Daily Lesson for April 10, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from John chapter 10 verses 11 through 15:

11 ‘I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away—and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. 14I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep.

This is Jesus deciding to stay.

He could have chosen to flee and hide; and surely no one would have blamed him.

But in the depths of his soul Jesus knew what he must do. The Good Shepherd had to stay and lay his life down for his sheep.

There are moments in all our lives when we must choose to either stay put and face the fire or flee. We already know within ourselves what is the answer.  And though it may not be comfortable, or easy, or even at times safe, it is right. LORD knows it’s right.

Elsewhere the Bible says Jesus “loved his own . . . to the end.”  In other words, he loved his sheep fully and completely and without any reserve. It cost him everything. Staying and loving cost him his life. 

But to have not done so would have cost so much more.

The psalmist says, “In God I trust and shall not be afraid; for what can mortals do to me?”

Mortals can do much.  They can rob us of our lives and our livelihood. They can kill and steal and destroy. But one thing they cannot do is make the sheep wonder if the shepherd is true. The shepherd himself has already decided that question. 

And that is why we call him Good.