baa baa baa who enters into the google search terms "shepherd herd" gets, probably to see more Christian-themed sites than a search for "jesus". the image of the Good Shepherd is one of the classic standards of Christian iconography, it is cheesy in pastel colors in many a worship space, old and retro. yes, a whole institution of the church relies in its structure to that picture. and finally there who has not read each psalm often but at least the twenty-third, the locus classicus of Christian shepherd imagery.
yet, I read me some random pages from the Google search results by strikes me a slight indisposition, and I is known from a long Christian socialization. employs text to text with the shepherd, who is a firm step forward and slightly stupid sheep who trail behind him, without much more visible from the road than square feet under her. it reminds me of more than preach one that "sheep are so stupid by nature" at some point to the words lifted.
on the one hand it is probably offended a slight feeling of personal, which causes the discomfort. as sheep tend to be needy with a very limited field of view, I would like, and hardly anyone else, even better do not see. but it is also quite different across images, maintain the Christians themselves. we paint ourselves but also, and not just in emergent circles, as hands and feet of God, go ahead with courage and God's message and the rich who in the world, with vision and often risk-taking. how to match it?
well, now it is in biblical literature, a myriad of images that describe the relationship of God and of his people. So we could the shepherd with just a little with contempt and punish us move to other images, which in our view on us, our mission and our steps are closer. we could. only arises, however, a wide processing of the image layers in all the Bible, throughout both testaments, and writers all over. the border after a confrontation with it.
what if the metaphor does not so inclined to other runs? what if the building was unfortunately transformed in the last thousand years, to what we know today, but away from what had the oldest readers eyes when they read these texts?
and at least one thing is for me then as sympathetic: Jesus as the Good Shepherd. as one who draws no home on the fields, dusty and slightly angeranzt and disreputable, at the margins of society to which one might look down easily. not fit well with the son of God, man was weak was spat on, and was despised and eventually die as convicted felons had an undignified death. I have always been fascinated by the humility that this form of exercise we all depend, compels us Christians. the shepherd is in the ancient just such a figure.
for today I will stay with this problem and display the outlook and will try in the next days, a closer look at the image of the shepherd and his flock to throw. I think it will be worth it.
