This post by christinecoltman was originally published at GRACE PLACE
The title for these studies is ‘Behold our God’ – which is why we’ve begun each session by singing that great song. We chose the title ‘Behold our God’ for the year, because the aim of these studies is to help us all see Jesus more clearly. That’s why we’re looking at the I Am statements – because these are Jesus’s very own words about himself.
Our ‘I Am’ statement tonight is ‘I Am the Good Shepherd’, perhaps one of Jesus’s most well-known statements about Himself.
When I chose this statement to look at, I kind of thought I was getting off lightly. The Good Shepherd, Psalm 23, the lost sheep etc. It’s Sunday School stuff, right? Dead easy.
But of course, as I’ve studied tonight’s passage, Jesus has challenged my preconceptions about Himself, blown my mind once again and made me re-think a passage I thought I knew so well.
This might be the case for you too tonight, so I hope that together we might get to know Jesus even better and see him even more clearly as we look at this amazing passage together. Let’s pray together before we start.
PRAY
So, in our study buddy groups, if you were able to meet up, we looked at what it means to be a ‘sheep’ of Jesus’s fold. I know in our group we found this really encouraging as we talked about what it meant to be part of his flock. Tonight, we are going to shift our gaze from the sheep to our awesome Good Shepherd himself. We are going to look at how Jesus is:
- The Good Shepherd who Knows Us
- The Good Shepherd who Saves Us
- The Good Shepherd who Loves Us
Now while we are looking at John Chapter 10 tonight, there was in fact no break originally between John chapter 9 and 10. It was the same day and the same audience. So, I thought we’d begin with a little bit of background, looking at what has just happened and who was there on the day that Jesus uttered one of his most famous statements about himself.
So, by this point the Jewish leaders have tried at least three time to bring about Jesus’s death. Jesus has just healed a man born blind (this takes place at the beginning of Chapter 9), but instead of being blown away by his power and compassion, the Pharisees are furious and want to kill him. Chapter 9 closes with Jesus pronouncing a judgement on them because of their blindness – not a physical blindness like in the man he had just healed, but their wilful spiritual blindness to the truth of who Jesus is, and to their sin.
As we come into chapter 10, tonight’s passage, it is these same men that Jesus is still talking to – the Pharisees who have just tried to stone him, the blind man who he has just healed, and the Jewish leaders who want to ban him from the synagogue. It’s quite an audience, and certainly not one I would want to witness to. But Jesus is not fazed.
‘Your sin remains’, he says to the Pharisees in the final verse of chapter 9, before moving straight into this well-known story of a shepherd – the Good Shepherd.
Now, you’ve probably all heard the Good Shepherd passage time and time again, right? (*show book*) This is the sort of book that I grew up with. From childhood I was bombarded with the cute pictures of Jesus on a hillside with a staff and fluffy sheep all round him. As an aside, these images are probably not helpful tonight and I’d like you to try and start picturing the scene afresh!
But while the story is well-known to us, it was not well-known to Jesus’s angry audience – they were hearing this story for the first time and I can bet that their visualisation of it was very different from ours in the Western world.
So, try and hear it with their ears… This upstart of a man, as they saw him, tells them that they, the righteous holy Jewish leaders, were full of sin – and then starts talking about sheep and shepherds? It definitely feels like a random shift.
Most of us don’t have much contact with shepherds, and certainly not the kind that Jesus was talking about. But to the Pharisees, shepherds were part their of everyday lives.
Judea was a rocky land, with rough and stony ground which was no good for crops, so instead of farmers, shepherds were in abundance, and the familiar figure of the Judean shepherd was known by everyone – they were a bit like our postmen, or shop workers – all around, a constant everyday figure. (Except that being a shepherd was a lot more dangerous than being a postman – we’ll get into this later!).
Basically a shepherd would have seemed a very familiar, if somewhat mundane figure for Jesus to be talking about.
‘Why on earth is he telling us about shepherds?’, the Pharisees must have been thinking. He’s gone from talking about himself as if he’s some sort of god, pronouncing judgement on our sin, to talking about the most ordinary, lowly person imaginable.
So, let’s refresh our memories by reading the first section of tonight’s passage – John 10 verses 1-6 .
10 “Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. 2 The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.” 6 Jesus used this figure of speech, but the Pharisees did not understand what he was telling them.
