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'Jesus' word
to us is,
' With all
my love
and all my
resources.''

by McCarl Roberts

Acts 2: 42-47
I Peter 2: 14-25
John 10: 1-10

One of my earliest recollections from Sunday School was a painting. It was a print of the great painting, 'The Good Shepherd,' by the German artist Bernard Plockhorst.

The artist based the painting on the Gospel story in John 10 and the name 'The Good Shepherd,' which Jesus applied to himself.

In one hand Jesus holds the shepherd's crook, which he used to protect his flock. In his other arm he holds a little lamb. A teacher showed me that the lamb had been hurt. There was a thorn in his leg. Among the sheep surrounding the shepherd, one stands in the foreground of the painting. She is looking up at her lamb, watching with a mother's anxious care.

As a young child I didn't know anything about sheep or shepherds, but I did understand that there was someone called Jesus who cared for me like that shepherd cared for his sheep. And he knows my name. John reminds us that the Good Shepherd gives up his life for his sheep. With the psalmist we can say, 'The Lord is my shepherd.'

A minister of the Gospel having charge of a congregation is called a pastor. The word pastor comes from the Latin word for shepherd, and related words mean 'to feed' or 'to guard.'

In January of last year I was asked to fill in one Sunday for a clergy friend of mine, Robert Cartwright, who was serving the Union UMC in Baldwin, as a part-time retiree.

Bob was in the hospital after heart surgery. He died that Sunday afternoon. I had lost a friend, and a grief-stricken congregation had lost a pastor. At his memorial service the people were asked to share their thoughts. One person said, 'He told us he loved us, and he did, and we loved him.' Bob was a true shepherd of his flock. He cared for them and he challenged them. He loved them and they loved him.

At the last breakfast with his disciples by the Sea of Galilee, Jesus gave Peter some instructions that are for the whole church. 'Feed my lambs.' (Take special care of my little ones.) 'Take care of my sheep. Feed my sheep.' We are to take care of each other.

In the second chapter of Acts we read how the early church, under the leadership of the apostles, 'were like family to each other. They also broke bread and prayed together.' They were a caring fellowship.

A teenager sent his girlfriend her first orchid with this note. 'With all my love and most of my allowance.' As the Good Shepherd, Jesus' word to us is, 'With all my love and all my resources.'

A hymn provides an appropriate daily prayer:

Savior, like a shepherd lead us,
much we need thy tender care;
In thy pleasant pastures feed us,
for our use thy folds prepare.
Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus!
Thou has bought us, thine we are.
Thou hast loved us, love us still.

The Rev. W. McCarl Roberts Jr. is a retired pastor of the Baltimore-Washington Conference and former executive director of the Maryland Bible Society.