‘The Good Shepherd’ is a Loaded Image

The “Good Shepherd” is a Loaded Image

John 10:1-16

 by Anna Bates

Preached at First Presbyterian Church of Sandpoint, Idaho on October 11, 2020

We miss so much in the Bible, because our base of understanding comes from our current perspective, which is thousands of years after the books of the Bible were written.   The Eastern culture used phrases and things to describe an idea.  Jesus used common, everyday things to illustrate his teachings.  Because we don’t know a lot about Bible times, we miss the depth of these teachings.   The Adult Bible Study Class is beginning a year-long DVD journey through the Holy Lands led by a Bible teacher and historian.  You are sincerely invited to join us in this learning opportunity.  Today’s message of the good shepherd comes from the Barclay Study Bible and is titled “The Good Shepherd is a Loaded Image.”

John 10: Verses1-16

1. Jesus said: “This is the truth I tell you; he who does not enter the sheepfold through the door, but climbs in some other way, is a thief and a robber. 

2. But he who comes in through the door is the shepherd of the sheep.
3. The gatekeeper opens the door to him; and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

4. When he has brought his own sheep out, he walks in front of them; and the sheep follow him, because they know his voice. 

5. But they will not follow a stranger, they will run away from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers.

6. Jesus spoke this parable to them, but they did not know what He was saying to them.
7. So Jesus said to them again: This is the truth I tell you – I am the door of the sheep. 
8. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. 

9. I am the door. If any man enter in through me, he will be saved, and he will go in and out, and he will find pasture. 

10. The thief comes only to kill and to steal and to destroy; I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

11. I am the good shepherd; and the good shepherd gives his life for the sheep.
12. The hireling, who is not a real shepherd, and to whom the sheep do not really belong, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep, and runs away; and the wolf seizes the sheep and scatters them. 

13. He abandons the sheep because he is a hireling, and the sheep are nothing to him.

14-15.  I am the good shepherd.  I know my own sheep, and my own sheep know me.   Just as the Father knows me and I know the Father.  And I am willing to die for them.

16. “But I have other sheep which are not of this fold. These too I must bring in, and they will hear my voice; and they will become one flock, and there will be one shepherd.

In ancient Palestine, no flock ever grazed without a shepherd.  There was little grass, so the sheep were bound to wander off.  Because there were no walls or fences, the sheep had to be watched constantly.  The shepherd was constantly on guard against wolves and bears, thieves and robbers.

In the Old Testament, God is often pictured as the shepherd, and the people as His flock.  Psalm 23:1  says, “The Lord is my shepherd:  I shall not want.”   Psalm 95:7 says, “He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand.”

This picture passes over into the New Testament.  Jesus is the good shepherd.  In Matthew 18:12, He is the shepherd who will risk His life to seek and to save the one straying sheep.  In Matthew 9:36, He has pity on the people, because they are like sheep without a shepherd.  In 1 Peter 2:25, He is the shepherd of the souls of men.

The shepherd’s equipment was very simple.

* He had his scrip, which was a small bag made out of the skin of an animal, in which he carried no more than bread, dried fruit, some olives, and cheese.

* He had his sling, which was a weapon of offense and defense; but he made one curious use of it.  There were no sheep dogs in Palestine, so when the shepherd wished to call back a sheep which was straying away, he fitted a stone into his sling and landed the stone just in front of the straying sheep’s nose as a warning to turn back.

* He had his staff, which was a wooden club for defense, the end of which was often studded with metal.   With his staff, the shepherd defended himself and his flock against beasts and robbers.

* He had his rod, which was like a shepherd’s crook.  With it, he could catch or rescue any sheep wandering away, or pull in a sheep that was beyond reach.  At the end of the day, when the sheep were going into the fold, the shepherd held his rod across the entrance, close to the ground.  Every sheep had to pass under it, and as they did, the shepherd quickly examined each one to see if it had received any injury during the day.

The Eastern relationship between sheep and shepherd was different from ours.  The sheep were largely kept for their fleece to make wool, resulting in the sheep often being with the shepherd for years.  Often, each had a name by which the shepherd called them.

The shepherd went in front of the sheep to see that the path was safe.  He called sharply from time to time, to remind the sheep of his presence.  They knew his voice, and followed him; but if a stranger called, they stopped short and lifted their heads in alarm.  They would turn and run, because they did not know the stranger’s voice.