THE GOOD SHEPHERD WHO KNOWS US
Jesus begins by saying, ‘Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief, and a robber.’ He is speaking directly to the Pharisees, and although they may not realise it yet – they are the thieves and the robbers of whom he speaks.
God’s people have already been warned about these false shepherds throughout the Old Testament. In Ezekiel 34, a chapter that we’re going to refer to a few times tonight, so you might want to put a mark in it, verses 2-3, God says:
‘Woe to the shepherds of Israel who have been feeding themselves! Should not shepherds feed the flock? You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the choice animals, but you do not feed the sheep!’
Jesus is launching into this particular figure of speech about shepherds in John 10, because the religious leaders of Israel were known as the shepherds of Israel: they had been for hundreds of years. But Jesus says that they are in fact strangers, not shepherds to his people. They are robbers who do what they do for money and have no concern for the sheep. They are thieves who fleece their flock and who have only their own good in mind.
Because the reality is that God’s people had been without a true shepherd for a long time. They had been led by people who had exploited and abused them, taking advantage of their high position: but Jesus is here now.
The Pharisees should have been quaking in their expensive boots, had they realised who it really was who stood in front of them. Their time of leading God’s people is nearly up, and the Jesus has come for his sheep. And so, to help them, and us realise this, Jesus tells us the signs that identify him as the true shepherd of his people.
So, looking at verse 2, Jesus says it is the one who enters by the gate who is the true shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him and the sheep listen to his voice. We looked briefly in the study notes how that at night, all the local flocks were herded into a sheep pen and a gate keeper was hired by the shepherds to keep watch so the shepherds could get some sleep. In the morning, the gatekeeper would let the shepherds, and only the shepherds, back into the pen through the gate. He would never let a thief, or robber in – only the shepherd.
By calling them thieves and robbers, Jesus is identifying the Pharisees for who they are, and saying that they will no longer be allowed to shepherd his people. Instead, he will be recognised as their true leader.
In the study notes we also looked at how shepherding was very intimate. In verse 3 it says that the sheep listen to the shepherd’s voice.
In those days, and even now in the Judean area, shepherds made a guttural sound unique to them – a signature call, as it were – and their sheep would know this noise so well that shepherds could separate flocks in an instant if they each made their own special noise. It was like a homing beacon to call their sheep to them.
So having got his sheep’s attention with his personal call, it says that the Shepherd then calls his sheep by name and leads them out for the day to graze. The fact that the shepherd had a name for each of the sheep shows that they were precious to him. These sheep, who have such a bond with their shepherd, would never follow another, says Jesus, because they do not recognise any other voice. They are bound to the shepherd who they know so well and who cares for them. What a marked difference from the false shepherds who only want to slaughter and plunder the flock.
But if you look carefully, Jesus still has not actually brought himself into this story – he has not said he is the shepherd of which he speaks and to the audience this story would have seemed a strange detour into very boring territory. Sheep, and gates and shepherds? May as well talk about the weather, or what you had for dinner. Indeed, verse 6 says, ‘They did not understand what he was telling them.’ The Pharisees don’t get that they are in fact characters in this story – but so are we.
So, as we have the advantage of knowing that we are the sheep in this passage, as we looked at with our study buddies, let’s take a moment to look at our woolly counterparts.
The first thing I noticed is that the sheep are all known by their shepherd.
If you’ve been to a farm you’ll know that sheep pretty much all look the same. My husband’s sister breeds sheep and she has a name for each one and can tell them apart quite easily, whereas they all just look like a big woolly (rather dirty) mass to me. I’m not much of a farm girl!
But Jesus doesn’t just care for one farm, or village, or town – he cares for the whole world; for millions upon millions of people, and he knows each individual down to the very hairs on their head. When it says in verse 3 that ‘he calls his own sheep by name’, this tells us that we are not an indiscernible mass to him – he knows our names, he speaks to each of us individually. In fact, it says, he calls out to us – he wants us to be with him, he knows we are safe only with him, and the sheep recognise this: their eyes are always on the shepherd, and they only have ears for his call.
I find this so encouraging especially as much of the passage warns of the false shepherds all around. This was true for the Christians in Jesus’s time, and true for us today. Some of you may know how damaging false teachers and false Christian leaders can be and sometimes I fear that I might be led astray as others close to me have been. What if I can’t tell the difference between someone speaking the gospel or someone preaching lies; what if someone wants me to be involved in a ministry that sounds great but is not actually centred around Jesus?
