The Beautiful Shepherd

August 12, 2016

The Beautiful Shepherd

I am the good shepherd.

The good shepherd sacrifices his life for the sheep.

John  10:11

The Prophet Ezekiel looked into Israel’s future and saw God the Messiah as Israel’s Good Shepherd. (Ezekiel 34) In today’s passage, Jesus fulfills that prophesy. Two statements Jesus made stand out to me.

First, Jesus expands Israel’s vision of God’s Kingdom: “I have other sheep, too, that are not in this sheepfold. I must bring them also. They will listen to my voice, and there will be one flock with one shepherd” (John 10:16). In Israel’s simplistic view of the world, there were only two kinds of people; Jews and their enemies the Gentiles, who were the rest of the world. Jesus said that God’s view of the world was even simpler. All the people of the world are God’s children. Some of the people were already with God’s sheepfold and all others are welcome; they are invited, and God is standing at the gate waiting patiently for them to come to Him. For the followers of Jesus, the people outside God’s sheepfold are not our enemies; they are not less than we are. They are dear ones for whom Christ has died and whom God is desperately hoping will come home to the Good Shepherd. For the followers of Jesus, for those of us within God’s sheepfold, we are one flock because there is only one Good Shepherd.

Secondly, the word in John’s Gospel translated good can also be translated as beautiful. When applied to Jesus, our Beautiful Shepherd, the word does not describe his appearance; it describes his self-sacrificing act of love that saved us from sin and death. That thought makes me sing with Casting Crowns,

Beautiful Savior, wonderful Counselor

Clothed in majesty, Lord of history

You're the way, the truth and the life

I will trust in the cross of my Redeemer

I will sing of the Lamb that never fails

Of sins forgiven, of conscience cleared

Of death defeated and life without end

Wonderful Counselor, beautiful risen One

Beautiful, beautiful one

Jesus You are worthy, beautiful, beautiful One

Jesus You're worthy, beautiful, beautiful One

You are worthy, beautiful risen One

(Beautiful Savior by Casting Crowns, written by Stuart Christopher Townend.)

Tonight, Cheryl and I will be attending a Casting Crowns concert at the Biltmore Estate – I hope we get to sing Beautiful Savior with them.

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188.