Magyar Egyház, 2004 (83. évfolyam, 1-4. szám)
2004-07-01 / 3. szám
4. oldal MAGYAR EGYHÁZ the Good Shepherd John 10:11-15 It is not always easy to believe that God cares for each one of us. So many terribele things can happen to shake one’s faith, it is no wonder that people sometimes question wheter God really cares. Yet, of all the claims made by God in Jesus, none is clearer than that God does care. „I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd gives his life for the sheep” (John 10:11). This word-picture is often used in the Bible to describe God’s relationship to his people. There is the Twenty-third Psalm, „ The Lord is my shepherd”, or the Eightieth Psalm, „Give ear, O, Shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a flock”. There is Isaiah 40:11, „He shall feed his flock like a shepherd; he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom”. This symbol of Jesus as the godd shepherd was a favorite one in the Early Church, as many be judged by the frequency with which it has been found in the catacombs, the burial places beneath the city of Rome where the early Christians used to gather secretly for their services in order to escape capture and death. To be the good shepherd means sacrifice. The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep. Any parent, pastor, or teacher charged with the welfare of others knows the sacrifice it means in terms of time, money, effort, and weariness. The leader of any kind of a group, knows that without sacrifice on the part of the leader the group cannot succeed. God sacrificed his Son to a world which killed him on a cross. But our Lord counted no sacrifice too great if it would help people to see that he was showing them what God was like and how they ought to live. To be a good shepherd means watchfulnes, standing by in every danger. Jesus contrasted himself to the bad shepherd who didn’t really care anithing about the sheep and who ran away as soon as a wolf appeared to destroy the sheep. The good shepherd of our soul is watchful of every danger, and stands guard to help in every time of emergency. Have you never been given strenght beyond your understanding to meet some crisis ? Have you never had the tears wiped away by the divine Shepherd when you never thought it was possible ? Have you not been divinely guided to put together again the broken pieces of your life when they seemed like scattered blocks upon the floor ? The good shepherd os always watching over his flock. They are never left alone. He is always the silent sentinel. To be a good shepherd means to have personal knowledge of the sheep. „I ... Know my sheep and they know me” (John 10:14). It is a personal relationship. The contrast is to the bad shepherd, to whom the sheep are just a bunch of animals and to whom the shepherd is nothing but some figure stnding by. The good shepherd knows his sheep one by one, and they know him. This is the relationship between God and man. Just as any father knows his children individualy whether they be one or ten, so the Heavenly Father knows his children as individual people no matter how infinite the number may be. It is easy to forget this in the vastness of the universe, yet the Scriptures plainly teach that even the very hairs of your head are numbered and that not even a sparrow falls to the ground without God’s knowledge. Experience in prayer reinforces this conviction that the relationship between God and man is a personal one. I, for one, don’t pray to some cosmic principle or infinite mind. I pray to a heavenly father as I find him in Jesus Christ, for a heavenly father has something to say to me as a person. Prayer has been defined as „friendship with God” and a friend is one who knows all about me, as I believe He does, our relationshipis that of person to person. We are not just a numbered creation in the universe. We are members of the Good Shepherd’s flock, just as surely to the Heavenly Father is to the man next door. When Jesus sai he was the good shepherd, he knew that meant sacrifice and watchfulness and personal knowledge of the sheep. It is the wonderful assurance that God always cares, that he is the shepherd of our souls. He has come in order that you might have life - life in all its fullness. You can see the following Scripture readings: John 10:1-18 The good shepherd - John 10:19-31 My sheep - Psalm 23 The Lord is my shepherd - Psalm 80 Shepherd of Israel - Isaiah 40:1-11 Feed his flock - Jeremiah 23:1-4 The sheep of my pasture - Ezekiel 34:1-10 Shepherds and sheep - Ezekiel 34:11-19 Feed my flock - John 21:15-19 Feed my sheep - John 3:14-21 God gave - Matthew 9:36-38 Sheep with no shepherd - Matthew 12:10-13 A man is better than a sheep - Luke 12:1-7 The hairs of your head - Hebrews 13:20-25 The great shepherd. S.S. •k'ic’k'k'k'k'kJrklt'k'k Godlessness „ We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven. We have grown in numbers, wealth, and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and which multiplied, and enriched, and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us. ” —Abraham Lincoln