These verses assure us that the true shepherd of the sheep provides protection from these false shepherds – it is him who gives us the ability to hear his voice and follow him.
But how do we do this: how do we listen to Jesus’s voice today? It’s the old Sunday School answer really – by reading the Bible.
We know that all of Scripture is God-breathed and because Jesus is God (which we’re going to look at in more detail shortly), that means that all of Scripture is Jesus speaking to us! That’s how we listen to his voice in our daily lives.
So, by coming here tonight, you have chosen to make time to listen to and follow Jesus’s voice – the voice of our Good Shepherd. I hope you are encouraged by that – I certainly am, looking out and seeing all your faces here.
When our ears are open and listening to his voice, we cannot be deceived, and his voice will drown out all others. All we need to do is follow along, stumble along if we must, but keep our ears open to the one calling out our name and leading us on to safe pasture.
We don’t need to worry about being lost along the way either. There is emphasis in verse 4 that the Shepherd brings out ‘all’ of his own. It reminds me of the parable of the lost sheep – if you fall along the way, either through sin or circumstance, Jesus is not going to give you up.
And once he has brought you back to the flock, verse four tells us that he ‘goes on ahead of us’. He is always in front of us when we look for him, and when we need to know the way. He’s not sitting on a throne many miles away, sending us directions via sat nav – he’s walking with us, speaking to us, encouraging us through all the valleys that life may bring.
He is the shepherd who knows and never leaves his sheep and we can take great comfort in the fact that Jesus will never ask us to follow where he won’t go himself, and he will never leave us on the journey.
THE GOOD SHEPHERD WHO SAVES US
We’ve looked at verses 1-6 of John Chapter 10, and now we’re going to look at the second section, verses 7-10:
7 Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. 9 I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.[a] They will come in and go out, and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
This section we’re going to call ‘The Good Shepherd Who Saves Us’.
As we saw in verse 6, the Pharisees didn’t understand Jesus’s story – or perhaps, wouldn’t. They are as blind as the blind man in the previous chapter.But even though they hadn’t realised who they were in this story that Jesus was telling, they firmly believed that they were the leaders of the Jews, known 025in the Old Testament as the shepherds of Israel which we looked at in Ezekiel 34. They were all powerful and no one could shake them. Certainly not this mangy pretender from Nazareth.
But looks can be deceiving and little did they know that the words of Ezekiel 34 (which we’re going to call our ‘Good Shepherd’ prophecy passage tonight, were soon to be fulfilled. In verse 10 of Ezekiel 34, God says:
‘Look, I am against the shepherds, and I will demand my sheep from their hand. I will no longer let them be shepherds; the shepherds will not feed themselves anymore. I will rescue my sheep from their mouths, so that they will no longer be food for them’ (verse 10).
God had prophesied that the reign of the false shepherds would end, and he himself would come and rescue his sheep. So it is time for Jesus to introduce himself firmly into this shepherding story, but it isn’t perhaps in the way we would expect.
When I started studying this passage it slightly took me by surprise that in the first half there is no mention of Jesus as the Good Shepherd. In fact, he makes a very different ‘I AM’ statement about himself. Who, or what, does he say he is here in verse 7? That’s right, he says, ‘I Am the Gate’.
This is definitely a less familiar I AM statement than some of the others, but it’s no less important. So, let’s dig into it now.
‘Truly, truly I tell you that I am the gate for the sheep’, he says. I just want to take a moment to look at the very start of this sentence.
We’ve spoken before about Jesus preceeds his ‘I AM’ statements with ‘very truly’ – or ‘verily, verily I say unto thee’, if we’re going old school. It’s a strange term, and one he certainly uses to get his listener’s attention. I always thought it was just an outdated form of speech; an odd turn that Jesus liked to use, but in fact the original translation is ‘Amen, Amen’, so in tonight’s passage, ‘Amen, amen, I am the gate for the sheep’.
Amen? Jesus starts his statements about himself with a phrase that we use to end things? How odd.
In fact, as well as being a phrase used to end prayers, ‘amen’ was used in Jesus’s day to approve and accredit the words of another. For example, if someone was teaching in the synagogue and the congregation all agreed with what was said, the elders would stand and say ‘amen’ – i.e. we’ve checked that what this person says in accordance with our understanding of the Scriptures, and it’s true, so ‘amen’.
