Easter 3 – John 10:11-16 – What Makes a Good Shepherd?

11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep. 12 But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. 13 The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own. 15 As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. 16 And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd.

Scripture is full of discussions, references to, and analogies about sheep and shepherds. The Jews saw themselves as a shepherding people – as we’ve been discussing in our Adult Bible Study, Abraham and his nephew Lot were shepherds, as were Abraham’s sons. His grandson Jacob, better known as Israel, moved to Egypt to take care of sheep for them during the famine because shepherding is detestable to Egyptians – apparently they needed shepherds but the work was distasteful, and they were happy to let resident aliens do it instead.

The great King David was also a shepherd before he was anointed – Scripture tells us this; we remember his refusal to wear armor or carry a great weapon to face Goliath, preferring instead a sling such as he would have used to fend off predators and bandits in the wild.

I wonder if the ancient Jews thought of shepherds the way we might think of cowboys today, in our somewhat romanticized ideas of the Old West. Men might like to think of themselves as cowboys, sleeping under the starts, protecting cattle, leading them across the great plains. I wonder if young, ancient Jewish boys got slings and pretended to fend off lions and wolves like King David once did before he was king.

The work of the ancient shepherd was lonely and dangerous. Flocks were usually kept at around a hundred sheep. The number of sheep that had to be kept, as well as the needs of a sizable herd for food and water, meant that they had to be kept near the wilderness, and would often be taken out. Good shepherds always knew where the best food and water were, and would lead the sheep there when they needed. A big part of the job was leading sheep to where they could eat and drink in safety.

Because of all the moving around required in the ordinary keeping of sheep, and because sheep seem to like to go astray anyway (as Isaiah testifies), shepherds often had to chase down strays. Good shepherds would risk their lives climbing down rocks and valleys in the wilderness to retrieve stray sheep. Good shepherds would know each of their sheep and call their sheep by name.

Sheep were one of the primary meat animals of the ancient world, and because of this and their domestication, they were very attractive prey for lions and wolves when they were out of their folds. Because of this, one of the key parts of the shepherd’s job was to defend the sheep from predators, even at the risk of his own life. That’s quite a commitment to make – sheep are easily replaceable; more would be born next Spring. Good shepherds would not allow wolves to attack and kill their sheep. Hirelings are in it for the money and aren’t willing to risk their lives for sheep.

As we look at this text, this Good Shepherd seems more and more like a hero, than just what we would call “good.” But when Scripture calls something “good,” it often means “perfect.” When God created the world, he called everything “good” not because there was something better but because it was perfect just the way it was then.

But why do we need to spend so much time with this shepherd and sheep imagery? It’s easy to focus on the shepherd side of it, but it also implies some things about us that we don’t like to hear or think about.

Sheep are not able to take care of themselves. If they could, they wouldn’t need shepherds. They would be able to roam around on their own, find food and water, and come back. We like to think that we’re smart and independent but, just like sheep, we like to do our own things. Just like sheep, we are almost ideal prey for the various things in this world that would harm or destroy us.

The fact is, that we want to do our own things. God’s Law tells us not to do something, we hear that, and we can’t think of anything else but our desire to do the things we’re told we shouldn’t do. On the other hand, God’s Law says we should do something, and we find all the reasons in the world why we can’t do that thing. In all this isolation from the pandemic, how many of us are using our extra time to learn more about God, and how many of us are trusting in Him to protect us? At the same time, how many of us are going stir-crazy and losing patience with the people we’re in quarantine with? Even if we’re doing better, by ourselves, we can never, ever do enough. We can always do more, we can always do better, and the Law is delighted to remind us of that.

If you’re like me, you might be chafing a bit at that reminder. We all need it, because we all, like sheep, have gone astray. We need a shepherd because we know that we are not, in and of ourselves, good enough. No matter how hard we try, we cannot erase the bad that we’ve done on our own; even if we could, we can’t make up for it with good deeds. Even our best deeds aren’t enough on their own. There are many voices that are telling us, “Just try harder! You can do it!”

But these are the voices of wolves. This is not the voice of Jesus. By his grace, we are his sheep – he called us to himself and made us His own in Baptism. And we know his voice and hear it. But what does the voice of Jesus say? If Jesus were an ordinary man, or maybe even an extraordinary one, he might lay out some kind of moral plan for us to follow – indeed he does have a lot to say about how we should live. But when it comes to our eternal well-being, he makes it clear that it is not now and never has been up to us. No, he takes the responsibility for defending us on himself. He says he lays his life down for us. What does that mean?

Throughout Jesus’ life, he was in mortal danger. Starting as a baby, when Herod killed the newborn boys, and various points in his ministry when crowds tried to pick up rocks to stone him, or to throw him down from high places to kill him, he had opportunities to die or give up his life. Yet he did not. His work was not yet done. As Paul says in his letter to the Galatians:

Gal 4: “4 But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.”

He came to lay his life down for us on the cross. Phil. 2:5: “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.

Because he is truly God, he can make these promises to us. Because he is truly God, his sacrifice for us is enough. We cannot, and should not try, to add anything to it. He is the Good Shepherd, the best and perfect shepherd, because he has ensured that we have what we most need: the forgiveness of our sins. He has also given us faith to trust in him for this forgiveness, which we need as sheep need food and water.

Another of his great promises is that no one can pluck us out of his hand as the Good Shepherd. He says himself:

John 10:27 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. 28 And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand. 30 I and My Father are one.”

What more can we ask for? The Good Shepherd, who laid down his life once for our sins, is the one who now keeps and protects us. May we trust in him, as he as asked us to do, to keep us safe until we can be together with him forever.

In Christ’s name, we pray, Amen.