“I am the good Shepherd”

John 10:11-21

¹¹ “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. ¹² The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. ¹³ The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.

¹⁴ “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me—¹⁵ just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. ¹⁶ I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. ¹⁷ The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. ¹⁸ No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”

¹⁹ The Jews who heard these words were again divided. ²⁰ Many of them said, “He is demon-possessed and raving mad. Why listen to him?”

²¹ But others said, “These are not the sayings of a man possessed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?”

After throwing a man whom Jesus healed of blindness out of the synagogue for telling the truth about Jesus, some Pharisees confront him. Jesus challenges them with an image of two kinds of shepherd. His word picture is full of echoes of the scriptures that show it’s about an awful lot more than sheep and shepherds.

These educated Pharisees would certainly have recognised God’s call to Israel’s leaders to be shepherds for his people, and his declaration of “Woe to the worthless shepherd, who deserts the flock!” or sells them for slaughter (Zechariah 11:4-6, 17). They would have a pretty good idea who they are in the story.

Jesus says explicit that he is the “good shepherd,” but he’s more than just a good leader. Jesus’ description of how he cares for the sheep echoes God’s promise in Ezekiel 34:11-16 that God himself will be the good shepherd who rescues and cares for his people. Jesus saying that he willingly lays down his life for the sheep echoes Isaiah 53:4-6 and the “suffering servant” who willingly suffers abuse, takes our sin on himself and “poured out his life” for the sheep who have gone astray.

Isaiah helps me recognize myself in this story too. “All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all.” (Isaiah 53:6)

What’s my part in this picture? Jesus points to two things:

1. If I’m one of his sheep, he knows me, and I know him. This includes recognizing who he is. But it goes deeper than just that. I belong to him. He brings me into a relationship with him that is so close and intimate that I know him in the same way Jesus knows the Father.
2. I listen to his voice. Not just hear it and maybe respond. I actively listen to his voice. I open my heart and mind as well as my ears to receive everything he says.

The people who heard him seem to have understood the significance of what he was saying. They understood that Jesus is either mad, or demon possessed, or he really is God, the good shepherd come into his world as the suffering servant to rescue us sheep and restore us to intimate relationship with him.

Jesus, thank you that you’re the good shepherd who came looking for me, that you rescued me, that you continue to care for me. I want to be your good sheep. I want to know you in ever deeper ways. Holy Spirit, transform my heart and mind so I can know you more deeply. I want to follow you wherever you go today.

Written by David Cornell