I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep
Jesus has just spoken of the door and of abundant life. Now He takes a title for Himself: the good Shepherd. What makes Him good is not skill or kindness. It is one act — He dies for the sheep.
The Shepherd, the good One
One small word sets Him apart: the. Others cared well for a flock, yet none of them held this title.
Since the days of Abel there have been many faithful shepherds. Men like Moses and David tended their flocks with the care of a kind shepherd. As men, they were "good shepherds." But "a good shepherd," or "some good shepherd," is not "The Good Shepherd" — or "The Shepherd, the good One."
The same writer presses the difference between risking a life and handing one over. David is the test case.
He protected his father's sheep, entrusted to his care, at the risk of his own life. Through the grace and help of God he proved himself to be the very best of all good shepherds among men. But could David, for all that, ever be called "The good Shepherd"? No. David has not given, nor could he "give" his life. Staking your life and giving your life are two very different things. At first glance they may look almost equally worthy, or even the same… Only Jesus could give His life, as perfect Man, because His life had not, like ours, been forfeited by sin. So He alone, and no one else, can be called "The good Shepherd."
Set against the hireling
The verses that follow set a paid worker beside the Shepherd.
When He gave up His life for the sheep, the Lord showed Himself the very opposite of the hired shepherds before or since. Their slender interest in the flock vanished at the first roar of the lion or growl of the bear. Shepherds like that bargained for wages, not for wolves. They cared for themselves, not for the flock.
The love behind the death
Why does the Shepherd die? One writer weighs what that death achieved against the motive behind it.
His death has done everything for them. It has redeemed them, washed them from their sins, justified them, and bought them for heaven. Still, I think the aim of the passage is the love and devotion of the Good Shepherd. Rather than lose His sheep, He lays down His life.
Why He had to die
Why must the Shepherd die at all? One writer points to the condition every person is born in.
But this really made His death necessary. No one born in sin could enjoy any spiritual blessing apart from the Lord's atoning death. Everything believers enjoyed from Abel until the Lord's day was given in view of the sacrifice He would offer. The sacrifices of the past were only pictures of it… Here in this discourse (verse 11) the Lord first speaks in plain language of His death, and that for the sheep. They all need life. He would provide it, and He would die so that they might have it forever. Love indeed was this!
Laid down, not taken
Nothing was forced on Him. Two things stand together here: full power, and full obedience.
The sword awoke against the Shepherd, and He proved Himself to be the Shepherd by standing between that sword and the sheep… He laid down His life; no one took it from Him. He had power to lay it down and power to take it again. These are wonderful words, proclaiming the fact of His Deity, for no creature could have spoken like that. Yet in the same passage He says, "This commandment I have received from My Father" (v. 18)… The supreme power of Deity was His. Yet He shows Himself to us in complete submission to the Father's command.
What the sheep gained
The Shepherd went where the sheep could not survive. Dying there was not the end of the story.
He gave His life for the sheep. He entered the field where death seemed to rule unchallenged. There He brought to nothing the one who had the power of death, that is, the devil. David struck down the mighty giant in the valley of Elah. In the same way the Good Shepherd, by dying, destroyed the great enemy and won deliverance for the sheep.
Summary
- The title — not one good shepherd among many. He is the Shepherd, the good One, and the word "the" rules out every rival.
- The proof — His goodness shows in surrender, not risk. Staking a life and giving a life are two different things.
- The contrast — hired men bargained for wages, not for wolves. They run when danger comes; He stays and dies.
- The necessity — no one born in sin can be blessed apart from His atoning death. The Shepherd's care had to reach that far.
- The victory — no one took His life from Him. He laid it down at His Father's command, went into death, and broke the power of the enemy for the sheep.