Sunday's gospel was the story of the Good Shepherd, a very familiar story. The image of Jesus as the good shepherd is one that can sometimes become over-familiar and cease to engage us. Countless works of art have presented this image literally, picturing Jesus as a shepherd with a crook and surrounded by sheep or even with a lamb draped around the back of his neck. In the gospel this week, Jesus says, ‘I am the good shepherd’, not ‘I am like the good shepherd’. The emphasis of the image is on the adjective. Jesus is the good shepherd. 

Historically, shepherds generally were not regarded as particularly good people – more like the scum of the earth! – so the choice of image is a deliberate one to unsettle and confront the initial audience of this story. Unlike their normal expectation of shepherds – cut-throats who would run away at the first sign of danger – Jesus is the good shepherd: the one who does not abandon his flock; the one who has concern for his sheep; the one who will lay down his own life for his sheep. The final verses of the passage make an interesting extension to the image of shepherd and sheep. Unlike the ‘sacrificial lamb’, the good shepherd chooses to lay down his life and also has the power to take it up again. Jesus was giving them an image of what it means to take care of their people.