Safe in Your Shepherd’s Arms
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. The Word of God through which the Holy Spirit kindles Easter joy in our hearts is the account of Jesus’ resurrection recorded in John 10:11-18
[Jesus said,] “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd who owns the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.
“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me – just as the Father knows me and I know the Father -- and I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life – only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father. (John 10:11-18 NIV)
This is the Word of our Lord.
Dear friends who celebrate our risen Savior,
We have all seen pictures of Jesus, the Good Shepherd. Maybe you have one hanging in your home. One of the most well-known pictures is Jesus among a flock of sheep, carrying a lamb in his arms close to his heart. Such pictures stir our hearts Jesus words, “I am the Good Shepherd.” With these words Jesus imprints our hearts with his love and power. He touches us with the promise of his gracious shepherding . Hold that picture of Jesus, the Good Shepherd, in your heart and mind today, as the Holy Spirit comes to us through these words that Jesus spoke.
Hold the Good Shepherd picture in your heart as we focus on the theme: Safe in Your Shepherd’s Arms. You are save because 1) his love laid down his life for you. You are safe because 2) his power took up his life again in victory for you. You are safe in your Shepherd’s arms.
1. His love laid down his life for you.
A story is told of firefighters who were putting out the last hot spots in a forest fire. Such fires can rage with intense heat and spread quickly overtaking animals in their path. In the course of their work, a firefighter came across a mother bird, sitting on the ground, charred black in death. Why hadn’t the bird flown up to safety, the firefighter wonders to himself. Had it been sick or injured? But as he lifts the bird up, he finds the reason why. Beneath the dead mother’s body are five baby chicks. The mother bird had sacrificed her life to keep her chicks safe.
On this Mother’s Day we remember the many sacrifices our mothers made for us to keep us safe, to train us, to bring us up, to nourish us, to care for us. We remember those sacrifices that flow from her love.
And yet, the sacrifice of that mother bird and even the greatest sacrifice our mothers made do not compare to the sacrifice the the Good Shepherd made because of his love. His love is much greater and much stronger than any human love.
His great love reached much farther. His love reached from the heights of the highest heaven to the depths of the deepest pit. For you see the Good Shepherd is our God. He is the Almighty, the Eternal. He is the glorious Son of the Father.
And what are we? We are nothing but dust and ashes. We began life in rebellion against him. We had no true love for God or desire to obey his will. There was no natural bond of affection between us, like between a mother and a child. We stray away from him into the muck, like a dumb sheep. We are helpless and easy prey without him, like a lamb in the wild woods. Without him, we wander over the ravine to our death. There was no reason in us for the Good Shepherd to love us.
But that is how great his love is, his undeserved love that we call grace. His love is so great that he reached down to the depths of our sinfulness. He reached into the slimy, murky pit of our death and hell to pull us out. His love rescued us, while we were still his enemies. His love rescued you to make you his sheep and lamb and hold you safe in his arms.
And this love that reached so far for you is stronger than any other love. His love is so strong that he carried the full weight of your sins. He carried the full burden of your punishment. He carried your sin and your hell to the cross and laid down his life for you. No one else, not even our mother, could carry this burden for us. And we can not even imagine the spiritual pain and god-forsakeness that our Shepherd took in our place. But he did it willingly for you because of his love that loved us who only deserved his anger and hate.
Jesus brings out his great, strong love by contrasting the Good Shepherd with the hired hand. The hired hand does not love the sheep. He sees the sheep only as his meal ticket. He loves himself. So when the sheep are attacked, he runs. Jesus says, “The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep” (John 10:13 NIV)
How different the love of the Good Shepherd! Jesus continues, “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me -- just as the Father knows me and I know the Father – and I lay down my life for the sheep” (John 10:14, 15 NIV). Such great, strong love that sacrificed himself for the sheep – not because he was forced to but willingly out of love. Jesus says, “No one takes [my life] from me, but I lay it down of my own accord” (John 10:18 NIV). What love!
And that love loves even you. Jesus makes it clear that his sheep weren’t only those Jewish believers he was speaking to. He says, “I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.” Jesus great, strong love is for you. He laid down his life for you. He wants to keep you safe in his arms. Listen to his shepherd voice. Believe his words of promise. Trust his forgiving love and follow him.
Picture yourself as the lamb in Jesus’ arms. See those hands of his great love that reached all the way down to pick you out of the murky pit of sin and death. See the nail marks that remind you of his strong love that carried your sin and hell as he laid down his life for you. Picture yourself safe in your Shepherd’s arms – safe because his love laid down his life for you.
2) His power took up his life again in victory for you
And yet, what good does it do for the sheep if the shepherd dies defending them? Maybe they are safe from one danger, but, with the shepherd dead, who will protect them from the next danger? Or think of that mother bird. She saved her young from the fire, but who would feed and care for them now that she was dead? Who would keep them safe?
Your Good Shepherd, though, is entirely different. You are safe in his arms not only because his love laid down his life for you, but also because his power took up his life again in victory for you. Jesus makes that perfectly clear. He says, “The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life – only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again” (John 10:17, 18 NIV).
Your Good Shepherd is alive. Your Good Shepherd, who loved you so much that he died for you , is alive. He has won the victory of Satan and death. He has won the victory for you. That roaring lion, that ravenous wolf, the devil, can not devour you as long as you are with your Good Shepherd. You are safe in his arms. Death can not hold you. All who die trusting in Jesus as their Savior from sin continue to live with Jesus in heaven, where he takes our souls to be. You are safe in his arms. And when Jesus comes again in his glory on the Last Day, he will bring with him the believers who have fallen asleep in death. He will raise all the dead and give to us and all believers glorious bodies. “We shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2 NIV). “Thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:58 NIV).
Until that final victory, you and I can live each day in confidence as we take to heart the words of our Good Shepherd and listen to his voice. As his word lives in us, we are safe in his arms. He feeds us with the quiet waters and green pastures of his Word. His Word restores our soul with his promise of forgiveness, peace, life, and salvation. Even in the dark valleys of life we need fear no evil for he is with us. He wants to strengthen your faith to bear up under even the greatest hardship or cross. Even though the nations and world around us rage and plot and take their stand against our Shepherd, he enables us, his sheep, to speak his word with great boldness , like the Apostles in Jerusalem (see Acts 4:25-29), so that others are called into the flock. We speak because we know that we are safe in his arms.
Nothing is beyond the power of our Good Shepherd. This, too, is how our Good Shepherd is of greater comfort to us than even our mothers. Maybe the most difficult part of being a mother is when you are unable to help your child. Jesus is never unable to help his sheep. He is the Almighty. Entrust yourself and your children to his care. Keep listening to his voice, keep believing his promises, keep following your Shepherd. He carries you in his strong arms.
“I am the Good Shepherd,” Jesus says. What a picture! Hold that picture in your heart and mind as you hear his word, as you remember your baptism, and as your receive the Lord’s Supper. For these are the tools your Shepherd uses to care for you and to keep you close to him. “I am Jesus little lamb,” say to yourself and picture yourself safe in his arms. For in his love he laid down his life for you. See the nail marks in his hands. And in his power he took up his life in victory for you. Feel safe is his mighty arms.
