The Good Shepherd

It's easy for us to miss how remarkable the Lord's claim in John 10:11ff is. We find the imagery of the Good Shepherd striking: I suspect Sunday School artwork has something to do with that. But the Lord was addressing people who knew the Old Testament very well indeed, and His claim would be astonishing – even offensive – to them in light of the book of Ezekiel.

Ezekiel 34 is a treatise on the worthless shepherds of Israel. They fed themselves, and not the flock (Ezekiel 34:2–3). They didn't care for the sick or the injured, but they ruled harshly over them (Ezekiel 34:4). The sheep were scattered, and they didn't go looking for them (Ezekiel 34:5). 

And so God presents His solution: He would tend the flock (Ezekiel 34:11). He would go and find them, and gather them (Ezekiel 34:11–13). He would pasture them on the mountains, He would feed them, He would make them lie down (Ezekiel 34:14–15). 

He would put a shepherd over them (Ezekiel 34:25).

If we read John 10:11–18 with Ezekiel 34 in the back of our mind, it takes on different depth. The Lord's claims aren't as whimsical as we might think. His use of the shepherd imagery isn't something new He came up with: He's picking up the thread of the prophets, and making a remarkable claim.

First, Ezekiel 34:25 makes the claim that God would put a shepherd over Israel. Ezekiel identifies that shepherd as David, the Lord takes the title for Himself. He is effectively saying, "I'm the David God has appointed to rule over you."

But if we contemplate Ezekiel a little more carefully, we might recognize that the Lord's claims go beyond the title of the coming David. The coming David will feed them, but the Lord claims not merely to feed, but to gather them (John 10:16). It's not David who gathers in Ezekiel 34, but God Himself.

The Good Shepherd in Ezekiel 34, is God Himself.