Do You Trust the Good Shepherd?
“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me.” John 10:11-14
When I was in junior high school I worked several summers at a Boy Scout camp in South Carolina. I helped lead a program called “Pathfinders” that spent the whole week with the youngest scouts at the camp. Over the course of the week we taught them many skills like how to build a fire, tie knots, and how to safely use an axe to chop wood. On the final night of each week, we took the whole group camping to show the young boys how all of the skills we had been teaching them were useful in the woods. For many of our scouts, this was the first time they had been camping. If you’ve ever been camping before, you know that there are many strange noises in the woods at night.
One particular night, we were camping with the boys when we heard a loud noise coming from the woods. Being the leaders of the group, we rushed out of the tents to check it out. As we gathered in the middle of the campsite, we heard the same noise, only louder. One of the leaders got scared and ran away in the opposite direction. The rest of us stayed to protect the group of young scouts sleeping in their tents. As we shined our flashlights into the darkness, we found the source of the noise…a stray dog. Even though the dog was no danger to the group, we were prepared to protect our group.
In this verse, Jesus calls himself “the good shepherd” and He talks about his love for His flock, Christians. Unlike the hired hand, who has no relationship with the flock, Jesus never ran the other way. Jesus gave his life to protect and guard the flock He knows by name. This is good news for Christians. Jesus is our good shepherd and he is always with us, during the hard times and the easier times. The big question is: Do you trust the Good Shepherd or do you only trust yourself?