Who is Jesus to Us?

When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd.  So he began teaching them many things (Mark 6:34)

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We all have to find our niche in life.  In order to do this, we must have companied with Jesus: we must know Him as more than a personal Savior (Oswald Chambers: My Utmost for His Highest).

Of all the animals on earth, a sheep without a shepherd is the most lost.  Alligators can take care of themselves, hummingbirds can find food; even cats, if necessary, can fend for themselves without a caretaker.  But sheep --- they have no claws, no sharp teeth, no skunk odor to ward off predators; they have no horns with which to defend themselves and their little ones, or wings with which to take flight.  Sheep cannot even find their own food.  They depend upon the shepherd to lead them to green pastures.

And once the shepherd leads them to the "tableland," as it is called in Hebrew, even then, he cannot allow them to enter the field until he has gone before them with his "rod and his staff" to ferret out the snakes hiding in the green grass, and to pluck out the poisonous weeds that the sheep would unknowingly swallow.

Even in the lush meadow, the shepherd must remain vigilant.  The lion and the wolf lie in wait for the shepherd to fall asleep.  And there are worms that bury themselves in the tender spot on the sheep's head, in order to lay their eggs.  Those eggs sink deep into the brains of the sheep in order to hatch, thereby destroying the sheep from within.  The only defense against these burrowing destroyers is the oil with which the shepherd annoints his sheep, rubbing it into their forehead to block the entrance of the worm.  (I can just imagine the sheep closing his eyes and "purring" as the Shepherd rubs his head with oil.)

And sheep are notoriously dumb.  They wander away from the flock and the shepherd, falling off cliffs and into ravines wherein they cannot extricate themselves.  They break their legs and are unaware of danger until it is too late.  They have no idea where they need to go next.

All throughout the Old Testament, God promises to be a Shepherd for Israel; in the New Testament, Jesus says, "I am the Good Shepherd!"  For those who know how to hear, He is claiming to be the God of the Old Testament, who will lead Israel into safe pastureland and watch over them.  Each one of us is "Israel;" together, we are all "Israel."  There is only one flock and one Shepherd.  If we want to find our safe pasture, if we want to know where we belong in the great plan of Divine Providence, if we want to find our mission in life, there is only one way.  We must place ourselves under the care of the Good Shepherd, who alone knows how to pasture the sheep.  We must finally admit that our "claws" have no power to defend us; our teeth have no bite; we cannot defend ourselves against our enemies, no matter how much we scream and cry and yell.  We are not our own; we belong to Another, to the One Who has laid down His life for the sheep.  If we cannot trust Him with our lives, then He is not the Good Shepherd, and His words to us are all in vain.