This coming Sunday is the 4th Sunday of Easter. Jesus uses the figure of the Good Shepherd to differentiate his ministry from that of false shepherds of the scribes, Pharisee, and in fact, all the kings and leaders of Israel. Jesus will also stress the voluntary nature of the shepherd’s sacrifice for his people. This chapter should be read in the light of Old Testament passages that castigate shepherds who have failed in their duty (see Jer. 23:1–4; 25:32–38; Zech. 11; and especially Ezekiel 34, the Parable of the Shepherds (which I encourage you to read). Equally as condemning is this passage from the Prophet Isaiah: “All the sentinels of Israel are blind, they are without knowledge…Shepherds who have no understanding; all have turned their own way.” (Is 56:10-11)  In this passage the leaders are both “shepherds” and “watchmen” and are castigated as “blind” and as those who “lack knowledge” (cf. John 9:40–41; 10:6).

God is and always has been the Shepherd of Israel (Ps. 80:1; cf. Ps. 23:1; Isa. 40:10–11), which serves as a model of the divine expectations for the responsibility of those to whom he gave the role of shepherding his people. Those entrusted with this duty must be faithful, and it is a heinous crime when they are not. But Israel’s shepherds on more than one occasion failed in their responsibility. The Books of Kings and Chronicles is almost a catalog of their failures. It is this which calls forth the prophecy that a shepherd after God’s own heart will in due course appear: “I will place over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he will tend them; he will tend them and be their shepherd” (Ezek. 34:23). It is this shepherd announced in John 10.

In our modern age we mostly think of the shepherd in the romantic terms of tender care and concern for the flock. An idea shared by the ancient world, but we should not overlook that for people in biblical times there were other associations. The shepherd “ruled” over his flock, and passages are not lacking where the shepherd imagery is used to emphasize the thought of sovereignty. Jesus is thus set forth in this allegory as the true Ruler of his people in contrast to all false shepherds.

The section of the John’s Gospel known as the Good Shepherd discourse runs from John 10:1-30. The passage seems to begin with a harsh, accusatory tone. As noted earlier, Jesus has been in “dialogue” with scribes, Pharisees, and other Jewish leaders for several chapters.  The “boundaries” of this gospel pericope likely begins as early as John 9:39.

Chapter 9 is essentially the narrative of the “man born blind” whom Jesus heals on the Sabbath – much to the exasperation of the religious authorities who cannot see the glory of God revealed in this sign. Instead the authorities are more concerned with the “who, what, when and where” of the miracle and why it was done on the Sabbath. One of their agenda was to discredit the notion that Jesus was the promised Messiah (cf. 9:22). At the end of the narrative, the now-sighted man has been thrown out of the Temple and Jesus comes to him. While the man comes to believe in Jesus as Messiah, the religious authorities are, at best, divided – and in fact are plotting to do away with Jesus.

39 Then Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment, so that those who do not see might see, and those who do see might become blind.” 40 Some of the Pharisees who were with him heard this and said to him, “Surely we are not also blind, are we?” 41 Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you are saying, ‘We see,’ so your sin remains. (John 9:39-41)

Jesus is still speaking to the Pharisees as we enter John 10 It is not an unwarranted assumption that it is this same group who were just accused of blindness and remaining in sin and are now hearing the words about the true meaning of being a good shepherd to the people of God. The accusation hangs in the air and colors the verse that follows: Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever does not enter a sheepfold through the gate but climbs over elsewhere is a thief and a robber.

As mentioned,  Jesus uses the figure of the Good Shepherd to differentiate his ministry from that of the current religious leadership. Use of the word “good” opens up some interesting considerations. In Greek there is a generic word for “good” – agathos. John often uses a different word: kalos, which has a slightly stronger emphasis on what is morally right, what is more valuable. It can be translated as, “model,” or “true,” or “honest.” This word occurs seven times in John: five times alone in chapter 10.

• “good” shepherd (10:11, 11, 14) in contrast to the hired hand
• “good” works (10:32, 33), perhaps in contrast to the spoken word
• and twice in 2:10 – “good” wine, in contrast to the ordinary wine

If God is the true Shepherd of Israel (Ps. 80:1; cf. Ps. 23:1; Isa. 40:10–11), we can understand the measure of the responsibility of those who would care for the flock in his stead and have failed to live up to the model (kalos) shepherd. Those entrusted with care of the people of God/flock must be faithful to the covenant. But Israel’s shepherds on more than one occasion failed in their responsibility. This is why God promises to give them a true, faithful, and loyal shepherd: “I will place over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he will tend them; he will tend them and be their shepherd” (Ezek. 34:23).

Jesus is rebuking the religious authorities as bad shepherds.  The condemnation of the shepherds would have been a theme well understood from the OT narrative, especially Ezekiel 34. In that passage, Ezekiel, speaking God’s word, rebukes and condemns the authorities of his own time. They too had fed themselves rather than their flock. Thus God would take away their position and authority and become the shepherd himself. Finally he would appoint another shepherd after the figure of David. John sees all of this coming true and fulfilled in Jesus, God becoming shepherd.  Thus John makes clear that the glory of God is being revealed in the pastoral metaphor of shepherd in that Jesus’ fidelity to his sheep, his sacrifice for them, will stand in contrast to the failure of the blinded, bullying authorities of John 9.

The metaphors come fast and often in the first nine verses and all of John 10. There are the sheep — easily identified as the flock that Jesus intends to lead into good pasture (v. 9), those whom he knows by name and who recognize his voice (vv. 3–4, 14), those whom he intends to defend against thieves and robbers (vv. 1, 8, 10) and whom he wishes to join together with all others who, listening to his voice, will come into the one fold (v. 16). Jesus will effect all this because he is the Good Shepherd (vv. 11, 14), loved by the Father because he will lay down his life for the sheep. It is this act of total, loving self-sacrifice that is mentioned again and again as the central motif. Appearing first in v.11 as the good shepherd title is introduced, it occurs again in verses 15, 17, and twice in verse 18.

Though the shepherd-sheep metaphor was well known in the OT, this laying down of the shepherd’s life is something new. It is the characteristic function of Jesus. He is the good (kalos) shepherd, especially because of his willing self-sacrifice.

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