John 21:15

His Lambs

Feed my lambs. John 21:15.

One evening a minister was leaving a sheep farm in the company of the farmer. There was a big threatening cloud in the sky, and just as they reached the gate the farmer turned back to call to his son, “Take great care of the lambs! There is a storm coming.”

When Jesus was going to leave the earth, He was anxious that the lambs should be well looked after, so He said to Peter, “Take care of the lambs.” He Himself would still be looking after the lambs and caring for them although they could see Him no longer, but He wanted them to have a human friend also, whom they could see and who would care for them.

Now, of course, you know who the lambs are. The lambs are the boys and girls. The sheep are the fathers and mothers, but the lambs are the children. Later, Jesus told Peter to feed the sheep, but He put the lambs first.

I wonder why Jesus put the lambs first. Well, I think there were three reasons.

And the first was because He loved them so much. Jesus loves everybody with a love so big and so tender that we shall never understand it till we go to be with Him in Heaven; but I think He loves the children in a special sort of way because they are so pure and innocent. The grown-up people often despised and rejected Him when He was in the world, but the children gathered round Him and looked up into His kind face, and listened to His words, and the little children who knew Him on earth never forgot their Friend.

Then I think Jesus put the lambs first because He pitied them so much. They were so weak and helpless and they needed His care so badly. They needed His strong loving arms round them to protect them from harm and danger.

Another reason why He put them first was because He valued them so much. Soon they would grow up to be sheep, and the whole future of the flock depended on how they were fed and cared for.

Jesus wants all the children to be His lambs. He is the Good Shepherd and He loves them and wants to keep them safe. All the children can be His lambs if they wish to.

Away at Amoy, in China, there lived a little Chinese boy who had learned from the missionaries about Jesus and His love. His father also had heard the good news and had become a Christian. One day the little boy came to his, father and told him that he wanted to be baptized. But the father thought that perhaps the boy was not old enough to understand all that it meant to be a Christian, so he told him that he was too young to be baptized. What do you think the little fellow replied? “But Jesus promised to carry the lambs. I am only a little boy, so it will be easy for Jesus to carry me.” Don't you think he was a very sensible little boy? You are never too small a lamb for Jesus to carry.

Do you know, little children, that Jesus is called by the same name as you are? He is called a lamb the Lamb of God, who offered Himself up on the cross so that you might all become His lambs and go to live with Him forever.

All in the April evening,

April airs were abroad;

The sheep with their little lambs

Passed me by on the road.

......

The lambs were weary, and crying

With a weak, human cry.

I thought on the Lamb of God

Going meekly to die.

Up in the blue, blue mountains

Dewy pastures are sweet;

Rest· for the little bodies,

Rest for the little feet.

But for the Lamb of God,

Up on the hill-top green,

Only a Cross of shame

Two stark crosses between.

(Katharine Tynan)

Will you ask the Lamb of God to make you His very own lamb?