The incarnate shepherd
by Emma Strelan
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As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered (Ezekiel 34:12).
In this part of Ezekiel, God accuses the Israelite leaders of failing to care for their nation. God declares that because they have not protected their ‘flock’ from the wild animals, cared for the weak or brought in the strays, God himself will.
Here, in the vivid imagery of prophets, we see God’s ultimate expression of his willingness to personally care for humanity. Couldn’t he have just sent some angels, another better king to protect them or even a human messiah?
Yet sure enough, true to prophecy, God came into the dirty world, trekked across dusty terrain, huddled by the fire on a cold night, slept on the floor with his sheep and kept one eye open for wolves and robbers.
In John 10, when Jesus embraces Ezekiel’s prophecy, the Jewish leaders don’t really know how to handle it. The fact that in the same passage they were more willing to proclaim this miracle worker as demon-possessed than acknowledge him as God shows just how undermining Jesus was.
For them to accept Jesus as God, the shepherd, would mean revaluating their whole interpretation of Scripture – imagine how much pride they’d have to swallow!
Perhaps the revolutionary nature of the Good Shepherd is lost on our modern understanding. But if words written hundreds of years before Jesus fulfilled them were to cause so much perplexity, they no doubt can do just as much for us now.
Jesus never intended to fulfil our expectations of who God should be. He wanted to short-circuit our pride and fear and transform our understanding through a personal experience with him.
What part of pride or fear stops you from seeing God as he truly is?
Lord, thank you for the promise you’ve given us of gathering your flock. Show me today where my pride is hiding a misconception that I have of you. Thank you that you’re a personal God, and that’s how you’ve chosen to reveal yourself. Continue to transform my understanding so that I trust in you and your promises. Amen.
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