Gifts from the Crucified Shepherd - The Path of Righteousness

"He leads me in paths of righteousness for His name's sake."

Psalm 23:3b (ESV)

Have you ever wondered if Jesus was leading you down the right path?  I wondered when God called us to Flower Mound.  Taking that call meant that we would be leaving our oldest son in Wisconsin to finish his senior year in High School.  I wondered, “How can this be the right path?”  I wondered when God called us here to Germany.  I was asked, “What kind of grandparents move away from their grandchildren?”  I have had many friends lost their jobs, then struggle for years to find a new one.  They asked this question  Or what of the person receiving months of Chemo therapy hoping to shrink a tumor so the surgeons can remove it?  But then he finds out nothing has changed.  He needs  more chemo.  “Lord, how can this be the right path?”  After all doesn’t Psalm 23 promise “He leads in the paths of righteousness?”  That means He leads us back into a right relationship with God.  It also can be translated, “He leads us in right paths?”  Have you ever wondered if Jesus was leading you down the right path?

Peter wondered.  When Jesus told them that His path would lead to a cross, Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!”   In other words, “NO Lord, that can’t be the right path.  Jesus stopped him short, “Get Thee behind me Satan….”  Then Jesus took a step farther.  Not only is the cross my path, it’s yours too.  “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. “  We shouldn’t be too hard on Peter. Even Jesus, faced with the cross, wondered if there might be another path.  “Father, if there be any other way, let this cup pass from me.”  Yet that was exactly where the Father was leading Him.  That’s exactly where Jesus leads us. 

The greatest single safeguard that a shepherd has in handling his sheep is to keep them on the move.  They dare not be left in the same place too long.  Do that and they will overgraze the pasture.  The food will run out.  A Good shepherd is always planning ahead. He knows what His sheep need.  He is always aware of where to take them next.  That’s what we need to know about our Lord Jesus.  He is the Good shepherd.  He knows what lies ahead of us.  He  moves us from one pasture to another, from one experience to another, causing us to grow, preparing us for what lies ahead.  He knows the real dangers.  Sickness, the lost of a job, an unexpected move are just temporary. He’s concerned about the eternal dangers.  He knows the sin in our hearts, the wiles of the devil and the temptations of the world.  Those things pose the lasting dangers.  Those things are His chief concern.   
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He knows because our shepherd does more than scout out what lies ahead.  He walks down the dangerous path ahead of us.  He confronts those dangers.  He faces the temptations. Jesus suffers many things at the hands of sinful men.  He overcomes the world.  He is crucified to pay the price for our sin.  On the third day Jesus was raised to life again that we might have life. 

He does all this that He might lead us in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.  Because Jesus is our shepherd we can trust Him with our paths, even when we don’t understand where He is leading us or why.  A couple was taking a tour of Israel.  In one small village they saw a man driving sheep through town. They asked, “Is that a shepherd?”  “No,” said the guide.  “That’s a butcher driving the sheep to the slaughter. A shepherd walks out in front of his sheep to protect them.  Because they trust him, they follow.” That’s what our shepherd does.  He leads us down the various paths of life.  Sometimes we wonder how this can be the right path.  Why would He invite us to take up our cross and follow Him? Yet we know we can trust Him.  He has gone ahead.  By His cross and resurrection He has blazed the trail that leads to forgiveness, hope and heaven. 

Think of Simon of Cyrene.  He’s the man they seized to carry the cross for Jesus.  Simon had been minding his own business. He had to wonder how this could be the right path.  Yet because the Gospel writers tell us his name, we know that carrying the cross of Jesus down that Friday eventually led Simon down the path to faith… to salvation… to heaven.  That’s the confidence we can have in God.  When He calls us down paths don’t make sense to us, we can trust Him… we can trust His leading.  His paths are the right paths… the path to life… the paths to Him. Amen!