"And when Jesus saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion for them - because they were harassed and tossed about; like sheep having no shepherd."
- Matthew 9:36
Humanity. All of it. The multitudes. Harassed, dispirited, wandering ...
Do we not all find ourselves in this crowd, this multitude, this constant 'tossing about?' Do we not catch a glimpse of our own presence in the midst of this people. Being led this way and that. Finding rest here, leaving when it is done. Looking for hope there, yet moving on when the well turns dry. Rag dolls, marionettes.
If we look hard at our today, the day we live in - can we not honestly say that Jesus looks out at us, from His Heavenly dwelling, from His Holy of Holies and weeps over us ... has compassion for us? Can we deny that He looks down at us - harassed, tossed about, in constant unrest ... wandering as sheep - and weeps?
Do we not need a Lord? Do we not need a Shepherd?
Have not our shepherds failed us? Have not our "lords" led us deeper into the tumult, deeper into disappointment ... into even more serious wandering about in the pastures of life? Harassment from every side.
O Lord Teach us to see ourselves in this multitude. For if we do not, we are deceived. For truly are we this multitude. Truly are we this humanity in singularity.
Humanity. All of it. The multitudes. Harassed, dispirited, wandering.
Humanity.
The Lord is my Shepherd - I shall not want
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures
He leadeth me beside the quiet waters
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures
He leadeth me beside the quiet waters
\\He refreshes my soul//
May He ever lead us ... may He ever refresh our soul.
Let it be
This is our 21st century multitude. We find ourselves in the midst of it and yet Jesus takes us out of it only to place us back into it. He makes us new and then he places us amongst the old so that we might bear witness of His Shepherding. His life-giving, hope restoring Shepherding.
He makes us His. He refreshes our soul. He becomes our Good Shepherd.
We shall not want.
Let it be
"It is an unfortunate habit that we all like to think of others, but not ourselves, as belonging to this common herd, the mass, humanity. In so doing, we only show that we ourselves DO belong [...] the moving pushing jostling throng of those who all think of themselves as special cases, protesting their different individualities; wanting to be and have something for themselves but in so doing merge into a sea of heads, a herd in which names are indifferent and distinctive features are lost and this or that one emerges for a moment only to disappear again in the common mass in which men are no longer men in any true sense - this is the multitude which when He saw it moved Jesus to compassion."
- Karl Barth Church Dogmatics IV.2 P.85
This is our 21st century multitude. We find ourselves in the midst of it and yet Jesus takes us out of it only to place us back into it. He makes us new and then he places us amongst the old so that we might bear witness of His Shepherding. His life-giving, hope restoring Shepherding.
He makes us His. He refreshes our soul. He becomes our Good Shepherd.
We shall not want.
//Ex Profundis//
