Dear Saints,

Think for a moment about something you’d rather not do but would if someone paid you enough money. Now think for a moment about something all the money in the world couldn’t pay you to do. Which is not to say you don’t do it, but that it’s one of those things that’s so difficult and heroic, it lies beyond the world of transaction. If it’s to be done, it has to be done for some reason other than profit.

In ancient Israel, almost no one became a shepherd unless circumstances compelled it. For example, many younger sons without an inheritance or other professional prospects chose shepherding because they had so few options. It was an arduous, dangerous, smelly life, usually marked by isolation and unpredictability. There was a real injustice to it too: the economy absolutely depended on shepherds, but polite society rarely welcomed them into its midst. They were at once indispensable and undesirable.

All of which is to say that there is no way God would dwell among us and become our Good Shepherd for the income of it. Besides the fact that he didn’t need the money (everything is already his, after all), it just wouldn’t have been worth it. So what was his motivation? Jesus makes it clear enough: “I know mine and mine know me.” In short, we belong to him. What a startling, wonderful reality: simply because we’re his, we get to enjoy a loving intimacy with God that all the money in the world couldn’t buy.

Christ’s Peace,

Father Daniel

δοῦλος Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