Jesus ~ The Good Shepherd

Tim Laniak is a professor at Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary and on a trip he took to the Middle East he spent a lot of time with shepherds. Tim travelled with the shepherds, slept in their tents, tended sheep with them and asked a lot of questions. One of the questions Tim asked was if the shepherds really knew their sheep. You may have heard the stories about how sheep only know the voice of their shepherd and how they will only follow that voice, but do shepherds really know each and every one of their sheep as well. The shepherds reply, yes, he knew each and every one of his sheep. He knew the year the sheep was born and the circumstances of its birth. He knew if it had broken any bones. He knew which diseases it's susceptible to, which foods it doesn't digest well. He knew which animals it doesn't get along with and he knew its temperament—if it tends to wander or fight or follow. Obviously if his sheep had names, this shepherd would have known each and every one of them.

So a good shepherd really does know his sheep, and as our Good Shepherd, Jesus really does know us, but what is it that Jesus knows about us? To answer this, let’s look at 4 people from the gospel to see what Jesus knew about them, the first is Nathanael. Nathanael was a friend of Philip, who was one of the first disciples of Jesus. When Philip told Nathanael that he believed Jesus to be the Messiah, Nathanael was skeptical. He couldn’t believe that anyone or anything good could from Nazareth, which is where Jesus grew up. When Jesus meets Nathanael he says… (John 1:47-49). Now a little background here is helpful. Many good Jews who were waiting for the Messiah to come would sit and read God’s word and pray under fig trees, so when Nathanael was sitting under the fig tree we take that to mean he was longing for and maybe even in that moment praying for the Messiah to come. He was a true Israelite who was longing for God’s kingdom and Jesus could see that in him. What Jesus knows about Nathanael is that while he might be skeptical – he was also longing for God’s kingdom. While he had his own doubts and prejudices, he was looking for the Messiah to come. What Jesus knows about Nathanael is the deepest longings of his heart.
When we say that as the Good Shepherd Jesus knows us, what we are saying is that Jesus knows the deepest longings of our heart. Jesus knows what we really want, the deeper longings and desires that often lie hidden under our own doubts and prejudices. This was made clear to me when I went to college. As I headed off to college I thought I wanted to experience the typical college life. My preconceived idea was that a good time was going to be found in all the things you associate with college parties. That’s what I wanted and that’s the environment in which I lived. My freshman year at MSU I lived in an all male dorm on an all freshman floor. Let’s just say it doesn’t get any more wild than that. It was what I thought I wanted, but as the Good Shepherd, Jesus knew what I really wanted – which was to be known and loved and accepted, and those relationships weren’t going to come from college parties but through a relationship with the Good Shepherd himself. God knew the deeper longing of my heart and life and when I began to turn to Jesus as the Good Shepherd, he helped me see that and accept his love and care. I think that’s what Jesus is doing with Nathanael here, he helps him see that the deepest longing of his heart, which was to see the Messiah and begin to experience the kingdom of God, was right there in front of him, in a man from Nazareth.

So Jesus knows the deepest longings of our heart. Even when we can’t articulate them clearly, even when they might lie hidden from us. Jesus also knows the things that holds us back in life and in faith. In Mark 10 is the familiar story of Jesus encounter with the rich young man. This young man had it all. He was faithful and giving and he followed the commandments all his life. He approaches Jesus and asks him what he must do to inherit eternal life and Jesus knows him so well that he knows the one thing that has held him back all his life. Mark 10:21-22 Jesus knows that the one thing holding this man back from a full, faithful and abundant life is greed and Jesus loves him enough to point that out to him.

Jesus knows us so well that he knows the one thing that holds us back in life and in faith. Well, I don’t know about you, but I think Jesus knows it is more than one thing that holds me back – so let’s say that Jesus knows all the things that hold us back in life and in faith and you know what? Jesus loves us enough to point them out to us. We may not like it when we feel challenged or convicted in certain areas of life, but are we willing to listen to God when he points out a problem to us? Our natural tendency is to get defensive when we are challenged. We don’t like to be told that we might need to change or go in a new direction. It is humbling – but God says that it is the humble that will be lifted up. It is the humble that will experience the fullness of life. So when we say that Jesus as the Good Shepherd knows us, what we are saying is that Jesus knows all the things that hold us back. He knows how we wander away from the truth and how we wander away from God and need to return and repent. Jesus knows how our greed, and pride, and self interest keeps us from experiencing the greater blessings of life or faith.

