Why would anyone find comfort in the idea that Jesus is their Good Shepherd?  Few of us see ourselves in any way comparable to sheep.  We see sheep as foolish and stubborn.  We see ourselves as smart, capable and self-sufficient.  So, why would Jesus choose the Good Shepherd title?  Didn’t He anticipate the fact that people would find it off-putting?

Of course.  He knows our reluctance to acknowledge our need.  Jesus looks past our false bravado and offers us what our souls long for.  This is the good news of His gospel.  The truth is it doesn’t get any better than this.  There is a Supreme Person who understands our need for guidance and protection.  He delights to find us when we are lost and take care of us when are found.  He actually lays His life down for the human race He loves.  The Good Shepherd image is carefully chosen so that we would realize what God is like.  Jesus was teaching us that our fears about God being a tyrant are misplaced.  He is everything we want and need in a leader…if we are willing to follow.  That’s the sticky part.  Human sheep prefer the benefits of being part of a well led flock without the requirement of actually following a shepherd.  Sure it’s silly, so, why not cut the nonsense and just let Him lead?

Most people think of Jesus as a great moral teacher.  His reputation for wisdom and insight as he taught the people who came in throngs to hear him, remains strong.  All over the world billions of people consider Jesus one of the greatest of religious leaders.  He is admired and respected as an icon for all things as they should be.

He would not have been pleased with this fact.  He did not come merely to teach a higher moral and ethical code.  He presented himself as the King of the Kingdom of Heaven.  He expected that all who choose to follow Him would recognize His authority and His right to reign over their lives.  That is infinitely more significant than admiring His moral teaching.

Jesus entered the stream of human history to command allegiance.  He claimed to be Heaven’s King in a human body.  The issue of his teaching is not merely personal improvement.  He asked for surrender to His leadership.  When He is in control of our lives all the moral and ethical behaviors He taught are actually possible.  That doesn’t feel warm and fuzzy to people who are addicted to control, but it is the best answer our messed up culture has ever heard.

It’s hard to imagine a vocation with more negative baggage than the priesthood.  In today’s world the priests of the Roman Catholic Church are stamped with the notoriety of generations of clergy moral failure.  Two realities have made this behavior abhorrent.  First, the pattern that has been revealed is almost entirely pedophilia.  That means priests have led children into sexual sin.  The dirty little secret is that it is almost always homosexual sex …man on boy pedophilia.

The second issue is even more problematic.  This horrific sin has been covered up; the leadership of the church has been complicit in moving offending priests to new parishes and burying the records.  This terrible lapse has been enormously expensive for the Catholic Church worldwide.  In the last decade billions of dollars have been lost in law suits.  The loss of reputation and moral authority is beyond calculation.  It has been a historic disaster.

So, to call Jesus the ultimate priest, in fact the Great High Priest seems like a losing proposition.  And, yet, He is, in fact, the Priest we all need.  A true priest is a go-between:  a person who represents God to the people and the people to God.  In spite of the fact that some in the Roman Catholic priesthood have failed to accurately represent their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the reality is, the priesthood of Jesus is still intact.  We all still need a mediator.  We all still need a representative before the Throne of God who can plead our case.  No one has replaced the loving sacrificial priesthood of Jesus.  No other religious leader has come close to giving the world the advocacy it so desperately needs.  All other religious leaders who follow in His footsteps serving as representatives of God must prove to be like Him, yet often fall short.  In spite of human failure, spiritual leadership is still needed.  Integrity in the priestly role is more important than ever.  So, don’t give up on God because a priest has failed you.  The true Priest will never fail.  Jesus is the one we all can trust.

I am choosing to write to people who are super motivated in their following of Jesus Christ.  Why? It’s simply because they are the most likely to read about the life of full surrender to the leadership of Jesus anyway.  Committed Christians read.  They read books that challenge their thinking.  They look for material that will stimulate them to press on with zeal and determination.  Nominal Christians are interested in everything else but serious allegiance to Jesus.  They make it a practice to ignore the incongruity of confessing belief in the Lord Jesus but refusing to allow that belief to revolutionize their lives.  As long as the majority of professing Christians around them are superficially Christian, it is easy to justify low levels of commitment, such as not reading.

This blog is intentionally aimed at stirring up those who already are so inclined.  Momentum is maintained when the heart is warmed and filled with the challenge of living passionately for the Kingdom of God.  I will never apologize for keeping the focus on surrender to the one leader in the universe who deserves our trust.  Life is richest and most satisfying when self is off the throne of the heart and Christ alone reigns within with His hand on the steering wheel and his feet on the gas pedal or the brake of our choices.