"I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand, since he is not the shepherd and doesn’t own the sheep, leaves them and runs away when he sees a wolf coming. The wolf then snatches and scatters them. This happens because he is a hired hand and doesn’t care about the sheep." John 10:11-13 (CSB)
Jesus has shared with us that He is the True Shepherd, the promised Messiah of God; and that He is the Gate, the only way to salvation and life. He now expounds on another characteristic of His shepherd-hood. Not only is He the true shepherd, but He is the GOOD shepherd. He is true and He is good. He is good and He is true. These two things are equally important as without either He wouldn't be the Gate. The Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep, and Jesus is that good shepherd. One who watches the sheep for an income sees danger approaching and runs the other way; after all, what good is a fat paycheck if you're not alive to spend it? "For rarely will someone die for a just person—though for a good person perhaps someone might even dare to die. " (Romans 5:7 CSB) Rarely would someone die in the place of a person they knew to be guiltless, and it's possible that someone might actually take a risk and lay it all on the line, understanding there is a possibility of death; Jesus says the hired hand won't even entertain the possibility of laying it on the line. If that wolf is bigger than the employee thinks he can safely handle, that dude is nowhere to be seen. Which is probably a good thing as he won't have to watch the bloodbath that wolf will unleash on those abandoned sheep. Jesus, however, is the Good Shepherd; He isn't in it for the "benjamins". He is so much more than some paid caretaker. While the hired had won't even consider risking his life, Jesus goes beyond taking the risk - He lays it all down. He doesn't just take the chance of dying, He actually dies. He dies because He cares for the sheep. Head-scratcher, right? You're probably wondering, "How is the Shepherd dying for the sheep going to protect them? A dead shepherd can't protect his sheep anymore than the cowardly hired hand did."
Jesus isn't finished though,
"I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and my own know me, just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father. I lay down my life for the sheep. But I have other sheep that are not from this sheep pen; I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. Then there will be one flock, one shepherd. This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life so that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have the right to lay it down, and I have the right to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father." (John 10:14-18 CSB)
There is so much here, but due to our current focus of The Good Shepherd's self-sacrificial activity we may revisit the other beautiful truths another time. Jesus reiterates that as the good shepherd, he lays His own life down for the sheep.
This act is an act of love. Not just love for the sheep, but love of the Son to the Father and that elicits love from the Father. "For God loved the world in this way: He gave His one and only Son" (John 3:16 CSB) Yet The Son is freely dying for the sheep because He cares. The Father loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, and The Son loved the world that He gave Himself. The fact that He is of the same heart as The Father in His dying to save the sheep - there is love between The Father and The Son.
This is an act of power. "I lay down my life so that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have the right to lay it down, and I have the right to take it up…" This ties directly to our question of how a dead shepherd can protect his sheep. He can't. But The Good Shepherd isn't dead. The Good Shepherd died for the sheep, this is true, and had this been a case of a good shepherd dying while trying to defend the sheep we would have said "he was a good shepherd who died defending his sheep". But the command of the Father, the plan all along, wasn't merely to die for the sheep, but to resurrect for them as well. It's not that Jesus was the good shepherd rather Jesus IS The Good Shepherd. It is in His life that He is calling, protecting, providing for, and leading His sheep even in this present day.
I stated earlier that Jesus could not be the Gate unless He is both the True Shepherd and the Good Shepherd. Without His being the Son of God, the promised Messiah, the True Shepherd; His death would have been just that, his death. He would not have the right to control His life as He would not be the source of life. As created beings, our life is borrowed. God is the giver of life, in Him we live, move, and exist. (Acts 17:28) We do not have the right to take a life, even the life we call our own. It is precisely because Jesus is God that He has the right to do with His life as He pleases. He has the power to lay it down, and to take it up. However, if Jesus were not also the Good Shepherd, then there would be no hope for the sheep, for it is by His wounds we are healed (Isaiah 53:3). The good shepherd is the one who gives his life for the sheep. It is because He is both the True Shepherd and The Good Shepherd that He is the Gate; The Way, The Truth, and The Life - the only way to the Father.
As He wraps up His metaphors, Jesus circles back to the truth that His sheep hear His voice and they follow (listen to) Him. The sheep trust their shepherd. Where he goes, they follow. What he says, they do. They know there is only safety in The Shepherd for He is True and He is Good.
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