A MAGNETIC PERSON
And I shall draw all men to myself, when I am lifted up from the earth. John 12:32, N.E.B.
Shepherds in the Bible lands do things differently from their Western counterparts. When Jesus called Himself "the good Shepherd," His hearers had in mind one who walks ahead of his sheep, calling them by name. Eastern shepherds developed close bonds with their sheep, such that each sheep recognizes the shepherd's voice and responds to his call. The Western shepherd, by contrast, drives his sheep from behind, often using dogs to snap at the heels of sheep that wander from the flock or walk too slowly.
When Jesus spoke of Himself as a shepherd, He was confident in the fact that people do not need to be driven to follow Him. Only the insecure despot resorts to force. But there is something compellingly attractive about Jesus Christ. There is enticing beauty in His character, a drawing magnetism in His personality. He needs only to be lifted up on the horizon of our minds, lifted above the crowding distractions, to engage our attention.
But Jesus was talking specifically about the one event that, more than any other, would lift Him up before the people. That was the cross. Here the Shepherd becomes Himself the sacrificial Lamb, bearing in His own being the ugly death that should have been ours,since we are the rebels. On the cross, heaven channels every treasure of love that its infinity can hold, through one Man, to this plagued planet.
Oh, how much Satan fears to have us see Jesus willingly die on the cross. He did everything in his power, both in the wilderness and in Gethsemane, to turn Jesus from His mission of sacrifice. Failing that, however, the enemy has sought to nullify the cross, portraying it as a hostile event rather than a friendly one. The cross, he suggests, is Christ's way of turning away the Father's anger, rather than His way of revealing the Father's love.
Jesus is not lifted up on the cross in contrast to the Father, as One who is more gracious and accepting than the Father. As Jesus talked to His Father about His impending death on the cross, He said, "Father, glorify thy name." The Father immediately replied, "I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again" (John 12:28, N.E.B.). God, in Christ, was "reconciling the world unto himself" (2 Cor. 5:19).
And I shall draw all men to myself, when I am lifted up from the earth. John 12:32, N.E.B.
Shepherds in the Bible lands do things differently from their Western counterparts. When Jesus called Himself "the good Shepherd," His hearers had in mind one who walks ahead of his sheep, calling them by name. Eastern shepherds developed close bonds with their sheep, such that each sheep recognizes the shepherd's voice and responds to his call. The Western shepherd, by contrast, drives his sheep from behind, often using dogs to snap at the heels of sheep that wander from the flock or walk too slowly.
When Jesus spoke of Himself as a shepherd, He was confident in the fact that people do not need to be driven to follow Him. Only the insecure despot resorts to force. But there is something compellingly attractive about Jesus Christ. There is enticing beauty in His character, a drawing magnetism in His personality. He needs only to be lifted up on the horizon of our minds, lifted above the crowding distractions, to engage our attention.
But Jesus was talking specifically about the one event that, more than any other, would lift Him up before the people. That was the cross. Here the Shepherd becomes Himself the sacrificial Lamb, bearing in His own being the ugly death that should have been ours,since we are the rebels. On the cross, heaven channels every treasure of love that its infinity can hold, through one Man, to this plagued planet.
Oh, how much Satan fears to have us see Jesus willingly die on the cross. He did everything in his power, both in the wilderness and in Gethsemane, to turn Jesus from His mission of sacrifice. Failing that, however, the enemy has sought to nullify the cross, portraying it as a hostile event rather than a friendly one. The cross, he suggests, is Christ's way of turning away the Father's anger, rather than His way of revealing the Father's love.
Jesus is not lifted up on the cross in contrast to the Father, as One who is more gracious and accepting than the Father. As Jesus talked to His Father about His impending death on the cross, He said, "Father, glorify thy name." The Father immediately replied, "I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again" (John 12:28, N.E.B.). God, in Christ, was "reconciling the world unto himself" (2 Cor. 5:19).
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