I Am the Good Shepherd

John 10:11-18

Introduction

I want you to think about different bosses that you have had at various jobs over the years. What made one an effective boss and others less effective? There are various aspects of leadership that would affect this but there is one in particular that I am thinking of and that is commitment. There are certain bosses that are committed to both the health of the organization and the welfare of the employees. This may be affected by a parallel role to that of being the boss. Commitment may be influenced by whether they are an employee or an owner. So your boss may be in upper management and they have significant authority. Many of these will be good leaders but others will take the attitude, “It’s just a job.” They are very aware that if things get uncomfortable or too challenging, they can always resign and apply to a new job. But what if you are the owner of the company? What if you built this company from scratch? Or what if it is a family company that has passed on through the generations? It’s still true that if the company fails, you can get a new job. But there is more pressure to keep things going in a healthy way. Success is far more than just some more money in the bank. You are invested in this enterprise and it is likely very hard to leave things at the office. An owner is going to have a much greater sense of commitment to the flourishing of the business. For employees, the commitment the boss has helps to gauge how much trust we can have.

How much can we trust Jesus? You could say as the church that Jesus is our boss. What happens when things get bad? Will Jesus cut his losses and go to more profitable opportunities? You might think by instinct that we can trust Jesus, and you would be right, but why. What Jesus says in this I am statement helps us to understand the basis of our trust. In this passage, Jesus says “I am the Good Shepherd.” Let’s take a closer look at what this means.

Biblical Context of the Shepherd

When Jesus starts talking about being a shepherd, his original hearers would have sat up and paid attention. There is a rich biblical context for this image. All sorts of thoughts and stories would have been flooding their minds as soon as he talked about shepherds.

Going back to the ancient days of Israel, the people asked for a king and they were given one in Saul. He seemed very kingly in appearance but he made a series of bad choices and his heart proved to be faithless. God told the prophet Samuel to anoint a new king but only told him which family the king belonged to. After seeing a number of brothers who looked the part of a king but were not chosen by God, the youngest one was sent for. He was a shepherd who was out looking after the sheep. This was David, who would become the greatest king of Israel and the measure for all kings that would come after him. The future Messiah was to be a son of David, and in fact Jesus was a descendant of David. In addition to ruling the nation, David was a Psalmist and the beloved 23rd Psalm is attributed to him. Also, one of the most famous stories about David, his battle with Goliath, revolves around him calling upon his experience as a shepherd protecting the sheep from wolves and bears.

There are a series of books in the Old Testament that are called the Prophets. Shepherds are mentioned here more than in any other place in the Bible. Shepherd is used to describe God, as well as faithful and unfaithful leaders. Here is just one example of how it was used:

“Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of my pasture!” declares the Lord. (Jeremiah 23:1)

According to the Gospel of Luke, who of all people did the angels go and announce the birth of the Son of God? Shepherds tending their flocks in the fields outside of Bethlehem, likely the same fields that David watched his sheep. All of this is going on in the background and people are aware of this as Jesus is speaking.

Jesus as the Good Shepherd

Jesus is calling upon the biblical context for the shepherd image, as well as the everyday meaning of a shepherd. A shepherd doesn’t just watch the flock, he protects them from danger. The danger comes from two sources. One is the bad decisions of the sheep. The sheep wander away from protection of the flock, they go to places where there are ditches and a lack of grass and water. The shepherd often has to protect the sheep from themselves. But the other danger is from the outside. Jesus speaks specifically of the wolves. Many of you who have vulnerable animals know the dangers of predators. I knew a man who had been a sheep farmer and he could hear when a coyote had gotten in the barn. He was quick to rush out with his rifle.

Jesus is using this imagery in the context of a group of people who are under the influence of various leaders. Some of them have better intentions than others. For some, the people were just the means to an end. This was especially true of the marginalized, those that did not seem to have value. They tended to be at best neglected and at worst taken advantage of. Jesus was saying what the earlier prophets had said, there were good shepherds and bad shepherds. Jesus was claiming to be not just a good shepherd but the Good Shepherd.

This goes back to what we said at the beginning. How can we know who is a good boss, or in this case a good shepherd? According to Jesus, one of the differences is that he is not a hired hand but is the actual shepherd to whom the sheep belong. Jesus has a vested interest in the wellbeing of the sheep. A hired hand will run away when the wolf comes because there is no point dying for just a job. Jesus, on the other hand, loves the sheep and will not run away here. 

Jesus says two things here. One is that he will stand up to the wolf and the other is that he is willing to lay down his life. I’m sure that his original hearers did not think Jesus was speaking literally here. Laying down his life must have been another image, just like the gate and the shepherd. But it wasn’t. Jesus actually would lay down his life for the sheep. Later on in this Gospel, Jesus will say “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15:13) This is what Jesus does. He goes to the cross and dies for his sheep, the sheep that are his friends. This is commitment. This is ownership. It would also seem to be the end of the story except for the resurrection. The Good Shepherd died for the sheep but is alive again and is still shepherding. This is why we can trust Jesus. Whatever else happened on the cross, it proved Jesus’ commitment to us. If Jesus can commit to us like this, we can commit to Jesus as well.

Conclusion

You may not like being compared to sheep. They are not known for being exceptionally bright. Every image has its limitations but it is applicable. We need help. We need help from our own bad decisions and we need help from the threats outside us. The help we need is not from a hired hand, who couldn’t care less about the sheep. If one sheep goes missing, too bad, no big deal. And if a wolf comes around the corner, better to run away today and get a different job tomorrow.

The help we need is from the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd loves us and will protect us and will provide for us. Sometimes that won’t be as comfortable as we would prefer, but the Shepherd will never leave us. He will give us a nudge with his crook when we are making unwise choices and will smash the wolf in the snout when it gets too close. The Good Shepherd has already laid down his life for us, so we can know that he is trustworthy.