“Do not let your hearts be troubled.” What more comforting words could our Good Shepherd speak to us out here in the wilderness? How often do we express confidence in God, how often do we reach out to God in prayer, and forget that Jesus Christ is with us “until the end of the age?” (Matthew 28:20) He tells us, with the same gentle assurance as before, “You have faith in God; have faith also in me.” Did He not say that “…this is the will of my Father, that everyone who see the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I shall raise him on the last day?” (John 6:40) When your heart is troubled, turn to the Good Shepherd; He is ever near.
He is near, yet He has gone ahead of His sheep through death, through Hell, and even through the earth, bursting from the tomb before going ahead of us to Heaven “…to prepare a place for you.” Shall we follow? Do we trust Him when He says, “I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be.” He does not say this to suggest we stay put where we are and wait for Him to slip His crook around us; He also says, “Where I am going you know the way,” implying that we must come after Him.
Which way shall we go when He has gone so far before us that we cannot see Him? The way is not a direction; it is not a path, a journey, nor any other such thing. Rather the Way is Jesus Himself: He is the Good Shepherd, He is the Pasture, He is the Gate, and He is the Way. Jesus is everythingwe need and, if we are truly honest with ourselves, everything we desire. The Way to the Father is through Him, by the sheep imitating the Shepherd and becoming more and more like Him:
“Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2). Those who know Jesus are transformed; in the Old Testament God says,“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways” (Isaiah 55:8) yet now God has taken on a human nature, to show us His thoughts and His ways in human terms. Jesus tells us that He is the Way to the Father to tell us that if we are to live forever, as He lives, than God’s ways must become our ways.Our Good Shepherd is here to show us not a path or a direction, but a new way to live.