The Lamb Is The Shepherd

“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” There is probably no more familiar verse from the Bible than this from The Twenty-third Psalm. Its gentle yet vigilant cadences are meant to still our agitated and fearful hearts when life seems to present nothing but trouble. The psalm is an invitation to be still, to allow ourselves to be guided by a trustworthy shepherd, to lie down beside still waters even when nothing but turgid and unsettled waters surround us on all sides. It is an invitation to sit down and let the Lord prepare a table so that we might share bread and wine with him. The same Lord who appears to frightened and disappointed disciples, prepares a meal on the shore and invites us all to, “Come and have breakfast.” This shepherd invites us to dwell in his house forever – a household filled with goodness and mercy. Who could turn down such an invitation?

And yet, we see Jesus in the 10^th chapter of John, the Good Shepherd chapter, surrounded by those who cannot bring themselves to sit down beside still waters; who cannot allow themselves to sit down and eat with Jesus; who hold themselves back from entering into “the house of the Lord forever.” We tend to sneer at them. The Church has spent centuries mocking them and even persecuting them and all those who do not accept the invitation. Rather than reaching out to them with mercy, goodness and compassion. Rather than reaching out with the kind of love and care he so freely bestows on all who cross his path.

Then there is the paradox of it all. He whom John introduces as The Logos, The Word, which Word was with God and is God before all else came to be. Which Word became flesh and blood and moved into our neighborhood. Which Word says in Chapter 10 of John, “The Father and I are One.” The same Word who invites all persons, not some, not many, not most, but ALL PERSONS, to become One with him and the Father. This same Word in the First Chapter of John is pointed to by that other John who washes all who come to him in the waters of Repentance. John who declares, “Behold, the Lamb of God.” [John 1:29]

The same Lamb who yet another John sees in a vision at the Throne of God as all living creatures sing, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.” And then an elder who is in the midst of all this glory proclaims: 

  “…They will hunger no more, and thirst no more;

the sun will not strike them,

nor any scorching heat;

for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd,

and he will guide them to springs of the water of life,

and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes." [Revelation 7:9-17]

Which brings us full circle back to the Twenty-third Psalm where we lie down beside still waters to have our souls revived. Notice, however, that the Lamb at the center of the throne of God is our Shepherd. The Good Shepherd is a Lamb. As I sit in Christ Church, Rock Spring Parish every Sunday, to my left and above me is a stained-glass window of Jesus the Good Shepherd holding a Lamb in his arms, Shepherd’s Crook by his side. I stare at it in stillness and in wonder that there before us are two images of Jesus, the Word, the Christ, all in one – for it is Jesus holding The Christ who is the Lamb at the center of the throne of God.

The Lamb is the Shepherd. The Good Shepherd is the Lamb. He came to live among his sheep as one of us. We who are the “sheep of his pasture.” The pasture is his. The sheep are his. We are his.

St. Paul calls us, one and all, to “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” [1 Thessalonians 5:16-18] One way to pray without ceasing is to repeat The Jesus Prayer as a kind of mantra. A mantra is just a prayer

that is repeated over some over to draw oneself into the stillness to which the Good Shepherd means to guide us. In its classical form The Jesus Prayer says, “Jesus Christ, Son of God, have Mercy on Me, a Sinner.”

As I gaze upon the Good Shepherd who is the Lamb at the center of the throne holding one of his sheep, holding himself, the Lamb of God, I have felt a shift in how I pray The Jesus Prayer.

As I finish my workout each morning at the gym, I try to finish on the treadmill, walking backwards, which means I am facing a wall for five or ten minutes. And there are two scuff marks that make a cross on the wall about 10 inches up from the floor. As I tread backwards, I now repeat to myself, “Jesus Christ, Lamb of God, have Mercy on Us, your Beloved.” It has slowly evolved this way, and here’s why I think it has.

“Son of God” seems to connote a kind of rarified, divine being quite apart from us sheep who tread this earth day in and day out. Whereas “Lamb of God” speaks of person who comes to us as one of us, the sheep of God’s pasture. It's his pasture, not ours. He is one of us.

I say “have Mercy on Us” because Jesus the Lamb of God is about gathering a community of people around his table – a community of individuals, but individuals who become a part of a larger gathering  and movement of those who allow themselves to be guided by their Good Shepherd to lie down beside still waters and have our souls revived. It’s not about me, it is about us, all of us, every single one of us, and every living creature with whom we share this fragile island home we call Earth.

I say, “Your Beloved,” because as I look at that window in Rock Spring Parish, at the top there is a dove like the one that descended on Jesus at his baptism by John. The Holy Spirit lands on him as a voice says, “You are my Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” The Word who becomes one of us, a sheep of God’s pasture like one of us, is God’s Beloved. And this Beloved of God spends his life, death and resurrected life to spread the news that we too are God’s Beloved. We are to become God’s Beloved Community. We resist this, and indeed to resist the Love of God is to Sin. Which means we are among those depicted resisting Jesus in Chapter 10. But at the end of the day we need to claim our belovedness so as to break down our resistance to accepting God’s Love and in so doing dwell in His house of Mercy and Goodness forever and ever.

Jesus Christ, Lamb of God, have Mercy on Us, Your Beloved.

We pray not only for ourselves, but for all people everywhere, in this prayer I now pray without ceasing as I gaze upon a found-image of a cross on a wall, treading backwards. Sometimes we need to go backwards to find our way forward.