O Jesus, Good Shepherd

This text was written in 2004 for the 40th anniversary of Messiah Lutheran Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan to the tune ANDREW'S SONG by Robert Hobby, an ELCA composer.  Our Good Shepherd left heaven to seek and to save the lost; He  "redeemed me, a lost and condemned person, purchased and won me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil; not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death," as Luther states in his explanation to the Second Article of the Apostles' Creed.  God bless the 40-day Lenten season before us as we meditate on the Good Shepherd who laid down His life for the sheep, sheep who love to wander and stray.


O Jesus, Good Shepherd,
You came from the Father
To gather the wandering sheep to Your fold;
O Savior, You gave up
Your life as a ransom,
A price far more precious that silver or gold.


Your life that You laid down
You willingly offered,
With power to give it and take it again.
All others who beckon 
With voices seductive
Are thieves and are robbers who steal from Your pen.


O Jesus, Good Shepherd,
True gate of the sheepfold,
All sheep that will enter must enter through You;
The sheep of Your flock hear
Your voice and they follow,
But run from the voice that is strange or untrue.


You give life eternal
So they never perish,
For no one can snatch Your sheep out of Your hand;
They come in and go out,
They find verdant pastures,
And all this is just as the Father had planned.


O Jesus, Good Shepherd,
You came form the Father
To bring life abundant to all who believe;
Still seek out and save all
The lost and the straying,
So they along with us Your life may receive.