“Those who are in a state of innocence attribute nothing of goodness to themselves, but regard all good things as received and attribute them to the Lord; they wish to be led by Him and not by themselves; they love what is good and find delight in what is true.” -Heaven and Hell §280 (1)
As a hospital and oncology chaplain, I recall that the image of Jesus as the good shepherd was very important to people who were ill; it brought great comfort to cancer patients, psychiatric patients, cardiac patients and others to “pray to the Good Shepherd” – to be carried when they felt lost and scared. Have you ever had a sense that you needed to be led, protected and guided…when you were lost, in trouble and scared?
In some ways, we are a lot like sheep… even though this metaphor may not be to our liking – because it may imply being a “simple follower”. We want to think of ourselves as independent, clever & self-sufficient. but, especially after the uncertainty of the covid pandemic, wars that seem to go on and on, and the threat of artificial intelligence and nuclear annihilation… Many today long for a sense of safety, and for a “Good Shepherd” who will lead us through the valleys that try our souls.
It is very healthy, spiritually to need God and to do our best to follow God. But the point is not so much who we are as sheep, but it is who Jesus is as the shepherd. As we pause to listen to the Word, we might notice that Jesus contrasts himself as shepherd to a “hired hand” (John 10:1-10). A hired hand was part-time and looked after the sheep, but a hired hand didn’t care as much about them as one who owns the sheep. Jesus is the Good Shepherd who owns each and every precious creation and who loves all dearly. He cares about all people & he cares deeply about you, personally, even when you do not feel it or acknowledge him. There are no limits to how far the Good Shepherd will go to care for you, even if it means going to extremes to protect you. It’s important to hear and to know that there are no limits to how far the Lord will go, even allowing suffering on our part, opening the way for trials to come so that, in the eternal view, we not only survive, but thrive.
Now get this! Back in the day, when shepherding sheep was a common career path, if there was a sheep that would consistently run away, leave the flock or simply wander off, there was the danger of wolves killing it and making the rest of the flock vulnerable to attack. A good shepherd would prevent that sheep from the ravages of the wolves, by doing something pretty drastic in order to help the sheep learn to stay close. The shepherd would take that specific sheep and break its legs. Then, the shepherd would care for the sheep’s legs, bandage them up and wrap up the legs, and then carry that sheep on his shoulders until the legs of the sheep were healed. This whole process took a lot of time and energy and focus on the shepherd’s behalf, giving direct one-on-one care to that single sheep. After this whole process took place, that sheep experientially learned to stay very near to that shepherd.
The process of suffering and healing taught the sheep to stay next to the shepherd. The suffering, though painful for both sheep and shepherd, ultimately protected the individual and the flock. There is no degree to what God will do to care for us… even allowing suffering to come, in order to invest in us, to protect and to challenge us.
Can you relate to this broken sheep? Have you ever felt bandaged & carried on the shoulders of God? Even when God allows suffering to come into our lives, we can know that the divine one is able to properly care for us, to see us through the dangers… and that the Good Shepherd is in control. Acknowledging the Lord’s sovereignty opens pathways for deep healing and potential to expand.
When it comes to tragedy, God is not caught off guard, not surprised, not thrown off course. God knows exactly what we are going through, knows exactly our need and protects our interior state of freedom through it. If we fight what happens to us and if we despise our tragedies, if we bemoan them and become bitter – we become hardened and lose our innocence, our willingness to be led by God through it, and we spiral downward.
Jesus says in Matthew 18: “See that you do not despise one of the little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my father who is in heaven. what do you think? if a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountain and go in search of the one that went astray? And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. So, it is not the will of my father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.”
We are shepherds and we are to guard our innocence, but when we do go astray, as we all do in order to learn, let us remember there is no limit to what God will go through to rescue us or to save even the most rebellious, curious lamb. The hired hand sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.
The lord does not flee. Ever. “The good shepherd will lay down his life for the sheep.” He lays it down every time we are in trouble. He dies for us, day after day. He didn’t merely risk his physical life, he goes all the way and hands his heart to us. This is a powerful move on God’s part: Vulnerability. And what, then, will we do with his heart? Will we cherish his love? Will we share his love? Or will we intellectually acknowledge Him, but keep Him at a distance? Christ says: “I choose when I lay down my life, and when i am ready, i will pick it back up again. I have the power to choose when I die and when I will come back to life, because I am Lord over life and death.”
With all of this power, God makes himself vulnerable and gives us the choice to stay close and follow him, or to go out on our own, where we get into thickets of trouble. Through it all though, we are guided so that, through a lifetime, we come to trust in his words: “I have come so that you may have life and have it more abundantly.”
(1) Swedenborg, Emanuel. Heaven and Hell. Translated by George F. Dole. West Chester: Swedenborg Foundation, 2000.
(2) Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Rev. Renee Machiniak has been the minister of the Royal Oak Church of the Holy City for the past 25+ years, serving as a staff chaplain for both Beaumont Hospice and Oncology for 9 years, and now a volunteer chaplain with Beaumont’s Ovarian Cancer Support Group and the Royal Oak Police Department. She resides in Royal Oak Michigan with her husband, Joe, her parents, Rev. John and Sharon Billings, and dog Gertie.