But Jesus starts by saying Amen. And not just amen – ‘Amen, amen’ – and he says it to his own words! He is basically saying, what I am saying is approved and accredited – by me! I found this so powerful.
In the words of Tim Keller, Jesus says, ‘I take away your right to decide if what I’m saying is something you like, or whether what I’m saying is something you want to follow, or whether you think it makes sense or is right for you.’ This is the Son of God revealing something indisputable about himself to us, and we don’t get to decide if we say Amen to it at the end – because it is indisputably true, and he is the one saying Amen to it.
Basically, he’s saying sit up, get ready, I’m about to tell you something really important about myself, and I will vouch for its truth. So, let’s listen up to what the Son of God has to say about Himself!
‘Amen, Amen, I Am the Gate for the sheep’ (verse 7). Now this can at first seem confusing. Jesus is the shepherd, but he is also the gate?
I struggled to understand this for a while, caught up with random ideas about bits of wood and gate structures, until I did some digging. You see, when the shepherd and his flock were further afield, the shepherd would need to find a safe place for them all to rest. This might be between a wall and some hedges, or a cave. In these situations, the shepherd would lie down across the entrance to the makeshift fold so that no one could go in or out without him being aware of it – he literally became a living gate.
Should a sheep try to stray, or a wolf try to enter – he would stop them. A gate provides security. Jesus says here that He is our gate and that only those who enter through him are saved.
This image would have been particularly well understood by Jesus’s listeners. They knew that a shepherd’s task was relentless vigilance and constant attention, for danger was all around. There was no shelter up on the rocky plateau of Judea. Thieves and robbers wanted the sheep for wool and meat. Every day was a long arduous day.
It’s clear that a good shepherd was tireless, vigilant, brave and selfless. But this was not all that Jesus meant. It’s all very well and good to know that we have a protector in this life that we can call upon, in accordance with his wisdom, but Jesus doesn’t just say that as his sheep we are safe. Look again at verse 9 – what does Jesus say? Whoever enters through him will be? Saved. Not safe – Jesus says we are ‘saved’.
You see, Jesus had just told the Pharisees that they were guilty of sin, and that their guilt remains – that’s much bigger thing to need saving from than wolves. And we too have our wool stained by sin and need a Saviour. Isaiah 53 verse 6 says:
‘We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him (Jesus)
the iniquity of us all.’
We have been trapped by our sin, and desperately need a Saviour to give us a way out – and Jesus gives us it. ‘I am the gate,’ he says. ‘Come out from that place of sin, through me, and me alone, and you will be saved from your sin.’
So, Jesus is our Gate to this abundant life – our living Door. He is the only way to God and he leads us out of our old life where we were trapped by sin and gives us access to this incredible life that he speaks of here. He says he gives us ‘Life to the full’, which can be literally translated as ‘an over the top life’.
I think Chuck Swindoll puts it well when he says: “Jesus gives us life abundantly, which means we have the real things in life that money can’t buy: peace, purpose, and the joy of facing the grave without fear.”
As Jesus says, that truly is an over-the-top life.
BREAKOUT: When did you enter through the gate and become a sheep of Jesus’s fold? How has it changed your life?
THE GOOD SHEPHERD WHO LOVES US
We’re going to look at our final section tonight: John 10 v 11-18.
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.”
We’ve thought tonight about how Jesus is the Good Shepherd who knows us and the Good Shepherd who saves us. In our final section, we’re going to think more about how Jesus is the Good Shepherd who loves us.
You can sense a definite shift in verse 11 – we are no longer in story territory. Jesus had already introduced himself into the narrative by saying he is the gate – but that wasn’t instantly understandable to his listeners. Now he says He is the Good Shepherd – a statement that would get the attention of every listener there.
The tension is ramping up. Jesus started by telling a story about sheep. That was nice. Then he said he was the gate for the sheep… that was a bit confusing at first… Now Jesus is saying he is the Good Shepherd? But, as we have seen from looking the prophecy in Ezekiel 34, God was known by the people of Israel as the good Shepherd … So, Jesus is God?! This might be known by us but it was certainly a shock to his listeners.
As with the Bread of Life, and the Light of the World statements that Esther and Vicki brought to us previously, Jesus often took an image that was firmly associated in the minds of the Jewish listeners as a picture of God and claimed it completely for himself.
