“I am the good Shepherd: the good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep.” John x. 11.
Our Lord here appropriates to Himself the title under which He had been foretold by the Prophets. “David My servant shall be king over them,” says Almighty God by the mouth of Ezekiel: “and they all shall have one Shepherd.” And in the book of Zechariah, “Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, and against the man that is My fellow, saith the Lord of Hosts; smite the Shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered.” And in like manner St. Peter speaks of our returning “to the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls.” [Ezek. xxxvii. 24. Zech. xiii. 7. 1 Pet. ii. 25.]
“The good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep.” In those countries of the East where our Lord appeared, the office of a shepherd is not only a lowly and simple office, and an office of trust, as it is with us, but, moreover, an office of great hardship and of peril. Our flocks are exposed to no enemies, such as our Lord describes. The Shepherd here has no need to prove his fidelity to the sheep by encounters with fierce beasts of prey. The hireling shepherd is not tried. But where our Lord dwelt in the days of His flesh it was otherwise. There it was true that the good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep—“but he that is an hireling, and whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth, and the wolf catcheth them and scattereth the sheep. The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep.”
Our Lord found the sheep scattered; or, as He had said shortly before, “All that ever came before Me are thieves and robbers;” and in consequence the sheep had no guide. Such were the priests and rulers of the Jews when Christ came; so that “when He saw the multitudes He was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd.” [Matt. ix. 36.] Such, in like manner, were the rulers and prophets of Israel in the days of Ahab, when Micaiah, the Lord’s Prophet, “saw all Israel scattered on the hills, as sheep that have not a shepherd, and the Lord said, These have no Master, let them return every man to his house in peace.” [1 Kings xxii. 17.] Such, too, were the shepherds in the time of Ezekiel, of whom the Prophet says, “Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! should not the shepherd feed the flocks? … They were scattered, because there is no shepherd: and they became meat to all the beasts of the field, when they were scattered:” [Ezek. xxxiv. 2, 5.] and in the time of the Prophet Zechariah, who says, “Woe to the idle shepherd that leaveth the flock!” [Zech. xi. 17.]
So was it all over the world when Christ came in His infinite mercy “to gather in one the children of God that were scattered abroad.” And though for a moment, when in the conflict with the enemy the good Shepherd had to lay down His life for the sheep, they were left without a guide (according to the prophecy already quoted, “Smite the Shepherd and the sheep shall he scattered”), yet He soon rose from death to live for ever, according to that other prophecy which said, “He that scattered Israel will gather him, as a shepherd doth his flock.” [Jer. xxxi. 10.] And as He says Himself in the parable before us, “He calleth His own sheep by name and leadeth them out, and goeth before them, and the sheep follow Him, for they know His voice,” so, on His resurrection, while Mary wept, He did call her by her name 1, and she turned herself and knew Him by the ear whom she had not known by the eye. So, too, He said, “Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me?” [John xxi. 15.] And He added, “Follow Me.” And so again He and His Angel told the women, “Behold He goeth before you into Galilee … go tell My brethren, that they go into Galilee, and there shall they see Me.”
From that time the good Shepherd who took the place of the sheep, and died that they might live for ever, has gone before them: and “they follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth;” [Rev. xiv. 4.] going their way forth by the footsteps of the flock, and feeding their kids beside the shepherds’ tents [Cant. i. 8.].
No earthly images can come up to the awful and gracious truth, that God became the Son of man—that the Word became flesh, and was born of a woman. This ineffable mystery surpasses human words. No titles of earth can Christ give to Himself, ever so lowly or mean, which will fitly show us His condescension. His act and deed is too great even for His own lips to utter it. Yet He delights in the image contained in the text, as conveying to us, in such degree as we can receive it, some notion of the degradation, hardship, and pain, which He underwent for our sake.
Hence it was prophesied under this figure by the Prophet Isaiah, “Behold, the Lord God will come with strong hand, and His arm shall rule for Him … He shall feed His flock like a shepherd: He shall gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.” [Isa. xi. 10, 11.] And, again, He promises by the mouth of Ezekiel, “Behold, I, even I, will both search My sheep, and seek them out. As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out My sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day.” [Ezek. xxxiv. 11, 12.] And the Psalmist says of Him, “The Lord is my Shepherd, therefore can I lack nothing. He shall feed me in a green pasture, and lead me forth beside the waters of comfort.” [Ps. xxiii. 1, 2.] And he addresses Him, “Hear, O thou Shepherd of Israel, Thou that leadest Joseph like a sheep, show Thyself also, Thou that sittest upon the Cherubims.” [Ps. lxxx. 1.] And He Himself says in a parable, speaking of Himself, “What man of you having a hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it? And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing.” [Luke xv. 4, 5.]