Today is the fourth Sunday of Lent and we will reflect on John 10:11-18, The Shepherd. In this passage Jesus refers to himself as the Good Shepherd; echoing back to the bad shepherds that Ezekiel describes in the Old Testament. Kings, such as King David, were often referred to as shepherds, called to provide and protect their people and ensuring that there was justice in the land. Being a shepherd is not an easy task, as sheep don’t always follow well and can be stubborn. Yet Jesus chooses to be our shepherd, chooses us and we get to call him our shepherd. We get to say that the creator of the universe has chosen us as his sheep and knows us by name !
Today is the fourth Sunday of Lent and we will reflect on John 10:11-18, The Shepherd. In this passage Jesus refers to himself as the Good Shepherd; echoing back to the bad shepherds that Ezekiel describes in the Old Testament. Kings, such as King David, were often referred to as shepherds, called to provide and protect their people and ensuring that there was justice in the land. Being a shepherd is not an easy task, as sheep don’t always follow well and can be stubborn. Yet Jesus chooses to be our shepherd, chooses us and we get to call him our shepherd. We get to say that the creator of the universe has chosen us as his sheep and knows us by name !
The Shepherd
John 10:11-18
John places this teaching of Jesus about being the good shepherd right after the story of how Jesus healed a bland man, but the Pharisees couldn’t wrap their heads or hearts around the fact that Jesus has been given the gift of healing by God. They actually throw the healed man out of the synagogue. Jesus finds the man and asks him a rather strange question, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” The healed man wants to believe in him, so Jesus tells him, “You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.” The man worships Jesus and Jesus tells him, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.”
Now there’s some Pharisees there and they realize that Jesus is talking about them being the ones who see but who are actually blind, so they ask, “What? Are we blind too?” Jesus doesn’t pull any punches here, he wants them to be perfectly clear about the consequences of rejecting him, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.” The Pharisees, as students of the Law and the Prophets have no excuse for not recognizing who Jesus is; that Jesus is the Son of Man.
Daniel 7:13–14 gives us some insight into what Jesus is referring to when he refers to the Son of Man, “In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.”
The scholars Hardin and Brown observe that “Daniel 7 is set in the midst of a literary unit concerned with the encroaching pressure among exiled Jews to worship the king of Babylon. Daniel has a vision that reveals four beasts rising out of the Mediterranean Sea to attack Israel. The 10-horned fourth beast spawns another “little horn” which rages against God and His people…. Daniel sees “one like a son of man, coming on the clouds of heaven”. The phrase “one like a son of man,” denotes a human-looking figure who is given privileges normally reserved for God: authority, glory, sovereign power, the worship of men of every language, and an eternal kingdom.Daniel’s vision is one of suffering and exaltation…. Jesus may have used Daniel’s “one like a son of man” to communicate ideas of suffering and… found in Daniel 7 a paradigm of suffering, enthronement, and authority.” Jesus is on the road to the cross and he’s preparing his disciples for the coming cross and gives them glimpses of his power, but also hints at the suffering that lies ahead, a suffering that culminates with his death on the cross.
Now John moves into Jesus’ teaching about who he is as the good shepherd, with the themes of authority and suffering in the background of this name. just before our passage, Jesus talks about robbers, strangers, and thieves who come to steal and kill and destroy the sheep, echoing back to Zechariah 10 which talks of how the sheep need a shepherd who will care for the flock properly, “Ask the Lord for rain in the springtime; it is the Lord who sends the thunderstorms. He gives showers of rain to all people, and plants of the field to everyone. The idols speak deceitfully, diviners see visions that lie; they tell dreams that are false, they give comfort in vain. Therefore the people wander like sheep oppressed for lack of a shepherd. “My anger burns against the shepherds, and I will punish the leaders; for the Lord Almighty will care for his flock, the people of Judah.” Zechariah tells the people that the Lord himself is going to come to be their shepherd, to care for them, but to also help them flourish again. Zechariah is talking to the people after their return from exile. You would think they would be careful in listening to God and his ways after coming out of exile for not listening to God, but they keep listening to idols and diviners: to bad shepherds, who keep telling them lies instead of listening to the prophets God has sent. Zechariah points ahead to the coming of Jesus as Judah’s good shepherd.
In Advent we also looked at Jesus as the good shepherd and we reflected on how his sheep know his voice and recognize him. We reflected on how Jesus laid down his life for us. now in Lent, we will dig deeper into how Jesus calls himself the good shepherd, and how the people would connect Jesus to King David, the Shepherd King who wrote Psalm 23 “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; my cup runs over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” Phillip Keller, author of A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23 writes, “David in this psalm, is speaking not as a shepherd, though he was one, but as a sheep, one of the flock. He spoke with a strong sense of pride and devotion and admiration. It was as though he literally boasted aloud, “Look at who my shepherd is—my owner—my manager! The Lord is!” Keller goes on to marvel that “the Creator of this enormous universe of overwhelming magnitude, deigns to call himself my Shepherd and invites me to consider myself his sheep—his special object of affection and attention.”
Being a shepherd’s not an easy job. Sheep need an incredible amount of attention and care. We’re like sheep in so many ways: we can be stubborn, we can be really dumb, we can think ourselves so brave and yet in reality are timid and afraid; just consider how difficult it is for us to share about our good shepherd with others. Sheep have some strange habits, and if we’re honest, we also have some strange habits, and yet our good shepherd still chooses us, buys us, and makes us his own in a spirit of joy and delight. He takes care of us, provides for us as a good shepherd provides places of safety, places to rest in green pastures rather than dry pastures. When we find ourselves in fear and worry, in strife or conflict, our good shepherd protects us and guides us to still quiet waters to be refreshed and to rest.
As Keller notes, the master in people’s lives makes the difference in their destiny, where they end up. I’ve been fortunate to have had a number of wise caring people who have offered me guidance over the years and who have always reminded me that the first person I need to keep looking to is Jesus. He’s the shepherd I need to always keep my ears open to listening to. I think of the encouragement Paul gives is 1 Timothy, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” This comes from the gift of the Holy Spirit from our good shepherd. The Holy Spirit helps us recognize the call of the shepherd, especially those times we’ve followed our noses and stomachs and unwittingly wandered away. That moment of fear of not seeing our shepherd is calmed when we hear the voice of the shepherd come close as he comes searching for us.
Phillip Keller shares how sheep can often fight among themselves, that rivalries and jealousy is not uncommon, how some sheep can be aggressive against others, and yet “the shepherd’s presence puts an end to all rivalry.” He also noticed how “the less aggressive sheep were often far more contented, quiet, and restful,” which reminds me of Paul’s encouragement to the Thessalonians to “make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life many win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anyone.” When we’re attuned to our shepherd’s voice and presence, we too can find that contentment and peace, even when we walk through hard times and feel overwhelmed by those who don’t wish us well.
The good shepherd restores our souls. As we look to Jesus as our good shepherd, we see how his willingness to lay down his life for us, how his obedience to his Father’s will and plan to restore us to him through the cross, restores us in our relationship with the Father and washes away our sin. But there is more to this image, Jesus restores and brings healing to our souls when we go through times of sorrow, times of doubt and fear, times of loneliness, and more. Part of this image of a shepherd takes us to how shepherds tend to the hurts of the sheep, of how they will carry a lamb or sheep when they’re unable to go any further. There is something so personal in Jesus calling himself the good shepherd and calling us as his sheep, because we’re reassured that he knows our names; he knows us, even the us we wish he didn’t know, and yet he still claims us as his, takes responsibility for us.
There is so much more to Jesus as our good shepherd, but the big and most important questions is, do you know this good shepherd?