The Good Shepherd — Fight & Divine Intervention
My name is Dr. Ken Bailey. It was my privilege to teach New Testament for almost 40 years across the Middle East, mostly in Arabic, and the subject we have is a continuation of our series of studies on primary images for leadership in the New Testament. We looked first at servant, (...) and we have introduced the subject of the Good Shepherd.
... this particular hymn breaks into three sections, and all three sections of them are critically important. We can only skip over them very, very quickly and in a very cursory manner.
The wolf attacks, there is a hireling, (an assistant shepherd), and the hireling gets scared and runs away. The wolf attacks, and there's a fight between the wolf and the shepherd, but the fight is not recorded. And by the time the fight is over, the wolf is either killed or driven away.
We're not told which it is, but we are told that the shepherd dies. Jesus is talking about his own crucifixion. We can't be absolutely sure what the symbols are that he's talking about. We've got two primary symbols. The shepherd is Jesus. The sheep are obviously those who believe in him, but who is the wolf and who is the hireling? The best guess that we can give to them is that he is talking in symbolic language, and the wolf is the imperial power of Rome, which everybody hated, but he can't dare mention them because then he would immediately get arrested.
And the hireling is probably the high priesthood and the office of the high priest that had become incredibly corrupt, and the high priest became high priest by buying off the Romans, and they made a lot of money off the people coming to try and make the sacrifices, and by the time of Jesus, they were passing on the priesthood from one member of the family to another, and they managed to control this very powerful institution for about four decades, and everybody hated them but couldn't do anything about it because they had this league with the Romans buying the Romans off, and the whole thing was a mess. The two powers, one was the political military power of Rome, and the other was the religious power of the high priesthood and their minions. So what we're told in the story here, I am the good shepherd, the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
That's where this fight with the wolf begins. Two lines. The first line is identity, "I am the good shepherd," and the second line is lifestyle, "I lay down my life for the sheep".
Every single person has got to answer those two questions, who am I and what should I do?
The first one is a question of identity, and the second is a question of lifestyle, and both of those show up in this initial phrase.
But one of the amazing things of the very careful construction of this fight with the wolf is that we start off with these two great phrases, I am the good shepherd, and of course, the emphasis should be I am the good shepherd. We've seen all the way through the Hebrew scriptures that God again and again promises that one day he's going to come and round up the lost sheep.
We saw that in Psalm 23, it's also available in Jeremiah 23, and Ezekiel 34 has got 36 verses all talking about this subject, and this theme is loud and clear. God speaking to the prophet says to the people, one day I, I am going to come myself, and I am going to round up the lost sheep. All right, Jesus shows up and he says, "I am the good shepherd".
My identity is the divine presence of God, so we start off with I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep, and at the end of this big scene with the wolf, this is repeated. Only those two lines are separated.
I am the good shepherd is there, and I lay down my life for the sheep is there. Think of it as a sandwich, a sandwich bun, if you please, that Jesus declares at the beginning. At the bottom he slices it in half, and in the middle there is a slice of cheese and a meat patty, and now you got a sandwich.
Well, what does he put for the slice of cheese and the meat patty? It's utterly amazing.
As the father knows me, and I know the father. Think of three links of a chain, big links, and the three of them are all hooked together. So, Jesus in the middle, and the community that believe in him are at the bottom, and the two are linked, and he says, as we just said it, I know my own and my own know me.
There is an intimate relationship between me and those who believe in me. That's the first line. And then, as, in like manner, as, and now we get the ring at the top.
As the father knows me, and I know the father. Namely, the intimate relationship between the father and the son is a model of the intimate relationship between the son and the believing community. The first is the meat, is the slice of cheese, and the second is the meat patty, and those two are put in the middle of the sandwich that talks about, I am the good shepherd, and I lay down my life for the sheep.
In some very deep, profound theological sense, that interlocking of intimacy that takes place in the middle is because of the reality of the cross. Now, when you get this all figured out, write to me. I think we're dealing here with symbolic language that affirms meaning that is beyond the potential for us getting our minds around fully, or certainly beyond our ability to try and express in words.
It's the kind of a thing that you feel a deep truth resonating in your own soul, and if somebody asks you to explain it, you really can't do it like I can't really quite do it now. I've gone some way in that journey. I've been reflecting on this for 30 years, but I'm not done.
I'm still trying to find out the depth of what is being said here. That's the first scene. The last scene at the bottom is Jesus talking, and he says,
the Father loves me because I lay down my life that I may take it again.
No one takes it from me. I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down.
I have power to take it again. This commandment I have received from the Father. Now, this is amazing language.
Jesus himself says, I lay down my own life, and I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. And (seeing) the Muslim community also, this is a word important for us in the back of our minds as we increasingly, in a worldwide scene, are obliged to deal with the world of Islam. They deny that the cross has taken place because they think they are honoring Jesus by denying the cross.
Why? In their view, God always supports his prophets, and here you Christians have got a story about how the great prophet Jesus, whom they respect, got beaten up on and his opponents overwhelmed him. Well, it couldn't be true. I mean, God never allows that to happen to any of his great prophets, so it couldn't possibly have happened to Jesus.
Well, what about this story? Well, probably somebody who looked like him was crucified in his place, and some Muslim commentators have said, well, it might have been Judas or whatever, but it couldn't have been Jesus because God "wouldn't have allowed" that to happen. This text speaks to that. Jesus is not overcome by his enemies.
He surrenders himself, and he is victorious. I have power to lay it down. I have power to take it again.
This is the vision of witness to the outside world. I must bring them also, and they will heed my voice, and there's the task of going beyond the believing community, and there will be one flock and one shepherd, and there's the end goal and result of that reaching out to the outside world.
HU