We can imagine how incensed the Pharisees were feeling right now. This man that they hated – who was a complete nobody – was saying that he is the fulfilment of the prophecy of the Good Shepherd? The Shepherd who would deliver the Jews…the Saviour that they had been waiting for?
But it’s interesting to look at exactly what Jesus says because the original translation is, ‘I am the Shepherd, the good one.’ The good one? What does this mean exactly – the well behaved one, the nice one?
The word good that Jesus uses is not the Greek word agathos which means morally good – he actually uses the word kalos which means good in every sense. It’s a big word – it does include being morally good, but also attractive, lovely, excellent, magnificent, winsome – the absolute best, in every aspect.
Jesus is saying, ‘I am the shepherd, the one you have been waiting for – the ultimate good one – in contrast to the ugly, dangerous ones you have had all around you.
But what is it that makes him the Good Shepherd? Is it his kindness, his bravery, his power?
It’s actually something quite different that he refers to. In fact, he tells us five times in just seven verses (v11, v15, v17 and twice in v18). Can anyone tell me? Yes – the Good Shepherd lays down his life for his sheep.
We’ve already touched on the fact that shepherding was a serious business. It was high risk and had a high cost. You’ve probably read of David fighting off a lion to protect his sheep in 1 Samuel 17. These sheep were the shepherd’s life and going home without one of them was unthinkable.
In Amos 3 verse 12 we read that, ‘A shepherd rescues from a lion’s mouth only two leg bones, or a piece of an ear’, because if something happened to a sheep the shepherd had to prove it to its ultimate owner – they had to account for it and bring a piece of it to show what had happened – if it had fallen off a cliff, or been mauled by a wild animal. It was a very serious thing for a shepherd to lose a sheep.
The difference for Jesus of course it that the risk was voluntary for a shepherd; he didn’t have to engage in the battle with a lion, or a wolf. Sure, the shepherd might lose his job and his wages if he came home without a sheep, and although it did sometimes happen, he was not obligated to die for his sheep. That’s why Jesus is the Good Shepherd – he chose to die for his sheep.
Unlike the hired hand, Jesus does not abandon his flock in the face of grave danger. But even more so, his life was not snatched from him accidentally in the heat of a struggle or fight. He tells us in verse 18 that no one takes his life from him. ‘I lay it down of my own accord,’ he says.
Jesus here is emphasising that he is good, the good shepherd, because he willingly, voluntarily lays down his life – and it is this voluntary laying down that makes it beautiful, and makes him so good.
Because of course, Jesus technically wasn’t killed. He wasn’t assassinated or murdered; he wasn’t the victim of unfortunate circumstances. It was his own will that he died for us; he wasn’t caught in a web of entrapment as it can sometimes seem when we read of the plots of the Pharisees, and Judas’s betrayal.
We see this when Peter tried to defend his Lord, Jesus says that with one word he could command legions of angels to save himself. He is saying to Peter, ‘They’re not taking my life Peter, I’m giving it.’
When Pilate says, ‘I have the power to take your life,’ Jesus says that Pilate has no power except what has been given to him. It was Jesus’s choice to give his life for us; it was completely his decision; and he did it because he loves his sheep, and wants to be with them forever.
Of course, usually when the shepherd died, this would be the end for the sheep. They were instantly vulnerable; liable to be scattered and killed.
It certainly seemed at this point in tonight’s passage that the false shepherds all around would be triumphing and taking advantage if Jesus died – perhaps even right now the Pharisees were thinking ‘Great, he’s going to die?! Then he won’t be a problem for us for long!’
And it certainly seemed on the night that Jesus died that his sheep were scattered as Judas disowned him, Peter betrayed him and the others went and hid behind a locked door. And I know to my great shame that had I been there on that night, frightened sheep that I often am, I would probably have done the same.
So the flock was scattered the night that Jesus died; lost and afraid without their shepherd to guide them. But even knowing that this would happen, Jesus says in verse 16 that not only will his flock be united, but it will grow and be added to in number, forever held together under his care.
How would this be? It’s because the incredible news was that this Shepherd would not stay dead – on the third day he came up from the grave and regathered his scattered sheep with loving arms; not one of them lost – and yet his plan was bigger still and he goes on to speak of how he has ‘other sheep that are not of this sheep pen.’
