Jesus: The Good Shepherd

Think about how you feel when you put someone or something you really care about in someone else’s care. Maybe it’s leaving a pet with a friend for a weekend trip. Or maybe your child with a babysitter while you go out to dinner. Maybe it’s entrusting an important task or an errand with a co-worker. Oftentimes, we worry when entrusting care to someone else because they might not do things the way we would.

The reality is, no one is going to care for the important people and things in our life like us. The best steward is the one who knows, loves, and cares most - qualities most always found in the true guardian.

In John 10, Jesus calls himself “The Good Shepherd”, contrasting his care with the insufficient care of others. Simply put, a shepherd’s job is to protect his sheep. Jesus wants people to entrust themselves to him for safekeeping. Why? Because he is the true guardian who knows, loves, and cares most.

First, Jesus is the Good Shepherd because he knows us best. “I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father,” Jesus says in John 10:14-15. Jesus is equating the profound intimacy he shares with his Father to the relational intimacy he has with us! He knows his own and his own know him. Not only does Jesus know us best, but when we choose to follow Christ, then we know him too. John 10:4 says, “The sheep follow him, for they know his voice.”

In contrast, Jesus says in John 10:5, the sheep don’t know a stranger’s voice and flee from him. Just as a little child can pick out her parent’s voice in a crowd, so we, as Jesus’ sheep, can follow his voice and lead because of the relational intimacy we share with him. We know Jesus is leading us out of his sovereign, personal knowledge of us and therefore, he knows what’s best for us.

Second, Jesus is the Good Shepherd because he loves us most. “The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep,” Jesus says in John 10:11. Others might come with the guise of love, but they are ultimately not willing to sacrifice for us. Jesus says in John 10:12, “He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees.”

Jesus demonstrated his great love for us in leaving heaven and taking on our humanity. He died the death we deserve and rose from the dead so that our sins might be forgiven. No one or nothing else can love to this extent or save us with their love.

And third, Jesus is the Good Shepherd because he cares most: he most desires our flourishing. He says in John 10:9-10, “I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”

To be led by Christ to find pasture is to obtain the fullest experience of life. It is not only to be safe and secure but to thrive! This life - this experience of flourishing and thriving - is a communion with God and his love that lasts forever. It is to possess an all-satisfying relationship with God that is eternally secure. Jesus’s claim to be in the door in verse 9 means that he is the only means of receiving this eternal life; the only fount of spiritual nourishment; the only basis for spiritual security.

Pause for a moment and reflect on who or what you might be tempted to entrust your heart with beside Jesus. Where else might you be looking to find security, satisfaction, or life?

Is it to the approval of a certain person: your spouse, your boss, or someone with status and popularity in your social circle?

Is it to the attention and affection of a romantic interest?

Is it to the attainment of a certain ideal: success, beauty, or influence?

When we look to something besides Christ to satisfy our need to be known, to be loved, and to flourish, we end up giving pieces of our hearts to caretakers who will always fall short. Jesus alone is worthy of the entrustment of our hearts. He alone is the Good Shepherd.

Jesus knows us best: we can trust his lead.

Jesus loves us best: we can trust his care.

And Jesus most desires our flourishing: we can trust his sufficiency.

RESPOND: Take a moment in prayer to confess the areas of misplaced trust in your life. Then, surrender your heart to the perfect care of Jesus, the Good Shepherd.