Daily Devotional • Februrary 23
A Reading from John 10:7-16
7 So again Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who came before me are thieves and bandits, but the sheep did not listen to them. 9 I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved and will come in and go out and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13 The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.
Meditation
In the last church where I served before I retired, there were large stained glass windows on both sides of the nave. One of them showed Jesus as the “Good Shepherd.” The window depicted him standing in a meadow holding a lamb. No doubt everyone who is reading this devotion has seen at least one similar window, painting, or illustration in a book.
I remember well from my Sunday school days the big black-and-white photograph of Jesus standing on a rock holding a lamb. These are compelling images. It’s all good; but the image is not complete. In today’s reading, Jesus identifies himself as the “good shepherd,” but the explanation he provides for the title is that he “lays down his life for the sheep”; he contrasts himself with the “hired hand who … runs away because [he] does not care for the sheep.”
In fact, a fighting shepherd is the primary image of a shepherd in both the Old and New Testaments. David tells Saul that he is able to knock Goliath over because “Your servant has struck down both lions and bears” (1 Samuel 17:36). Even the beloved Psalm 23, only six verses long (and written by that same David) presents the Shepherd as accompanying his servant through the shadow of death and preparing a table for that servant in the presence of enemies.
Most of us are not comfortable with images of battle as essential for a healthy spiritual life — hence the extremely popular image of Jesus with a lamb. But let us remember that one of the earliest books about the spiritual life is called Spiritual Warfare; from the days of Jesus’ earthly ministry and the Scriptural epistles, battling against evil is an essential truth in the life of a disciple. Let us not forget that — and fight.
David Baumann is a published writer of nonfiction, science fiction, and short stories. In his ministry as an Episcopal priest, he served congregations in Illinois and California.
♱
Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer
Today we pray for:
Mockingbird Ministries
Igreja Episcopal Anglicana do Brasil
