humans who work with them regularly. Sheep remember who treats them well, and even more, they remember who handles them harshly. 3. Sheep find safety in numbers. Since predators attack those on the edges of the flock, sheep stick closely together. When they graze, sheep keep at least 4-5 other sheep in view. They are very social animals, and the instinct to flock is strong. 4. Sheep seldom walk in a straight line. When they walk  they track first to one side and then to the other, so they can always see what’s behind them. 5. Sheep can spot danger from up to 1500 yards away, but they have trouble finding a half-open gate without help. 6. Sheep are surprisingly dirty animals! Lambs might look cute and fluffy on greeting cards, but in reality adult sheep get all kinds of mud and muck stuck in their wool, making it clump together in nasty lumps.

It’s not a very flattering picture, when you think about the people of God being compared to sheep, is it??!! But there it is. Think about it: • We tend to follow each other more instinctively than we follow our Good Shepherd, even when we’ve been trained to recognize our own name and God’s distinctive call to us. • We tend to remember old hurts and grudges, and we prefer to avoid potential encounters with those who've hurt us in the past. • We tend to stick together with the same 4 - 5 people we know best, keeping them in our sights and huddling together. • We spend a lot of time looking behind us, making it hard to walk a straight line. • We can spot a distant threat more easily than an open gate in front of us. • Finally, we attract dirt, and we let it clump up and cling to us. Isaiah was spot on when he wrote, “All we like sheep have gone astray. We have all turned to our own way,and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6). And yet, God claims us as His own!! He knows each of us by name, and calls us into abundant life, leading us to safe pasture and sweet water. Immediately prior to this passage,  Jesus had just given sight to a man who had never seen before, and yet that man recognized him as God’s Messiah while the Pharisees, who should have recognized the One they’d been waiting for, were blind to God’s power working among them.

"Now, Jesus explains His miracle by comparing these respected religious leaders to thieves and bandits who only want to steal and destroy. By refusing to accept Jesus as God’s own Son, the Messiah for whom they claim to hope, the Pharisees threaten God’s people, stealing their hope, destroying their trust in God alone, who is the Good Shepherd," (Jo Anne Taylor).

Keep in mind that Jesus isn't only talking to the Pharisees, but to His own disciples. He’s talking to us. We have just as difficult a time as they did, when it comes to hearing Jesus clearly, and following where he leads us. But He keeps calling us. How do we enter into abundant life? This is where being a sheep pays off: 1. We enter through the true gate, following the true Shepherd’s voice, not that of thieves or strangers. We learn to recognize our Shepherd’s distinctive call by hearing it, repeatedly and frequently. 2. When we get dirty – as all sheep do – we turn toward our Shepherd to wash us clean. Through Christ’s sacrifice of Himself for our sins, we are cleansed of all unrighteousness and all the filth of our sin is washed away. Abundant life isn’t the goal. Instead, it's the result of following Jesus! We only have to accept His grace to enter into the abundant life He came to give us.

It's good to be a sheep!!