While I was in college, one of my mentors was an older pastor who kept a small farm about half an hour away. Along with growing different vegetables, he also raised chickens, rabbits, and goats. As our relationship grew, I would occasionally be invited out to the farm to assist with some high-intensity labor or help with various harvesting activities. At some point during one of these visits when we had been out with the goats, I asked my mentor, “Why don’t you have any sheep?” Without hesitation, he looked at me and replied, “Goats pretty much take care of themselves, but sheep need a shepherd.”
When I’m being open and honest with myself, I can admit that I am a sheep and I need a shepherd, even though I tend to think that I’m able to take care of myself. While there are many other passages in Scripture that mention “shepherd,” I love the words that the author of Hebrews wrote in this passage. Here we see the reframing of the idea of the “great Shepherd of the sheep” as the One who has been brought back from the dead and who is working to “equip [us] with every good for doing his will.”
The Shepherd is also the pascal lamb who was sacrificed for each and every one of us and who was raised from the dead. But then the truly beautiful thing occurs. Our Shepherd is remaking us so that we, the sheep of his flock, might be equipped to become shepherds of one another. There’s a part of this idea that can make my mind start to roll as though it were in a circular argument. However, the reality here is the amazing work of the Holy Spirit, who is slowly and surely making us over into the Image of our Creator, which has been God’s plan from the beginning of time.