"Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, against
the Man who is My Companion," says
the LORD of hosts. “Strike the Shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered; then
I will turn My hand against the little ones.”
Zechariah 13:7
The night that the Lord Jesus was betrayed,
He quoted the verse above on the way to the Garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:31). The urgent
message that He needed to tell them was that within hours, their Shepherd would
be taken and all of them would be scattered. Obviously, this was the
fulfillment of a Messianic prophesy, but hidden in this Old Testament verse is
another title of Christ: “the Man who is
My Companion.”
In context, the Shepherd was also a companion of
the Lord of Hosts. Other descriptive titles of Christ are much better known
such as Son of God, Servant of God, and Glory of God. These names emphasize the
Lord’s deity and are a stark contrast to simply being a companion. There is
more to this designation than initially meets the eye. The emphasis here is the
humanity of Christ. The Savior’s equality with God (Philippians 2:6) is unquestionable. He is the God/Man who came to
restore fellowship with His estranged creation. He reached out to multitudes, but He established a true bond of friendship with twelve special men. Jesus was
more than just a rabbi, teacher, and shepherd to his disciples, He was a
companion.
Christ not only taught the apostles
things about God, He demonstrated a relationship with God that was hard to even
imagine. Clearly, Jesus was the companion of the Almighty and both the Father
and the Son delighted in the relationship. The Lord would be alone for hours
communing with God and the disciples also experienced the reality of this
relationship.
When Christ died on the cross, He
reconciled the world to Himself. He restored the broken communications and
communion with God, He allowed former enemies to become friends.
The bottom line is this; the Lord
Jesus Christ is not only my God and Savior, He is the Man who is my companion.
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