In the story of the good shepherd, Jesus spoke about two kinds of sheepfolds.   There were communal sheepfolds where all the village flocks were sheltered when they returned home at night.  These folds were protected by a strong door, and only the guardian of the door held the key.  However, when the sheep were out on the hills in the warm season and did not return to the village at night, they were collected into makeshift sheepfolds.  There was an opening by which the sheep came in and went out, but there was no door.  At night, the shepherd would lay down across the opening, and no sheep could get out or come in except over his body.   In the most literal sense, the shepherd was the door.

That is what Jesus was thinking of in verse 7, when He said:  “I am the door.”  Paul said in Ephesians 2:18, “Through Him, we have access unto the Father.”  Jesus opened the door for men to God.  He is the door through whom entrance to God becomes possible for men.

To describe something of what that entrance to God means, Jesus uses a well-known Hebrew phrase.  He says that through Him, we can go in and come out.  To be able to come and go unmolested was the Jewish way of describing a life that is absolutely secure and safe.  When a man can go in and out

without fear, it means that his country is at peace and that he enjoys security for his life.  In Psalm 121:8, the Psalmist was certain that God would keep him in his going out and in his coming in.  Once a man discovers, through Jesus Christ, what God is like, a new sense of safety and security enters into his life.

In verse 8, there is a contrast noted between Jesus and those who came before.  He was not referring to the great succession of prophets and heroes of the Old Testament, but to the adventurers who were continually arising in ancient Israel and promising that if the people would follow them, they would bring in the golden age.  These were revolutionaries and insurrectionists.  They believed that men would have to wade through blood to get to the golden age.  The Jewish historian Josephus speaks of there being ten thousand disorders in Judaea; tumults caused by men of war.  He speaks of men like the

Zealots who did not mind dying, and who did not mind slaughtering their own loved ones, if their schemes and hopes of victory and conquest could be achieved.

Jesus is saying: “There have been men who claimed they were leaders sent to you from God.  They believed in war, murder, assassination, and death.  Their way only leads farther and farther away from God.  My way is the way of peace, and love, and life.  And my way, if you will only take it, leads ever closer to God.”  It is the message of Jesus that the only way that leads to God in heaven and to the golden age on earth is the way of love.

In verse 10, Jesus says that He came that men might have life and have it more abundantly.  The phrase which is used for having it “more abundantly” is the Greek phrase which means to have a surplus, a superabundance of a thing.   When we walk with Jesus, when we know His presence in our lives, there comes into life a new vitality, a superabundance of life.

In ancient Israel, the shepherd was absolutely responsible for the sheep.  If anything happened to the sheep, he had to produce some kind of proof that it was not his fault.  In Exodus 22:13, the law laid it down that “If it be torn in pieces, then let him bring it for witness.”  To the true shepherd, it was the most natural thing to risk his life in the defense of his flock.  Sometimes, he had to lay down his life for the sheep, especially when thieves and robbers came to steal them.

In verse 12, Jesus refers to the hireling.  The true shepherd never hesitated to risk, and even give, his life for his sheep.  On the other hand, there were the false and unfaithful shepherds.  The difference was that a real shepherd was born to his task.  He was sent out with the flock as soon as he was old enough to go; he grew into the calling of being a shepherd; the sheep became his friends and his companions; and it became second nature to him to think of them before he thought of himself.  But the false, or hired, shepherd came into the job as a means of making money.  He had no sense of the height and responsibility of his calling.

In verse 14, Jesus describes Himself as the good shepherd.  In the ancient Greek, there are two words for good.

1. One simply describes the moral quality of a thing or person, such as a good man.
2. The second means that a thing or a person is not only good, but in that goodness, there is a quality of loveliness and attractiveness that results in a sense of joy.  When Jesus is described as the good shepherd, the second word is used.

In verse 16, Jesus is saying that there will come a day when He will gather in all men, when exclusion and the sense of privilege will no longer exist, and when all men will know Him as their shepherd.

After hearing the background of the image of the “Good Shepherd,” I hope it will hold a deeper meaning for you.  When Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd,” He was saying to each of us… I am your protector, your defender, your rescuer, your guide, your healer, your comforter, your friend, your life companion in good times and bad, your doorway to God, the lover of all men unto death, and Savior for all men.

The “Good Shepherd” is indeed a loaded image.  It is loaded with the promises and love of God for each of us.

Amen