23 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall
not want.
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
3
He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of
righteousness
for his name's sake.
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.
5 You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
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.
Here in the 23rd Psalm we find words of comfort,
of peace, of healing, but we also find words which point us towards a leader- a
shepherd who will guide us to green pastures and still waters, a shepherd who
will walk beside us through the absolute worst of times- even through the
valley of the shadow of death! But that shepherd doesn’t just walk with us
through that terrible valley, no- instead, he brings us to a place where
goodness and mercy follow us the rest of the days of our lives, our cup
overflows, and we eat meals from a five-course banquet table, forever! What a
leader, what a shepherd—this is our God, this is Jesus.
We are the sheep, we are the followers, we are God’s own
Creation, and God’s own children, and this means we need a good leader, a good
shepherd to keep us together when things get tough, when we stray from the
flock and it feels like we’re lost and alone and the danger is all around us.
Right now, in our world, the danger is literally all around us. We are all
trying to do our part to stay home and shelter in place to keep the coronavirus
from spreading, and as such, since we are all connected through TV and internet
and phone calls and texts and emails, we are looking for leaders.
We are looking to those who are providing news updates for
leadership. We’re listening to the President and the guidance from the Vice
President’s task force. We’re listening to our Governor’s press conferences.
Personally, I listen a little extra hard when Dr. Birx and Dr. Fauci speak in
interviews or conferences because throughout this pandemic, I’ve come to trust
in the information and guidance they are providing. The truth remains, though,
we’re looking for leaders, we’re looking for the best and most current
information.
Misty and I are in a season of transition in the midst of
all this insanity and chaos. We’re looking for what God in store for us next,
and this week, just a couple of days ago, I was thinking through everything
prayerfully, and God responded to me in my thoughts. I realized God was
responding, God was speaking, and so quickly I asked, “God, what do you want us
to do, then? Where do you want us to go?” And God’s answer was, “Trust in me.”
That was it. Nothing more, nothing less. “Trust in me.”
Jesus tells us this much Himself in John 10. Jesus says, “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. And I
have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they
will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this
reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may 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 I have authority to take it up again. This charge
I have received from my Father.”
God sent Jesus to be our Good Shepherd. Jesus is the way and
the truth and the life, and through believing and trusting in Him, Jesus will
shepherd us to eternal life in Heaven- to those grand banquet tables with cups
overflowing, forever! The issue that we face is trust. Faith. Belief. We are
human, and we experience life with human instincts, human sight, human
interaction.
Faith in Jesus requires that we do the opposite of what we
can see and touch and understand with our physical, human brains- that we
believe in something we cannot see, we cannot touch, and cannot begin to
comprehend with our minds, chiefly the supreme authority and righteousness of
Almighty God, who created all things for His glory. Jesus says to us, “I am the
Good Shepherd. I will lay my own life down for you willingly because I alone am
able, trust in me.” It seems like such a small thing to require from us, faith,
belief, and yet this seemingly small, little thing can be such a huge and
life-changing action.
We’re all searching for leaders in the midst of a pandemic,
and yet, here is Jesus saying to us all, “I’m the Good Shepherd. I’m here for
all of you. I will keep you safe. I will lead you with justice and mercy and
goodness all the days of your life.” Sometimes it’s tough to follow the Good
Shepherd because our own faith holds us back from following Him completely,
totally, with our whole hearts and lives.
We have two dogs, Dixie and Dolly, and we are a pack. I am
the pack leader. I care for our puppies- I feed them and give them water and
treats, and I take them outside for walks and to do the other things they need
to do outside, like bark at squirrels and sniff the entire yard. Sometimes,
though, the dogs decide they want to do something else, something I don’t want
them to do- like when it’s raining and Dolly decides she wants to use her
basset hound nose to figure out every trail all over the yard as we get soaked,
or Dixie wants to investigate a noise and slips off her collar. Then I have to
go run all over the neighborhood to track her down because I don’t want
anything terrible to happen to her- that’s my job as the pack leader, to keep
the pack safe.
But sometimes, as a follower of Jesus, I’m just like my dogs
when they decide to do what they want, and not what I want. Sometimes, I am a
bad sheep. I go my own way; I do what I want to do, I stray from the flock,
happy to discover other pastures which my Shepherd hasn’t brought me to and
still- Jesus is the Good Shepherd. Jesus leaves the 99 to find me, that one bad
sheep and bring me back into the love and safety of the flock because that’s
what He does as the Shepherd of us all- Jesus loves us, unconditionally, Jesus
wants nothing more than the very best for us, Jesus wants to walk with us every
minute of every day, and when we run away from Him, He runs right back to us
with open arms full of love. Jesus wants us to trust in Him because He wants
nothing more than to love us so that through Him, we can share His love with the
rest of the flock, the whole world!
Peter says this about Jesus, our Good Shepherd: “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die
to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the
Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”
Jesus saw that His flock was hurting and
scattered because of sin- we all had abandoned the ways of God and found
whatever pastures we wanted, and some of us were living daily in the valley of
the shadow of death. Jesus came from Heaven, put on human flesh and walked with
us as our Good Shepherd on earth, and died on the cross as a sacrifice for our
sins because that’s what the Good Shepherd does- when wolves attack, the
Shepherd lays down His own life to protect the flock, and this is what our Good
Shepherd has done. We went astray, but Christ our Shepherd laid down His life
to bring us back together, back into God’s love, back to the safety of God’s
own flock. Through Christ, we are healed. Through Christ, we can know love and
safety and peace once more. Through Christ, we find the eternal, abiding love
of a Shepherd who will never forsake us.
As we continue to care for one another, and
check up on friends and family, and try to create some sense of normalcy in
perhaps the least normal time in human history, Jesus wants you to know today
that He is your Good Shepherd. Jesus will lead you to those green pastures and
beside still waters. Jesus will walk beside you through these valleys within
the shadow of death all around us. Jesus will prepare a table before us with
cups overflowing, forever.
Just as I received this Good Word from God, I
pass it along to all of you now: God says, “Trust in Me.” Jesus is the leader
we need, and all He requires of us is to believe in Him. Go now and place your
faith and your hope and all your trust in the Good Shepherd, our Savior, Jesus
of Nazareth, who is Christ the Messiah. Go in peace, in the name of God the
Father, and God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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