The Good Shepherdনমুনা

Each of us has wandered away from the life we were created to live, like lost sheep. We have broken peace with God and with people, straying from our Shepherd and from our brothers and sisters, seeking our own selfish pleasures in ignorance and foolishness. We’ve rebelled against the King and made our own selfish little rebel kingdoms. We are exactly like the rebel kings of Ezekiel 34 that we complain about and long to be rescued from, only with less power and influence.

Just as God will rescue us from tyrannical powers through judgement, he will rescue the world we oppress from us. He will intervene and he will strike down the rebel kings, even the ones who ‘rule’ a kingdom of one. We face God’s just intervention and punishment.

Jesus willingly bore our punishment and drank the cup of God’s wrath. He suffered because of our iniquity and he was wounded for our sin. God’s wrath, like a flood, would totally overwhelm us. We would be like an exile, locked out of his Kingdom forever, bearing his just anger. But Jesus satisfies justice, allowing sinners to die with Him, and then offering the gift of eternal life and forgiveness. We can pass through the flood, because there is a Righteous One who has the right to pass through it and bring his family with him. Through uniting ourselves with Jesus in a holy covenant, we can be brought through with him, healed by his wounds and cleansed from all unrighteousness by his purifying death.

Jesus descended into the valley of death to rescue lost sheep and bring us home on his shoulders. In his strength and on the grounds of his descent into death and ascent into heaven, we can be brought home, where we will meet with angels rejoicing over the repentance and salvation of a sinner.