“Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever. Give thanks to the God of gods, for his steadfast love endures forever. Give thanks to the Lord of lords, for his steadfast love endures forever; to him who alone does great wonders, for his steadfast love endures forever.” (Psalm 136:1-4)
Turkey, ham, sweet potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie—is this what you’re thankful for today? Well, of course, most of us are in the US. But hopefully, that’s not all we’re grateful about. On Sunday, our community celebrated an early “Friends and Family Thanksgiving” banquet so that those of us who were going to be with others today would have a chance to share a lovely meal at home. Later that day, I asked one of my neighbors what he thought about the meal, and he said, “It was fine.” I was very surprised since it was the one day of the year when all our administrative and food service staff prepared lovely table settings and served us delicious, plated salad, two entrees, and dessert with coffee. When I told him that I was surprised that he didn’t seem thankful, he said, “Oh, I’m thankful every day!” I was relieved, having never considered that he would be, given his reputation for sharing all the unfinished or needed repairs with the maintenance staff. A friend of mine told me that he does this because, at 94, he is mentally bored. So, I was glad to hear that his default attitude isn’t his whole perception of life here. Most of us share about how blessed we are to live in such a lovely environment. But what is our “default” attitude? What do we think about or feel when we are bored? Really, how can a child of God who has received Christ’s free, all-encompassing, over-arching, curative gospel ever be anything but grateful? Jesus’s gospel is the foundation of his saving work, to bring the lost to himself, rejoicing in their new life and his possession of them. By God’s grace, we rejoice that Jesus Christ sought, bought, and saved us, sharing our thanks with all who will listen.
Grateful for a Different Life
God spoke through the prophet Ezekiel: “For thus says the Lord God: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness…And I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the ravines, and in all the inhabited places of the country. I will feed them with good pasture, and on the mountain heights of Israel…they shall lie down in good grazing land…I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord God. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them in justice.” (Ezekiel 34:11-16). “God intervenes to reverse, step by step, the process described above. He successively undoes the damage inflicted by the failed shepherds by seeking the scattered, gathering and feeding them, and ensuring they live in security. In John 10:9, Jesus speaks of the sheep finding ‘pasture’ (evoking Ezek. 34:14).” (1) “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” (Luke 19:10) “The Lord declared that he intended mercy towards the scattered flock. Doubtless this, in the first place, had reference to the restoration of the Jews. It also represented the good Shepherd’s tender care of the souls of his people. He finds them in their days of darkness and ignorance, and brings them to his fold. He comes to their relief in times of persecution and temptation. He leads them in the ways of righteousness, and causes them to rest on his love and faithfulness. The proud and self-sufficient, are enemies of the true gospel and of believers; against such we must guard.” (2) Do we rejoice that Jesus Christ sought, bought, and saved us, sharing our thanksgiving with all who will listen?
Our Good Shepherd
“So he told them this parable: ‘What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.’” (Luke 15:3-7) The rabbis taught that God would welcome a penitent sinner, but the first two parables teach that through Jesus, God is seeking out sinners. Through Ezekiel, the Lord promised to come and fulfill the shepherding responsibilities that Israel’s shepherds (both the kings and priests in Ezekiel’s day and the scribes now criticizing Jesus) had neglected…Jesus uses the same parable to call leaders of His church to be proactive in protecting and retrieving members who go astray” (Matt. 18:10-14). (3) “God cares for us individually…Shepherds know their sheep. They know them individually, and, what is more, their sheep know them and respond to their voices. Jesus was building on this fact when he told the people of his day, ‘I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me—just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep’ (John 10:14–15). We know that God knows his people individually and cares for them individually because when he calls them to faith he calls them ‘by name’ (John 10:3). We see this clearly in the earthly ministry of Jesus. Think of Matthew himself. We are told that Jesus ‘saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him’ (Matt. 9:9). Here was a lost sheep who had been given to Jesus by the Father…Zacchaeus was another lost sheep…[Jesus]…said to him, ‘Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.’ So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly” (Luke 19:5–6). An even more powerful example occurred in Bethany…[when] Lazarus died before Jesus arrived. But Jesus stood before the tomb and cried loudly, ‘Lazarus, come out!’ (John 11:43). And he did! Lazarus was another of Jesus’ lost sheep, and he responded by returning from the dead…That is the kind of relationship God has with his people. It is an individual relationship. He knows you, even you. If he called you by name when you first believed on Jesus, you can be sure that he will exercise that same individual care in keeping you and seeking you if you wander away.” (4)
God’s Joy in Repentance
“God rejoices when we repent and return to him. The Bible says that God grieves over sin and rejoices when a sinner is reclaimed. Jesus makes this explicit in the parable, saying of the great shepherd, ‘He is happier about that one sheep [that is found] than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off’ (Matt. 18:13)…In the first two parables in Luke 15 the shepherd finds the lost sheep and the woman finds the lost coin. Jesus is emphasizing God’s joy over recovering whatever had been lost…in Matthew 18 Jesus says, ‘Your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost’ (v. 14)…In [John 10], after [Jesus] has spoken of how he will call his sheep and how they will hear his voice and follow him, Jesus says, ‘I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one’” (vv. 28–30). (5) Jesus’s gospel is the foundation of his saving work, to bring the lost to himself, rejoicing in their new life and his possession of us. By God’s grace, let us rejoice that Jesus Christ sought, bought, and saved us, sharing our thanksgiving with all who will listen.
“The Lord upholds all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down. The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in due season. You open your hand; you satisfy the desire of every living thing. The Lord is righteous in all his ways and kind in all his works. The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. He fulfills the desire of those who fear him; he also hears their cry and saves them.” (Psalm 145:14-19)
Related Scripture: Psalm 23; Isaiah 40:10-11; Zechariah 3:3-10; Matthew 10:5-7; 18:10-14; John 10:7-9, 14-15, 28-30; Ephesians 2; Colossians 2:13; 1 Peter 2:25.
Notes:
1. English Standard Version Study Bible Notes, Ezekiel 34:11-16, (digital edition), Crossway, 2008.
2. Henry, Matthew, Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary on the Bible, Ezekiel 34:7-16, https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/mhn/ezekiel-34.html
3. The Reformation Study Bible, Luke 15:3-7, Reformation Trust Publishing (Ligonier
4. Ministries), Sanford, Fl., 2015.
5. Boice, James, Boice Expositional Commentary Series, Matthew 18, Baker Books, Software version, 1998.
6. Boice Expositional Commentary, Ibid.
November 28, 2024
Divine Wisdom for Daily Living by Joanne Colvin 