This week on Sunday we will be looking at Jesus’ statement – I am the Good Shepherd.   I have been looking throughout the Bible at different references to sheep and shepherds.  They are found throughout Scripture.  One that has been sticking with me is the passage found in Isaiah 53.  Let’s look at it together.

Surely he took up our pain
    and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
    stricken by him, and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions,
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
    and by his wounds we are healed.

We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
    each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed and afflicted,
    yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
    and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
    so he did not open his mouth.

It is in the nature of sheep to wander off.  We all have a tendency to wander off and go our own way.  Jesus our Good Shepherd lays down His life for us in the midst of our wandering because that’s what it takes to bring us home.  Many of us may struggle to relate to the illustration of sheep and shepherd because it is not as familiar as it would have been to those in the time of Jesus.  Think of what lengths you might go to save your child if they wandered off.  You would search and hunt and ask others to help and do anything in your power to recover your child.  Even risking your own wellbeing to recover them.  That is what Jesus does for us we go our own way and wander off.  Thanks be to Jesus for His incredible love for us His children and his wandering sheep.

In His Grip,

Pastor Dave