The Good Shepherd

Based on John 10:11-18

Jesus as the Good Shepherd is a common and rich image for us as Christians. The Bible is filled with references to sheep and shepherds. The great King David was a shepherd. We all know of that beautiful Psalm 23 which begins, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” In many of the prophetic writings the image of the shepherd and the sheep is used to instruct or to warn the leaders of the people about their role as shepherds of the sheep who are Israel, the people of God. This idea of the leader as a shepherd has found its way into a term we often use for ministers of congregations: pastor. As a pastor, my responsibility is to watch over you as a shepherd watches over their flock. In fact, sometimes I have heard people call a congregation they serve as their flock. I was appointed to be your shepherd by my shepherd, which is Bishop Palmer. He has the responsibility to watch over all the pastors and churches in the West Ohio Conference. By the way, that’s nearly 1,000 churches and over 1,000 pastors. Bishop Palmer has his team of shepherds which we call district superintendents who help him in this challenging work of shepherding so many people. I have to say though that when it comes to watching over pastors it’s less like herding sheep and more like herding cats! This metaphor of the shepherd and the sheep is an old one and is useful in getting a handle on the relationship between a pastor and their congregation.

But this passage read today from the gospel of John is not primarily about my role as a shepherd. That said, the part about the hired hands does get my attention. I pray to God that I not become like those hired hands who are only in it for themselves and are quick to run away if their flock is threatened. That little bit about the hired hands should get the attention of pastors to warn them about their motives and their responsibility. But most of this passage from John is about who Jesus is and his relationship with God and with us, me included, who are the sheep. This is what we are going to focus on this morning. What does this passage reveal to us about Jesus and his relationship with God and with us?

Jesus says about himself, “I am the good shepherd.” What makes Jesus the good shepherd? Ezekiel 34 gives us an answer. This passage is a word from the Lord, given to Ezekiel about God as a shepherd. Jesus, who is God in the flesh, is this shepherd described in this prophetic vision given to Ezekiel.

For thus says the Lord God: I myself will search for my sheep, and will seek them out. As shepherds seek out their flocks when they are among their scattered sheep, so I will seek out my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places to which they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land; and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the watercourses, and in all the inhabited parts of the land. I will feed them with good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel shall be their pasture; there they shall lie down in good grazing land, and they shall feed on rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord God. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with justice. They shall know that I, the Lord their God, am with them, and that they, the house of Israel, are my people, says the Lord God. You are my sheep, the sheep of my pasture and I am your God, says the Lord God.

Jesus is also the good shepherd because he is opposite of the hired hands, who do not care for the sheep. These hired hands are also mentioned in the passage from Ezekiel 34, verses 1-6.

The word of the Lord came to me: Mortal, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel: prophesy, and say to them – to the shepherds: Thus says the Lord God: Ah, you shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep? You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fatlings; but you do not feed the sheep. You have not strengthened the weak, you have not healed the sick, you have not bound up the injured, you have not brought back the strayed, you have not sought the lost, but with force and harshness you have ruled them. So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd; and scattered, they became food for all the wild animals. My sheep were scattered, they wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill; my sheep were scattered over all the face of the earth, with no one to search or seek for them.

So, as we see, the hired hands do not have a relationship of mutual love with the sheep. They are with the sheep for their own reasons, in order to take care of themselves. They use the sheep as a means for their own comfort while the sheep are not cared for. And when the going gets tough, the hired hands abandon the sheep and leave them to fend for themselves.

What makes Jesus the good shepherd? He is the exact opposite of the hired hands. Jesus seeks the lost. He brings back the strayed. He strengthens the weak. He never abandons them. He lays down his life for the sheep.

To lay down your life for another is an act of love, and obviously not an act of self-interest. The only reason to lay down your life for another is because you love the other and wish to protect or save them from death or harm. Remember this passage from scripture? Paul writes in Romans 5:7,8, “Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person – though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.” Christ died for us so that we might be saved. He proved his love for his flock by laying down his life for their, for our salvation. Jesus has a relationship with us that is so dear, so meaningful, that he laid down his life for us. But also, Jesus laid down his life for us because of his relationship of love with his Father. Hear again vv. 14, 15 from John 10: “I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep.” Then skipping down to vs. 17, “For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again.” When Jesus speaks of being known, he isn’t just talking about having head knowledge. He is talking about an intimate knowing, the kind of knowing gained through intimate relationships. It’s not about knowing a name or recognizing a face. It’s about knowing how someone ticks, knowing their hopes and dreams, knowing their heart. This is what makes Jesus the good shepherd. He has an intimate knowing of you and me. He knows our hearts. His love for us is deep, just as his love for the owner of the sheep, the Creator God.

Jesus demonstrates his love by laying down his life for us. But he also took his life back up. Did you catch that in vs. 17? “The Father loves me because I lay down my life in order to take it up again.” Jesus not only took his life back up again, he ascended back to heaven as a human. To this very day, Jesus is still fully human and fully divine. What is more, Jesus died so that he could destroy the power of death. If death and sin could be characterized as the wolf that attacks and kills the sheep, Jesus allowed himself to be killed by the wolf in order to defeat the wolf. Jesus did not run from the wolf. Nor did he kill the wolf. Jesus tricked the wolf. He allowed himself to be killed by the wolf only to come back to life, showing the wolf that the power of death has been broken. Death no longer has the final word because of Jesus.

This is why the Father loves the Son. Jesus obeyed the command of his Father, to lay down his life in order to defeat the power of the wolf. Jesus cares for and protects the sheep that belong to God. Jesus and the Father are of one mind, in a perfect interdependent relationship. Jesus was not a martyr. He was not a victim. He lay down his life of his own free will, just as God wanted him to do, because they are on the same page. Out of love for his Father and for us, Jesus freely laid down his life, only to take it up again, defeating the power of the wolf.

This passage from John also describes who comprises the flock. Jesus says there are other sheep that he must gather. This is probably a reference to us as Gentiles. There is to be one flock comprised of Jews and Gentiles. This is about a unified people of God which includes everyone, not just one ethnic group but all the nations gathered around one shepherd. There are not many flocks with many shepherds. There is only one flock and one shepherd. And the sheep know the voice of their shepherd. They listen to his voice in prayer, in the reading and hearing of the scriptures, in reflecting on his life, and in that still small voice that speaks to us in our times of trouble.

Finally, Jesus is the good shepherd because he completely identifies with his sheep. He did this by becoming a sheep himself. Our good shepherd is the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. The shepherd is a sheep. God became human. God became one of us so that we can see, and hear, and follow our shepherd in a language we can understand. In a way, God became a sheep so that God could speak sheep language! God became a sheep so that we can recognize God and follow God, the one who leads us to green pastures and still waters, the one who feeds and restores our souls, the one who leads us along paths of righteousness, and eventually to that land on the other side of the river where we will dwell to the ages of ages.