Did you know you were in this story? Well, you are. This story was told to a Jewish audience – they were the original sheep in the story, but twenty centuries ago, Jesus had you in mind too. Before the world was made God had you in mind. You are – I am – we are these other sheep, because the other sheep from the other sheep pen of which Jesus speaks are the Gentiles, which we are part of.
Jesus first called out his sheep, the Jews, and some of them followed him, and then through his death he made a way for all people, throughout all time, to be part of his flock. The sheep he loves have been united forever through his sacrifice and resurrection.
But just why does this Good Shepherd care so much for his flock?
The key is in verse 14 when Jesus says, ‘I know my sheep and my sheep know me – just as the Father knows me and I know the Father’.
In our first session Sharon spoke to us on John 1 and how Jesus met the first disciples and answered their questions about him with, ‘Come and see.’
He invited them back to where he lived, and he ate and talked with them. He wanted them to get to know him; it was a personal relationship; it was real and tangible.
In fact, the word ‘know’, that Jesus uses here, is not used in terms of knowing information, but is actually the word used in Genesis chapter 4 when it says that Adam ‘knew’ his wife Eve, and she bore him a child. It is an intimate, personal knowing that Jesus has with his sheep – as personal as a husband and wife’s bond. Jesus wanted to give his life for his sheep because he knew them. He wanted to give his life for us because he loves us.
He’s telling us in these verses that we are his treasured possession; his friends, his family, and that he knows us better than anyone else ever did or could or will. It’s why he uses the verb four times. ‘I know my sheep… my sheep know me… the Father knows me… I know the Father.’
While the gate image emphasises security, the good shepherd image emphasises relationship. Jesus is telling us that his love for us is undisputable.
In an amazing twist, our final two verses tonight complete this awesome love bond between us, Jesus (our Good Shepherd) and God. Verses 17 and 18 read: ‘The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life – only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. This command I received from my Father.’ To give his life for us was a command from his Father God – Jesus did it, and that’s why God loves him so much.
Jesus obeying his Father’s command to save his sheep here reminded me of another command that Jesus gave – in fact it was the very last command he gave before he returned to his Father.
‘If you love me,’ he says to Peter in John 21, ‘Feed my sheep.’ And he doesn’t just say it once – he says it three times: ‘Feed my lambs… take care of my sheep… feed my sheep’. Our Good Shepherd uses his final conversation on earth to put into place an under-shepherd who would follow the example of the good shepherd, to continue to care for the flock. Jesus was never, not for one minute, not thinking about us. His flock was and is his concern to the end.
Looking back over this passage, the care of Jesus for his sheep is incredible.
Our Good Shepherd feeds us, leads us, watches over us as we sleep, forms a living gate to protect us from danger. He takes the wolf bites and the lion scars for us, and ultimately gave his life – his whole life – body and soul – willingly and without whimper or moan to save us from something far worse than wolves or thieves: from hell and from the deservedly terrible judgement of a righteous God, to provide a complete atonement for the sheep that he loves.
As I said, when I took this passage tonight, I had some initial childish images of a shepherd in a nice cloak on a green hillside beside a stream. Of how we must follow God, we must obey him like sheep and that way we will eat nice green grass in a lush field.
Now when I read this passage, I see a scarred, windswept, rugged shepherd on a barren landscape. He never sleeps. He knows each and every sheep around him and his eye is always roving for the wolves that may pounce on them. His love for his sheep is fierce and relentless; if they wander he will pursue them anywhere. The sheep cling to him; any sound he makes, they hear. He is their protector; and they need him more than anything.
But my initial image of a lush green field and flowing stream is real too – it’s just that we have to wait a while longer to get there. Heaven, for us, is coming – because our Shepherd has won our passage there. But he has also returned to watch over us until we cross through the final gate of death, and then he will put down his staff, we will receive our crowns, and we can rejoice with him as our King.
Revelation 7 verse 17 says of this moment:
“For the Lamb at the centre of the throne
will be their shepherd;
‘he will lead them to springs of living water.’[a]
‘And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.’[b]”
Thank you Jesus.
I’d like us to pray together in our small groups to close; praying a blessing over one another as we celebrate being united as one flock under our Good Shepherd Jesus, and praying encouragement over one another as we seek to follow him all the days of our lives.
We’re going to have Hebrews 13 20-21 up on screen as we pray and if you’re struggling to find the words to pray, maybe just use those words instead.
20 Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, 21 equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Hebrews 13 20-21