Every! Sheep! Matters!
FACT:
God is fervently, ardently calling His Holy Oddballs to step up and be selfless shepherds–shepherdesses, too.
Good shepherds that follow in the footsteps of the Savior.
Apprentices to the Chief Shepherd, learning His ways day in and day out.
Peter puts it like this:
Here’s my concern: that you care for God’s flock with all the diligence of a shepherd. Not because you have to, but because you want to please God. Not calculating what you can get out of it, but acting spontaneously. Not bossily telling others what to do, but tenderly showing them the way (1 Peter 5:2-3, The Message)…
The ESV uses a stronger word – I exhort you…
Exhort.
It’s not casual; it’s urgent.
It’s the Apostle Peter, passionately admonishing us as Jesus-followers.
It’s Peter, on his knees, pleading.
He’s beseeching us to shepherd whatever flock He has assigned to us in the midst of the world in which we are placed –
Showing them the way…
Leading them to the safest place where they can rest…
THE SAFEST PLACE FOR A SHEEP IS NOT BESIDE THE SHEPHERD, BUT NEAR HIS HEART, BETWEEN HIS SHOULDERS.
I feel the heaviness of Peter’s heart.
He’s seen sheep wander.
He knows the danger.
He’s carrying a weight for sheep being led astray by false teachers (2 Peter 2), the “wolves” sneaking in among the flock (Acts 20).
And, there’s Jesus’ own parable in Matthew 18:12-14…
What do you think? If any man has one hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go search for the one that is straying? And if it turns out that he finds it, truly I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine which have not gone astray…
Shamefully, I say, I don’t know my response…
Probably, I’d shrug my shoulders and hope for the best for that sheep-gone-missing…I still have 99 left.
Not a GOOD SHEPHERD – that’s not his heart.
EVERY SHEEP MATTERS.
Say it slowly — Every! Sheep! Matters!
There’s a story that sticks in my mind from the book While Shepherds Watch Their Flocks, by Timothy Laniak.
A shepherdess lost her favorite ewe.
She dropped everything.
For two months, she searched. She asked every passing shepherd. She wept. She prayed. She refused to give up.
Then one day, as another flock passed through her village, a single sheep lifted its head at the sound of her voice.
Her ewe!
The lost heard and responded.
She shrieked. She rejoiced; and, the village rejoiced with her. All for ONE EWE!
Two questions come to mind as I close.
What sheep in my world have gone missing?
Will I go in search?
Last week’s blog post? That was more about shepherds who will disciple – – teaching, reminding.
This week’s lesson? It’s about pursuit.
About diligence.
About refusing to let the wandering stay missing.
Oh, and Peter hints that there might even be a heavenly crown waiting (verse 5) – but, what will that matter ? Because, the lost has come back to the Shepherd. The wanderer has come home.
