Dec 27
Read Zec 10:1-11:17 and Pr 30:11-23
In our text today, Zechariah writes a lot concerning the motif or metaphor of a Shepherd. Jesus uses the same metaphor to talk about himself in the parable of the good shepherd in Luke 15:1-7.
Have you ever lost your child? I remember one incident almost 10 years ago when Sophia was only 18 months old or so. Sophia and I were heading out the door to our weekly parent and baby beginner swim class at the YMCA. We were walking out of our condo in Edmonton, and as she usually does, Sophia walked out, headed over to the elevator, and pushed the elevator button to call the elevator up to the second floor. It usually takes a bit of time, always giving me enough time to lock the front door and then jump into the elevator. But on this very day, I didn’t make it to the elevator in time, and the elevator door closed… with Sophia in it!
And so I freak out. Sophia is trapped all alone in the elevator! I frantically push the call button in hope of reopening the elevator door, but to no avail. I then quickly rush down the stairwell to see if the elevator is sitting on the main floor where it usually rests. Nope. Nothing. And so I rush up the stairwell back to the 2nd floor to see what’s up, but the elevator call button light is still on and no elevator!
Then with a display of lightning quick thinking, I rush down the stairwell to the main floor again to look at the digital display above the elevator to see which floor the elevator is on. It says 3, and with the arrow pointing down. Aha! I’ve got her now and so I run up the stairs not to the 3rd floor, but to the second floor, because that will be the elevator’s next stop right? And just as I expected, the elevator door opens, and lo and behold… it’s empty. Sophia has vanished!
Where is she? Did she walk out the main door? Or worse yet, did she go down to the parking garage? By that time, I’m sweating buckets because I’ve been running up and down the stairs and starting to really panic!
On a hunch, I run up the stairwell to the 3rd floor because that is the last place the elevator was and guess who’s on the 3rd floor banging on the door of the apartment above ours? Sophia. Whew….I found her. I lost her for a few minutes in the elevator, but I found her! I take her in my arms, held her tight, and smothered her with kisses. I found her! Panic quickly became joy. Fear was replaced with a big sigh of relief.
In a similar kind of way, that’s what Jesus’ parable was about. Jesus is no ordinary shepherd. He was one of a kind. When he discovers that one sheep is missing in action, the shepherd’s reaction is totally unexpected. In a surprising twist, he leaves the other 99 sheep and sets off to find the single lost lamb.
And like the shepherd who left the flock, so Jesus left the comforts of heaven to find us and bring us home. Even though we have wandered away, Jesus the great shepherd loves us so much, that he will do anything, anything… even risk dying in order to save us. And isn’t that what he does. In John 10: 11, Jesus say’s this "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” Jesus is this good shepherd who through the cross came to seek and bring home the lost.
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I would have panicked too if
I would have panicked too if the same thing happened to me! It's a good thing you saw that the elevator had stopped on the 3rd floor.
Thanks for sharing this story as it reminds me that if we human parents will do anything--whatever it takes--to find a lost child, how much more would God, our Good Shepherd, do the same for us (and in fact, He does go as far as laying His life down for us).