Note the contrast presented by the shepherds. 'Death shall be their
shepherd.' 'The Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall be their
Shepherd.' I need not occupy your time in trying to show, what has
sometimes been doubted, that the radiant picture of the Apocalyptic Seer
is dealing with nothing in the present, but with the future condition of
certain men. I would just remind you that the words in which it is
couched are to a large extent a quotation from ancient prophecy, a
description of the divine watchfulness over the pilgrim's return from
captivity to the Land of Promise. But the quotation is wonderfully
elevated and spiritualised in the New Testament vision; for instead of
reading, as the Original does: 'He that hath mercy on them shall lead
them,' we have here, 'the Lamb which is in the midst of the Throne shall
be their Shepherd,' and instead of their being led merely to 'the
springs of water,' here we read that He 'leads them to the fountains of
the water of life.'
We have to think, first, of that most striking, most significant and
profound modification of the Old Testament words, which presents the
Lamb as 'the Shepherd.' All Christ's shepherding on earth and in heaven
depends, as do all our hopes for heaven and earth, upon the fact of His
sacrificial death. It is only because He is the 'Lamb that was slain'
that He is either the 'Lamb in the midst of the Throne,' or the Shepherd
of the flock. And we must make acquaintance with Him first in the
character of 'the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world,'
before we can either follow in His footsteps as our Guide, or be
compassed by His protection as our Shepherd.
He is the Lamb, and He is the Shepherd--that suggests not only that the
sacrificial work of Jesus Christ is the basis of all His work for us on
earth and in heaven, but the very incongruity of making One, who bears
the same nature as the flock to be the Shepherd of the flock, is part of
the beauty of the metaphor. It is His humanity that is our guide. It is
His continual manhood, all through eternity and its glories, that makes
Him the Shepherd of perfected souls. They follow Him because He is one
of themselves, and He could not be the Shepherd unless he were the Lamb.
But then this Shepherd is not only gracious, sympathetic, kin to us by
participation in a common nature, and fit to be our Guide because He has
been our Sacrifice and the propitiation of our sins, but He is the Lamb
'in the midst of the throne,' wielding therefore all divine power, and
standing--not as the rendering in our Bible leads an English reader to
suppose, on the throne, but--in the middle point between it and the ring
of worshippers, and so the Communicator to the outer circumference of
all the blessings that dwell in the divine centre. He shall be their
Shepherd, not coercing, not driving by violence, but leading to the
fountains of the waters of life, gently and graciously. It is not
compulsory energy which He exercises upon us, either on earth or in
heaven, but it is the drawing of a divine attraction, sweet to put forth
and sweet to yield to.
There is still another contrast. Death huddled and herded his reluctant
sheep into a fold where they lay inactive but struggling and restless.
Christ leads His flock into a pasture. He shall guide them 'to the
fountains of waters of life.' I need not dwell at any length on the
blessed particulars of that future, set forth here and in the context.
But let me suggest them briefly. There is joyous activity. There is
constant progression. He goeth before; they follow. The perfection of
heaven begins at entrance into it, but it is a perfection which can be
perfected, and is being perfected, through the ages of Eternity, and the
picture of the Shepherd in front and the flock behind, is the true
conception of all the progress of that future life. 'They shall follow
the Lamb whithersoever He goeth'--a sweet guidance, a glad following, a
progressive conformity! 'In the long years liker must they grow.'
Further, there is the communication of life more and more abundantly.
Therefore there is the satisfaction of all desire, so that 'they shall
hunger no more, neither thirst any more.' The pain of desire ceases
because desire is no sooner felt than it is satisfied, the joy of desire
continues, because its satisfaction enables us to desire more, and so,
appetite and eating, desire and fruition, alternate in ceaseless
reciprocity. To us, being every moment capable of more, more will be
given; and 'to-morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant.'
There is one point more in regard to that pasture into which the Lamb
leads the happy flock, and that is, the cessation of all pains and
sorrows. Not only shall they 'hunger no more, neither thirst any more';
but 'the sun shall not smite them, nor any heat, and God shall wipe away
all tears from their eyes.' Here the Shepherd carried rod and staff, and
sometimes had to strike the wandering sheep hard: there these are needed
no more. Here He had sometimes to move them out of green pastures, and
away from still waters, into valleys of the shadow of death; but
'there,' as one of the prophets has it: 'they shall lie in a good fold,
and in a fat pasture shall they feed.'
But now, we must note, finally, the other kind of men whom this other
Shepherd leads into His pastures, 'They have washed their robes and made
them white in the blood of the Lamb.' Aye! that is it. That is why He
can lead them where He does lead them. Strange alchemy which out of two
crimsons, the crimson of our sins and the crimson of His blood, makes
one white! But it is so, and the only way by which we can ever be
cleansed, either with the initial cleansing of forgiveness, or with the
daily cleansing of continual purifying and approximation to the divine
holiness, is by our bringing the foul garment of our stained personality
and character into contact with the blood which, 'shed for many,' takes
away their sins, and infused into their veins, cleanses them from all
sin.
You have yourselves to bring about that contact. '_They_ have washed
their robes.' And how did they do it? By faith in the Sacrifice first,
by following the Example next. For it is not merely a forgiveness for
the past, but a perfecting, progressive and gradual, for the future,
that lies in that thought of washing their robes and making them white
in the blood of the Lamb.
Dear brethren, life here and life hereafter are continuous. They are
homogeneous, on one plane though an ascending one. The differences there
are great--I was going to say, and it would be true, that the
resemblances are greater. As we have been, we shall be. If we take
Christ for our Shepherd here, and follow Him, though from afar and with
faltering steps, amidst all the struggles and windings and rough ways of
life, then and only then, will He be our Shepherd, to go with us through
the darkness of death, to make it no reluctant expulsion from a place in
which we would fain continue to be, but a tranquil and willing following
of Him by the road which He has consecrated for ever, and deprived for
ever of its solitude, because Himself has trod it.
Those two possibilities are before each of us. Either of them may be
yours. One of them must be. Look on this picture and on this; and
choose--God help you to choose aright--which of the two will describe
your experience. Will you have Christ for your Shepherd, or will you
have Death for your shepherd? The answer to that question lies in the
answer to the other--have you washed your robes, and made them white in
the blood of the Lamb; and are you following Him? You can settle the
question which lot is to be yours, and only you can settle it. See that
you settle it aright, and that you settle it soon.