Shepherds

“If any one of you had a hundred sheep….”

 (Luke 15:4 – NLT)

It is not by accident that we have left the first few words of our parable till last – for they hint at the underlying tragedy of the whole story. As we have already indicated Jesus audience on this occasion consisted largely of religious leaders – people who considered they were the shepherds of the people. Yet they were also men who laid great stress on peripheral matters at the risk of missing the heart, men like the older son who saw Father purely as a commander to be obeyed and despised the rebel and the “sinner”.

They were as familiar as we might be with that famous song which begins – “The Lord is my shepherd” (Psalm 23:1) and the mention of their being shepherds would at once have brought such a scripture to mind. But they were also familiar with a number of other places in their religious books which spoke of shepherds, such as – “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says to these shepherds: Instead of leading my flock to safety, you have deserted them and driven them to destruction”. (Jeremiah 23: 1).

Jesus was, in reality, forcing these religious leaders to examine whether or not they truly had the heart of the Father – in other words - were they shepherds after His heart or shepherds who led the flock to destruction rather than to safety. Later he will become much more specific – but here he deals with them by way of suggestion – not outright condemnation.

Father God is like a seeking shepherd – longing to bring lost sheep back to his fold – even the self righteous and religious. Yet, such are the hardest to reach for they think the have no need of repentance – indeed the very men who listened to him on this occasion may have been amongst those ultimately responsible for the death of the Good Shepherd.