“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”
-John 10:11 (ESV)
If God is good, and all-powerful, then why do bad things happen? Why does suffering exist? Why do people who proclaim Christ still go through trials and tribulations? At different times in our lives, sometimes maybe this question is a thought exercise. An intellectual problem that feels distant and lofty. At other times, it feels guttural. An accusation leveled at God that we dare him to answer. For me as a counselor, it is a daily question that the suffering people sitting in my office ask, and one that I repeatedly ask myself.
One of my greatest strengths, but also an area that makes me struggle, is that I have an abundance of compassion. As a counselor, I deeply feel the things my clients are experiencing, and I long to make it better for them. However, not being all-powerful, there are some things, many things, that I can’t fix. But I know that God can. Which leads me to ask, Why God? Why are you letting this happen to them? I know you can fix this, so why aren’t you doing it?
Many times throughout my day at work, I have to close my eyes and remind myself: God is more compassionate than me. How do I know this? Because Scripture makes it abundantly clear that we serve a God who cares for us enough that He was willing to die for us. Willing to suffer.
I am the good shepherd. What is a shepherd? We use this word often in Christendom, but its original meaning was agricultural. A shepherd was an occupation, someone whose job it was to take care of a flock of sheep. In ancient Israel, this involved hiking over treacherous terrain, bringing the sheep back when they wandered off (which they did often), and protecting them at night from wolves and other wild animals. In other words, not a glamorous job, but certainly a physically demanding one. Because of this, wealthy flock owners would often hire shepherds to take care of their sheep for them, rather than doing it themselves. However, as Jesus points out, “He who is a hired hand…who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep” (John 10:12-13). Jesus contrasts Himself with this kind of hired shepherd. He says that He is the good shepherd. “The good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep” (John 10:11). In other words, Jesus cares about us so much, His sheep, that He is willing to die to protect us.
Maybe you are hearing that truth for the first time, or maybe you’ve heard it 350 times. The Christian church talks about Jesus’s death often, as they should, because it is remarkable. But there is more in here that I don’t want you to miss. Jesus wasn’t just willing to die; He was willing to suffer.
In order for the shepherd to lay down his life protecting the sheep, he first had to take on the job of being the shepherd. He had to be willing to do the dirty work. To hike over the treacherous terrain, to have the sun beating down on him, to get rained on, to sleep on the ground. And before Jesus could die for our sins, He first had to come to earth as a human. A fragile human being who was subject to hunger, exhaustion, sickness, and sadness. He lived 33 years on our earth before He died, experiencing all the things that humans experience. We know for sure from Scripture that this included experiencing having family members die (John the Baptist, and also maybe His adoptive father, Joseph), friends die (Lazarus), living in poverty and being the source of ridicule, and being betrayed by one of His best friends (Judas). And then, finally, the horror of Roman crucifixion.
Jesus says of His own life, “No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again” (John 10:18). This means that Jesus was here by choice. That He came of His own accord. That He was willing to suffer of His own volition, that He was willing to die. No one forced it upon Him. He did it because He loves His sheep. Because He loves us.
It can be hard to understand why God allows bad things to happen to us. I hear you, I’m there too. But He has not abandoned us. He has not left us on our own. Far from it. Instead, God has entered into our world and chosen to suffer with us. He is not expecting us to suffer alone. He was also willing to suffer Himself.
I don’t know about you, but this makes all the difference in the world to me. Jesus is the Coach who runs laps with His players. He is the Commander that goes into battle with his cadets. He is the Boss who is first to the office and the last to leave. He is in this fight with us. So it may not make sense to us why He doesn’t just fix our problems and make the pain go away. But at least we know that He is not expecting anything of us that He is not also willing to do Himself.
