Tuesday, May 5
It strikes me strange that in world of nuclear weapons, super computers, multi-billion dollar industries, and every power known to man, one tiny bat somewhere in China has been able to bring a greater part of the world to its knees. How could something so small and so insignificant effect so great a change in the world in such a period of time?
When we think of making the world a better place we think big—food drives, construction projects, and world politics. Does God think this way too?
He culminated the greatest of all his projects by sending Jesus into the world as its Messiah. For centuries God inspired prophets to talk about the glory day when the Messiah would come into Israel to lead them into an era unmatched in its history. While Israel was sitting on the edge of its seat, Jesus surprised them and came—not to Jerusalem, as they would have expected, but to the land of “darkness”—a remote part of Galilee. And when he did show up in Jerusalem, he seemed to dodge the Messiah question (John 10:22-30).
They asked:
“How long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” Jesus answered them, “I told you and you do not believe. The works I do in my Father’s name testify to me. But you do not believe, because you are not among my sheep.”
What a strange turnaround. The people are talking big ideas—the coming of the Messiah—and Jesus talks about being a lowly shepherd. It is as though a powerful business person entered a city and people expected him to open a plant that would employ thousands of their workers, and, instead, he opened a small school with a handful of unimpressive students. Jesus was more interested in his relationship with a few sheep than he was in running a billion-dollar government.
He stayed stuck on the sheep topic.
“My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one can take them out of my hand.”
It seems that the only people who had the ability to recognize Jesus as Messiah were his sheep. They were the only ones who could “hear” his voice and know him in an intimate way. And, though these sheep looked like a bunch of nobodies, they were about to receive a new injection of life from Jesus—what he called “eternal life.” So focused was he on his sheep that he declared no one had the power to steal them from his hands.
Jesus was a master in changing the subject and getting down to what was important. A Messiah might rule thousands of people; a Shepherd cared about each of his sheep. A Messiah might be concerned about organizing a million-person army; a Shepherd cared about protecting his little sheep from thieves who wanted to steal or kill them.
To know that Jesus is Messiah, we must first experience him as our loving Shepherd. When that happens we begin to recognize his voice and know it is the voice of God. How this will play out in solving all the problems of the world is beyond our ability to understand. That Jesus is the solution, that God is putting all of creation under his footstool, and that in spite of his greatness he will never lose sight of even one of his sheep, is the heart of our faith.
“My sheep hear my voice” (John 10:27).
