The term “Master” carries all sorts of baggage in the 21st century. This is especially true in the United States, not only due to the connotations of slavery from our past, but our pride in the freedom we hold so dear. Matthew 6:24 reminds us that no one can serve two masters, but there is also an implication that all of us must serve one. Before we dive into our tale of two shepherds, let us consider the different layers of our term of focus today.
Master.
The word master can describe one who has authority over others, one who has excellent skill or complete knowledge in a field or subject, to gain control or overcome, and the principal element (such as master bedroom).
The common denominator for all of these variants of the word Master would be subordination. For one to have a master means that they submit to the complete knowledge of that which is in authority over them. There is a dark night of the soul, and the master is the guide out. It is in this darkness, where the shepherd, the master, reveals itself himself. As the saying goes, when the student is ready, the teacher will appear.
Our tale of two shepherds looks at the Shepherd of Righteousness, and the Shepherd of Wickedness.
The Righteous Shepherd (Symbolos): Ezekiel 25:17 “”The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of the darkness. For he is truly his brother’s keeper and the finder of lost children.”
The True Righteous Shepherd is Jesus Christ, the Logos become flesh, who has no guilt and yet forgives those who repent. He creates a fractal pattern of sheep becoming shepherds. Only the sheep who follow the shepherd’s voice can learn from their master and go on to shepherd the weak through dark valleys and find lost children (sheep) to direct back onto the path of righteousness. Just as one must first be the student of learning piano before he can one day be the teacher himself. Through patience and charity, we are united through Symbolos, and take the path that leads to life.
The Wicked Shepherd (Diabolos) (Resentment- ultimate slave, for he has ALL guilt and forgives NOBODY) – Misery Loves Company: Ezekiel 34 [Pied Piper is both Christ-like and Anti-Christ like depending on the telling] Ezekiel 34: 1-6 – 34 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Woe to you shepherds of Israel who only take care of yourselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock? 3 You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock. 4 You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally. 5 So they were scattered because there was no shepherd, and when they were scattered they became food for all the wild animals. 6 My sheep wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. They were scattered over the whole earth, and no one searched or looked for them.
The Wicked Shepherd above all is prideful. He either believes he knows everything, or is capable of knowing everything. This is the spirit of the Pharisees, which is overly harsh in judgement and refuses to be renewed by the grace of God. Over and over throughout the bible we see the spirit of stubborn refusal to submit and to extend mercy, and how by that lack of forgiveness, the proud will be judged.
John 9:35-41:
35 Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when He had found him, He said to him, “Do you believe in the Son of [g]God?”
36 He answered and said, “Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?”
37 And Jesus said to him, “You have both seen Him and it is He who is talking with you.”
38 Then he said, “Lord, I believe!” And he worshiped Him.
39 And Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may be made blind.”
40 Then some of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these words, and said to Him, “Are we blind also?”
41 Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, ‘We see.’ Therefore your sin remains.
Jesus calls out the self-reliance of the Pharisees, who abide by their own spiritual sight and interpretation of the law, unwilling to be renewed by baptism and the Holy Spirit. In order to become a Righteous Shepherd, one must follow and learn from the True Shepherd. The blind must become dependent and obedient to the voice of Christ, that they may be led through the dark valley / dark night of the soul. Those who say they are able to see without such a dependence on Christ are self-deceived, and have built their kingdom on lies. Therefore, their sin remains. I conclude this reflection with a quote from C.S. Lewis, from his book ‘ The Great Divorce’.
““There is something in natural affection which will lead it on to eternal love more easily than natural appetite could be led on. But there’s also something in it which makes it easier to stop at the natural level and mistake it for the heavenly. Brass is mistaken for gold more easily than clay is. And if it finally refuses conversion its corruption will be worse than the corruption of what ye call the lower passions. It is a stronger angel, and therefor, when it falls, a fiercer devil.” – C.S. Lewis
