The Shepherd, the sheep, the wolf, and the dog

In John 10, Jesus uses yet another set of metaphors to illustrate how things work in His kingdom:

"I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12The hired hand is not the shepherd who owns the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. 13The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.

14"I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— 15just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. 17The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. 18No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father."

There are many lessons to be drawn from this passage: Jesus' love for us, the inclusion of Gentiles in His plan, Jesus' deity...but I want to focus on the roles mentioned here: The Shepherd, the sheep, the wolf, and the one not mentioned, but surely present, the dog. I have problems from time to time getting my role straight.

It's not the Shepherd I want to be. That job is too big. I gladly cede that responsibility and sacrifice to Jesus. I don't aspire to be the wolf either, and I don't think I have been. I have no desire to harm the sheep, and I certainly don't want to engage in conflict with the Shepherd.

No, even though, clearly in this passage, I'm a sheep, I'm too often not content with that. All that following around, surrendering my will to the Shepherd all the time. "I'm smarter than that," I tell myself. What was Jesus thinking here? Who wants to be associated with sheep?

I want to be the dog!

Yep, that's right, the dog! The dog is smarter than all the sheep and acts as the "assistant" to the Shepherd. Sometimes I get myself into trouble, arrogantly assuming the Shepherd needs my assistance to "herd" those stupid sheep.

But then I wander off myself; I get lost, and I remember. If I were the dog, I wouldn't have been dumb enough to leave my master's side. If I were the dog, I'd have enough sense to find my way back to Him. But I don't.

Just like all the other sheep, I need my Shepherd to come rescue me when I wander off.

You ain't broke. Don't act like it.

Eph 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ:
Eph 1:4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blemish before him in love:
Eph 1:5 having foreordained us unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ unto himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
Eph 1:6 to the praise of the glory of his grace, which he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved:
Eph 1:7 in whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,
Eph 1:8 which he made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence,
Eph 1:9 making known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he purposed in him
Eph 1:10 unto a dispensation of the fulness of the times, to sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens, and the things upon the earth; in him, I say,
Eph 1:11 in whom also we were made a heritage, having been foreordained according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his will;
Eph 1:12 to the end that we should be unto the praise of his glory, we who had before hoped in Christ:

Thanks so much to my new friend Gary for reminding me of the riches of a life in Christ.

Cash for Atari games

Sony executives, seeking to boost floundering software sales for their popular game consoles, have decided to emulate the federal government's "Cash for Clunkers" program. The Board of Directors voted yesterday to allocate $50 million dollars in rebate monies for customers who can trade in their old Atari 2600 games in exchange for a $20 dollar rebate after purchasing selected new PS2, PSP, or PS3 video games.

"This program obviously works," commented Sony VP of Marketing, Navin Johnson. "Look at the Cash for Clunkers program. People came to the dealerships in droves to buy their new cars. I predict sales for our new games will skyrocket over the next month."

This move is not unanimously well-thought of within Sony, however. Many who oppose this plan fear that the rebates will take away any profit made from the sales of the games.

"It's simple math," said an unnamed Sony executive.

Additionally, because only certain titles are are part of the rebate program, many fear the customers will be less than enthusiastic.

"If they could buy 'Guitar Hero' or one of our EA Sports titles, I think customers would be excited. But 'Superstar Table Tennis' and 'SimCity:Accountants' aren't going to sustain interest."

Still, early results show demand outstripping the money allocated. There's already talk of extending the program among some execs.

"Sure they're coming," countered the unnamed executive. "People think it's free money. All we're doing is flushing money down the toilet. Our sales numbers will appear to go up, but our bottom line won't show any improvement. If anything, this idea will put us under over time. You can't just give away something for nothing and stay in business."

Spirit-led into the wilderness

A little-noticed truth is found in Matthew 4:1:

1Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.

What follows, of course is the account of Jesus successfully fending off the efforts of Satan to tempt him into sin, thus destroying God's plan of salvation. Many sermons and commentaries have focused on the nature of the temptations, the ability of Satan to use scripture as a weapon, and Jesus' resultant understanding of our humanity. A core revelation can be discovered in verse one, however: The Holy Spirit led Jesus into this confrontation. This truth has much to offer us as followers of Christ.

Often, we are perplexed when trials and tribulations enter our lives. More often, we assume that these trials are only negatives and must be the product of Satan. While Satan may be the author of the trial or temptation, this passage, along with the story of Job and countless other biblical examples, shows us that the Spirit often leads us toward these spiritual battles.

These times in our lives are often painful, causing us to cry out "Why" to God. All too often we don't really stick around for the answer. We breathe a sigh of relief when the crisis has passed, and resume our everyday business, ignorant of the lessons just put before us. In this brief passage, we can plainly see that God does put tumult in our lives, and He does so for very good reasons.

Where would Jesus have been without doing battle with Satan? Where would we be? Could we really sing "Jesus knows all about our troubles" without this spirit-led confrontation? No, Jesus, led by the spirit, endured Satan's blows in order to prepare Him to serve us as our savior. Of course, this was just a precursor to the final battle, in which Jesus gained final victory over death.

If the Spirit was willing to send Jesus into harm's way, should we as disciples of Christ expect any different? Of course not. We are often missing some important qualities that would enable our experiences to be as successful as Jesus'.

First, Jesus was prepared. When Satan launched his attacks on Jesus, Jesus was armed with spiritual armor, most importantly, the sword of the word of God. When Satan thrust at a perceived weak point, Jesus parried with truth from God's scriptures.

Second, Jesus was willing to endure. Despite being extremely hungry, he resisted the temptation to feed his own needs. He was willing to endure the short-term pain to win the battle against temptation.

Finally, Jesus was able to learn from His ordeal and pass on His wisdom to His disciples, and ultimately to all of us. This not a moment witnessed by the writers of the Gospels. It was no doubt passed on to them by Jesus' own testimony. How often are we unable or unwilling to share our struggles with others, when the knowledge of our battles could help someone else going through the same thing?

Lord, grant us the focus to study your word, give us the strength to endure our moments of persecution, and allow us to be courageous enough to share those moments with others so that our victories need not be just our own.