I AM THE GOOD SHEPHERD
John 10
“The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me—just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep.”
The Good Shepherd is a very familiar metaphor and sometimes we are too caught up in the metaphor that we don’t see the full meaning that is intended; after all, metaphors can only carry so much meaning.
At the heart of it all is Jesus’ claim to ownership.
He is not a stranger or a thief or robber. Such people will never care for the sheep; they only care about themselves. Precisely because the sheep belongs to him—he considers them his own—is why the good shepherd is willing to risk his life to protect the sheep.
At the same time the sheep knows the shepherd and here is where the metaphor becomes a little difficult to grasp because we have been sheep who lost the shepherd. John 1 tells us “He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.”
The crux of it is in the next sentence: “Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” To those who by faith acknowledge him, he will be their good shepherd, who has come “that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
It is not so much that as his sheep we should recognise his voice. It is that because we choose to recognise and listen to his voice that we are his sheep. It is the essential quality of his sheep.
“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. 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.”