Jesus calls us sheep. There’s comfort in that moniker, considering that He’s our Shepherd. But it’s also a great wake-up call. We, just like the animals, wrote the book on distraction.
Sheep never stay focused. They’ll follow each other anywhere, and that’s rarely in the right direction. Can you relate? Sheep keep wandering and straying from the path, even when their shepherd has made the right path plain. Sheep wander off, get themselves stuck or hurt or endangered, and find themselves utterly powerless to get back on track. But, time after time, here comes the faithful shepherd!
Simply imagining that we are guilty of nothing but minding our own business, you and I tend to get a bit upset when we feel the startling yank of our Shepherd’s staff – never even realizing that we were about to go completely off the cliff. This is the true nature of sheep. And sheep we are (Psalm 100:3).
Every year, as the season of Christ’s Passion rises to the forefront of my thinking, I remember the promise of the ancient prophet. Some 700 years before Christ’s birth in Bethlehem, Isaiah would describe with undeniable precision the Cross of Christ – and the real reason behind it: “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned – every one – to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (53:6). In the ear of my soul, I don’t hear those words spoken – I hear them sung. And how gorgeous is that music to my ears!
What I’m hearing is Handel’s “Messiah.” Just in case you’re unfamiliar, “Messiah” is an English-language oratorio crafted in 1741 by the German-British Baroque composer, George Frideric Handel. Called the libretto, the powerful text included in the oratorio was compiled by Charles Jennens, from the version of the Scriptures found in the Anglican “Book of Common Prayer.”
In my humble opinion, this particular tune is masterful, because the music itself – coupled with the drawn-out lyrics of “we have t-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-r-ned” – sounds like sheep frolicking. Stupid and helpless sheep, in tremendous danger nearly all the time, but constantly oblivious to their true predicament.
Yes, sheep we are. You and I make our foolish choices, and then our foolish choices make us.
Enter Jesus.
His life was so extraordinary, but His appearance was ordinary, and drew no attention. Most of the powers that be regarded Him as nothing but a failure. In the ways that most people chase after the idols of comfort, power, and fame, Jesus stood alone in purity. He managed to attain none of the status symbols which normally cause our heads to turn.
And then, the organ swells. Handel drops all pretense that frolicking is endless fun. He transports us to Gethsemane, and then to Calvary. And the sounds become mysteriously ominous: “And … the Lord … hath … laid … on … Him … ON … HIM … the iniquity of us all.”
The. Iniquity. Of. Us. All.
This moment in “Messiah” is startling, to say the least. And startling is the Passion of our Christ. In fact, you and I would have been tempted to disown Him in the end, when the stakes were high for anyone willing to associate themselves with a Roman cross – widely considered to be the most shameful manner of death on Earth. He would be beaten and chastised and crushed, but the Father’s love for a lost world would be the backdrop for every awful moment of Christ’s agony. He became poor, that we might become rich (2 Corinthians 8:9). Wonder of wonders! Our Messiah was forsaken so that you and I would never, ever have to be alone. Christ died that we might live!
Handel’s moment of transition is jarring. It ought to jar us to the core of our sheep-like being. And, yet, it is strangely wonderful. What gloriously good news is this! You and I needed an absolutely sinless Savior, not someone who – like you and me – deserved to die because of their own wayward rebellion. Your sin and my sin was placed upon the back of the perfectly innocent Jesus – the only one in the universe “who knew no sin” (2 Corinthians 5:21). When we think of our Old Testament history, all of those animals that were sacrificed over all of those generations were all part of God’s plan to rescue us! All of that shed blood kept pointing to the ultimate blood-sacrifice that was coming, and none other than Jesus – “the Lamb of God” and our “Great High Priest” – was qualified to lay down His life for the sins of the world (John 1:29; Hebrews 4:14; 9:12; 1 John 2:2). Hallelujah!
Handel’s “Messiah” was first performed in Dublin, Ireland, on April 13, 1742, and in time it would become one of the most widely recognized and frequently performed choral works in the music of the Western world. If you get a chance this month, take a listen …
“All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned every one to his own way. And the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”
Pastor Charles
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