Jesus doesn’t only know those things that hold us back, he knows our sin as well. In the gospel of John is the powerful story of Jesus not only knowing the sin of the woman caught in adultery, but the sin of all the people who accuse her as well. In John 8 we see a woman who was caught in adultery being thrown in front of Jesus and the crowd wanted to know what to do with her. The law said to stone her – along with the man by the way, who was not brought to Jesus – and people were asking Jesus what to do with her. Now seeing the sin of this woman was easy – everyone saw it. It says she was caught in the very act – there was no hiding her failure, but what this story shows us is that Jesus didn’t just see her sin, he saw the sin of the crowd as well. Look at John 8:6. What people believe here is that when Jesus bent down to write in the sand, he wrote out the sins of the people gathered around him. So as people are watching him they begin to see their own failures written on the ground and my guess is that they began to ask themselves – how did Jesus know that? How did he know my sin? How did he know that about me?
As the Good Shepherd, Jesus knows everything there is to know about us. He knows our sin, all of it. There is nothing that we wrestle with today, nothing that we are trying to hide from others or from God that Jesus does not know, and while the reality of our sin can weigh us down with guilt and shame – notice that Jesus doesn’t use his knowledge of people’s sin to accuse them or judge them – instead he is willing to forgive them. What Jesus says to the woman he says to all of us today, “neither do I condemn you”. In John 3:17 it says that God did not send Jesus into the world to condemn the world but so that the world might be saved through him. God sent a good shepherd to save the sheep and to gather them together in order to experience the fullness of life. So Jesus knows our sin – all of it, every last detail and yet loves us still. Jesus knows our brokenness and our failures and yet sees beyond that to the deeper potential that lies within us. He really knows and he really loves us.

Let’s look at one last encounter. Again from the gospel of John Jesus has just begun his ministry and Andrew brings his brother Simon to meet Jesus and when Jesus sees Simon he immediately changes his name to Peter – which means Rock. Jesus immediately knows that Peter is the leader upon which he would build his church. Jesus knows Peter has potential. Did Jesus see the ways that Peter would fail Jesus, of course he did. I think in that initial meeting Jesus heard a rooster crow and knew Peter would deny that he even knew Jesus. But Jesus saw beyond that to the Peter who in the strength of God’s spirit would stand up and preach that Jesus is the Messiah and who would bring thousands of people into the kingdom of God.

As the good shepherd, Jesus doesn’t just see our sin and our failures, Jesus sees our potential. For me, this has always been the most encouraging part of my relationship with God. Jesus doesn’t just see my failures, he doesn’t just see my sin, he doesn’t just know that I am broken and needy – he sees the potential that lies deep within. He sees what we were created for, the good works God has planned for us and he sees us for who we are – which is sheep of God’s pasture, the lambs of God’s kingdom.
So when we say that as the Good shepherd Jesus knows us, what we are saying is that Jesus knows more than our name. He knows all of our hopes and dreams. He knows the deepest longings of our heart. He knows all our sin and failures and those things that hold us back in life. He knows it all, and yet he loves us enough to look beyond the failures to see the future God has for us all. Actually, as the good shepherd, Jesus doesn’t just look past the sin - he is the one who takes away our sin so that God’s potential and future can become a reality in our lives.

That’s the second part of what Jesus says when he says he is the good shepherd. Go back to John 10:15. I lay down my life for the sheep. This is not the first time Jesus said this. He said it in John 10:11 and will say it again in John 10:17-18. Jesus is clear that a good shepherd is willing to lay down his life for the sheep. A good shepherd is willing to run directly into danger in order to save the life of the sheep and that is exactly what Jesus has done for us. Because Jesus knows us so well and knows how our sin and will keep us from God and the life God has for us - and because he knows that we are powerless to overcome this on our own, he ran straight into the danger for us. Jesus willingly took up a cross – our cross – so that we might live. The empty tomb reminds us that sin and death – our sin and death – has been forgiven and overcome by God so that we might live – live eternally with God and live fully right here and now.

When we say that Jesus is our Good Shepherd, these are not empty words. As a shepherd, Jesus really does know us – he knows our hopes and dreams, he knows our failures and sin, and he knows our full God given potential. As the Good Shepherd, Jesus loves us enough to lay down his life so that we might be live. Jesus is our Good Shepherd, so let us listen for his voice and follow him today.