It’s Easter Sunday. The pouring rain stopped yesterday. We’re wearing our best “church” clothes. Our parents tell us not to go outside right now. But it’s Easter and it’s sunny now and we sneak out anyway. All of a sudden, we fall down and scrape our knee and get our brand-new outfit all muddy. We might expect to hear, “I told you not to do that! Don’t you ever listen to me?” But our parent’s first reaction is to take us in their arms and comfort us and tell us everything is o.k. We experience their love without a word being said. In human terms, it’s a love without limits. It’s what parents do. They look beyond what has happened and replace that with love.
Now consider the love God has for us. It is exponentially greater than what we can ever imagine. Try to recall a time in the life of Jesus when he turned his back on someone. Those who wouldn’t follow, those who ridiculed him, those with unimaginable sins, those who crucified him were all people who turned their backs on Jesus but He still pursued them. That is truly a love without limits.
Jesus used the imagery of a shepherd because it was a familiar occupation at the time—perhaps not so much today. What’s the message then? If a spouse or a child or a close friend or even an acquaintance hurt us we couldn’t answer how we would respond because we don’t know the circumstances. Jesus could always answer because his response would always be the same—a love without limits.
Jesus doesn’t harbor ill feelings because of things we’ve done or promises we’ve broken. Jesus forgives despite the magnitude of our sin and that’s the example we’re asked to follow today. We are the sheep and Jesus is the shepherd who knows us, loves us and comforts us. We are also the shepherd to all those we come in contact with. That means it’s our responsibility to protect, feed, love and nurture others just like Jesus did.
It’s a tall order but it’s where a love without limits starts.