Authored by Martha Dodd
 
Read: Luke 15:4-6, John 10:7, 11, 27-28
“Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?  And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbours together and says, “Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.” 
 
“So, Jesus again said to them…I am the good shepherd.  The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.  My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.”
                                             

Reflect: 
Another memento I brought home from my trip to Bethlehem was a beautiful olive wood carving depicting one of my favourite stories told by Jesus.  It’s a parable about a lost sheep and a shepherd. The shepherd ‘went after’ the lost sheep, and when he found it, he put it on his shoulders and carried it home.  I imagine there may have been other strategies the shepherd could have employed to get the sheep back to safety; and yet, he chose to lift it up and lay it across his shoulders.  The shepherd didn’t scold or seem angry with the sheep for getting lost; in fact, he joyfully put the sheep on his shoulders.  I wonder if one of the reasons for carrying the sheep in this way was so that when the head of the sheep was next to the head of the shepherd, the shepherd could speak to the sheep and it would hear and became familiar with the loving voice of the shepherd.  And when they arrived home, there was a celebration; the straying sheep had been found!  
 
As we journey towards Good Friday, we remember that Jesus, our good shepherd, carried the cross on his shoulders (John 19:17) and laid down his life for us.  And it was on the cross that Jesus shouldered something else – the weight of our sin.  Isaiah, writing almost 800 years before the crucifixion, prophesied:
  
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
    and by his wounds we are healed.
We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
    each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all.    (Isaiah 53:5-6)
 
And some 30 years after the crucifixion and resurrection, Peter reflected, “He himself bore our sins’ in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; ‘by his wounds you have been healed.’  For ‘you were like sheep going astray,’ but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.” (1 Peter 2:24-25)
 
Jesus endured the cross, disregarding its shame for the joy awaiting him (Hebrews 12:2) – the joy in gaining for us rescue and redemption, freedom from condemnation, forgiveness for sin, peace with God and eternal life.
 
Prayer:
Thank you, Jesus, my friend, my Saviour, my good Shepherd, the Overseer of my soul, and my Lord for shouldering my sin in your body on the cross.  Thank you that You continue to shepherd and go ahead of me. (John 10:4) Teach me to draw near and become increasingly familiar with and obedient to Your voice.    
 
And the Lord who loves me says in Revelation 7:17:
 
“For the Lamb at the centre of the throne
    will be their shepherd;
he will lead them to springs of living water.
   And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”