“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 His disciples 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 knew His sheep, but was also a companion of the LORD of Hosts. Other descriptive titles of Christ are much better known: For example, 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 title 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, but also 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, and 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.
December 5
