Jesus-Christ, our shepherd!

1. The Shepherd and the Sheep

With the Good Shepherd passage ringing in our ears we may also be scratching our heads thinking 'that's a bit fishy, or rather woolly, as it doesn't sound quite right with our usual understanding of sheep. A shepherd may think something else but often we consider sheep to be rather silly creatures and that doesn't quite match the picture in John 10.

Remember - the sheep in the passage are middle eastern and somewhat different to those we are more familiar with and I speak as a Brit!

Back then - no enclosed fields, completely different breeds and unlike ours they are not driven but led and will wander along behind the shepherd and only now and again, wander off! I remember being on a beach in N Africa and a shepherd with his flock all happily wandering along.

Sheep were often named and at night they might well be in a small enclosure and again, sometimes, the shepherd would sleep across the entrance so he was effectively the gate as well as the shepherd!

2. The Shepherd and the Leaders

There are 62 references to shepherd and 60 to shepherds in the Bible and the majority of them are to do with the Lord or the leaders of the people!

Leaders in terms of: the king and his associates from Saul onwards, and also, the Priests in the Old Testament and, them and the Pharisees and other religious leaders in New Testament times.

The very first reference to shepherd is in relation to God in Genesis 48.

Biblically Shepherd is a huge and significant picture and this morning we have read two important OT passages on this theme:

Psalm 23 - The Lord's my shepherd
Ezekiel 34 where God castigates the leaders for gross dereliction of duty and care for the people & there is a parallel passages in Jeremiah

But in Ezekiel 34 we hear that The Lord will, once again, one day, take the role of the shepherd of His people.

3. The Shepherd and Jesus

When Jesus stands there with the Pharisees listening along with the rest of the crowd, and declares in John 10:11 that he is The Good Shepherd, he isn't picking up a quaint and familiar notion about shepherds and sheep, although he is doing that, he is drawing on a then 2000 year old theme involving God and his people.
He is declaring that this is who he is, the Good Shepherd, the rightful leader of the people of God and, the Lord himself.
Every time he says 'I am' it is emphatic: I, I am . . .

Let's consider briefly the following ideas from the passage in John 10:

- I am the gate - the only way into the fold and as such am also guardian of my flock
- The rest are false and charlatans, thieves and robbers - they are up to no good
- I know my sheep, they know me, I know there names, they hear me and follow my voice - it is a relationship
- They will not follow a stranger but run away - to be in Christ and be indwelt by the Holy Spirit is the best place to be - flee anything else
- I have come so you can have life to the full, actually, overflowing - this is what the shepherd and guardian of our lives wants for us, life that overflows with good things.
- Jesus, the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep and it becomes more powerful a few verses later on in John 10:18 where he says of his life:

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 againHis death is sacrificed for us and taken up, again, for us!

4. The Shepherd and us 

Before the final and direct considerations I want to raise a link to something key in scripture, and not least the teaching of Jesus' which we have been considering, the Kingdom of God and the Kingship of Jesus. It lies under and alongside much we have thought about his morning and has bubbled up. Reflect on the lines of: the Shepherd King and the sheep that form the flock and the Kingdom.

Going more directly to this morning's theme, consider:

- How we, you and I relate to the Shepherd? Do we drop our levels of independence to depend more on him?
- How He provides for our every need - this governs our view and outlook on life and our lives
- How we stay true to him in all we are and do
- Staying away from that which damages our relationship with him and cause us to stray
- How we share in the role of shepherding and growing the flock: care / invitation / encouragement

Dear friends, have a blessed Sunday xxx

Jesus-Christ, our Good Shepherd!