Meditation I Aspects of love

LOVE’S PRICE

Major Jim Bryden begins a three-part series on the love of God by looking at Jesus the ‘good shepherd’

IHEARD the voices of my wife and daughter expressing deep concern over the fact that we live in a ‘broken world’. I thought: don’t we all know it! Even the best of human efforts to make things better are flawed from the start. Many have strayed like sheep from God’s fold. Some are living in a selfimposed disabled state, crying out for healing. Others are enmeshed in an identity crisis resulting from only ‘my’ take on life. God doesn’t figure in their equations. They have no desire to be in God’s family. It’s hardly surprising the world is in such a state!

In John 10:11–18 Jesus refers to himself as the ‘good shepherd’. We should try not to get caught up in the image of a kindly man holding cuddly lambs! The shepherd’s work was tough, exhausting and dangerous. The sheep mattered above everything else. When they got lost or were in danger, no sacrifice was too great in the search to find and save them, death included.

Personalising the parable, Jesus strikes at the heart of it when he says, ‘I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep’ (v11).

Jesus’ laying down of his life for the flock needs qualifying. More than simply dying for the safety and protection of those who need it, his death on the cross is in a realm way beyond anything we could ever get our minds around. Understanding the mystery of God’s suffering and sacrifice is like standing barefoot in the shallows at the edge of the shore, trying to comprehend the vast, hidden depths of the sea. The love of God is limitless.

Because God loves in the way he does, he sacrifices himself, in the person of his only Son, on the cross, so that all may share in his saving grace. The sin, sorrow and sewage of humankind were nailed on the Son. While in time and space Jesus suffered and died on the cross of Calvary, and cried out, ‘My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?’ (Mark 15:34 The Message), his Father suffered the death of his Son eternally in a way our faith and understanding, at best, can only touch the edges of.

The shepherd’s relationship to the flock is undergirded by a trust and protection clause. He’s sensitive to their cries for help and quick to attack any who pose a threat to their safety and survival. A strong bond exists between shepherd and sheep. They know his voice. They follow him. In stark contrast, the bad shepherd or the ‘hired hand’ couldn’t care less for the sheep: ‘When he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away’ (v12). At the first sign of danger he takes to his heels, leaving the flock to be devoured by wolves.

In these days – when many make fame, fortune and finance the driving forces of their lives – families and communities end up divided and broken. For God’s people the call is to be different: to protect the vulnerable, reach out to the abused, fight for justice and, above all, share the good news of hope in Christ as the good shepherd. This requires us to recognise his voice and follow where he leads.

The thrust of Jesus’ teaching is testimony to his relationship to the Father: ‘I and the Father are one’ (John 10:30). It also shows what Jesus does for his people, both those who already are his and those who will be. Jesus’ goal for his people is revealed in his prayer: ‘That all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you’ (John 17:21). For this to happen, the cost is beyond measure. The Son sacrificed his life. It is an act, more than any other, that shows us the amazing love of God.

MAJOR BRYDEN LIVES IN RETIREMENT IN BELLSHILL

Salvationist 20 April 2019 ‘‘ Understanding the mystery of God’s suffering and sacrifice is like standing barefoot in the shallows at the edge of the shore, trying to comprehend the vast, hidden depths of the sea

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