The Good Shepherd Who Lays Down His Life

What Would You Risk Your Life For?

There might be a few things you'd risk your life for. Your family, perhaps. Your country and your freedom. Sometimes people risk their lives for silly things — fame and fortune, dangerous stunts, going over Niagara Falls in a barrel. But very rarely would someone risk their life for their work. You're not going to find too many McDonald's workers risking their life for a Big Mac. You're not going to risk your life to sell someone sneakers or make them a latte.

Yet Jesus tells a story about a shepherd — a very common job in his day — who not only risks his life for his sheep but lays down his life for his sheep. For those hearing these words when they were first spoken, this would have been a radical and crazy idea.

The Sheep Pen and the Shepherd's Voice

Jesus draws on a very common human experience. Many people in his day would have sheep — not just those with large herds, but most families might have a few. You'd use them for wool, for milk, and for meat when a celebration came around. What would happen is that the village families would bring their sheep together at night into a communal pen — maybe a fence made of piled rocks with thistles or brambles on top, or even just large bushes arranged in the shape of an enclosure.

At night, all the local community's sheep would go in together, and someone — probably a teenager — would stay with them, sleeping in the gap where the gate would be, keeping the sheep in and making sure no thief came to take what wasn't theirs. In the morning, the family members would return to collect their sheep. But of course, they're all mixed together. So each owner would have a call or a whistle, and the sheep would recognise the voice of their owner and make their way out of the herd.

Jesus uses this imagery to paint a picture of himself as the shepherd whose sheep know his voice.

I Am the Gate

"Very truly, I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate but climbs in by some other way is a thief and a robber. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep." — John 10:1–2 (NIV)

When Jesus says, "I am the gate," we might picture a wooden thing with a hinge that swings. But in the first century, the gate was usually a person. The shepherd would sleep in that opening and become the gate themselves — the one who protects the sheep from the thief, the robber, the wolf, the bear. Whatever might come, the shepherd was there to keep them safe.

Jesus says, "They must pass through me, and when they pass through me, they will find good pasture."

I Am the Good Shepherd

"I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away." — John 10:11–12 (NIV)

A hired hand won't risk his life for the flock. That's just a job. There will be other sheep. If the wolf strikes and the shepherd fears for his life, it doesn't make much sense for him to die for the sake of the sheep. But Jesus presents this radical idea of a shepherd who would lay his life down willingly for his sheep. Not just risk it — lay it down.

The imagery he's painting is something far deeper than just a job description. The connection he's talking about is family, responsibility, codependence. It's life and death. There is this reckless love that the shepherd has for his sheep.

A God Unlike Any Other

Jesus tells this story in the context of a world where there were many gods, and yet very few of them cared for humanity. In the ancient Enuma Elish, the gods create humanity as a slave force to do their menial tasks, caring nothing for the people and sending floods to wipe them out when they become annoying. In Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, Poseidon keeps blowing Odysseus off course just for his own entertainment. The gods care nothing for humans. People are toys, playthings.

But here, Jesus gives us imagery that is completely counterintuitive to all of that. This is not a God who is indifferent to humanity. This is a God who sacrifices greatly for the sake of humanity — the polar opposite of every god in the pantheon of the era.

Life to the Full

"I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." — John 10:10 (NIV)

The path that leads us in following the shepherd leads us to life — and life to the full. This isn't just about salvation or eternal life in some distant future. Jesus is talking about life in the present day. When you listen to the voice of the shepherd, you are led to life as it is meant to be lived.

Before I was born, my dad had a Holden Torana — a classic Australian muscle car. Brown, because brown was popular in the seventies. He loved that car and he fiddled with it constantly: modifications, tweaking the carburettor, adding an aftermarket air conditioner so cold you could chill a bottle of water on it. But the problem was, the more he did to it, the less reliable the Torana became. The more he changed and added to the original design, the less dependable it was. In the end, my parents ended up driving Mum's car because they weren't sure the Torana would get them there and back.

So it is with us and life. The more we choose our own path, the more we modify what God has told us — adding bits, taking bits out, changing it — the more trouble we'll find. Jesus says, "I want you to have life, and life to the full. Follow me, and I'll lead you to green pastures." What he's saying is that if you listen to his instructions on life, that is how life is lived best. Christianity isn't a list of rules. It's the guideline that tells you how life is lived to the full.

Listening and Doing

The sheep in Jesus's flock know his voice and follow what it says. You can hear the voice of God and say, "Great, thanks God" — but that doesn't get you anywhere unless you do what you've been asked to do. Those who call themselves sheep of his flock listen to his voice, discern what God is saying to them, and put it into action.

So this week, as you go from here, think about this: How can I listen to the voice of God more? Is it reading more of the Word? Spending more time in prayer? Looking for the ways God has answered prayers? What works for you? How can you listen more to the voice of the good shepherd — and then put it into action?