"I am the good Shepherd: the good Shepherd giveth His life for
the sheep."
John x. 11.
OUR Lord here appropriates to Himself the title under which He had been
foretold by the Prophets. "David My servant shall be king over them," says
Almighty God by the mouth of Ezekiel: "and they all shall have one Shepherd."
And in the book of Zechariah, "Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, and
against the man that is My fellow, saith the Lord of Hosts; smite the Shepherd,
and the sheep shall be scattered." And in like manner St. Peter speaks
of our returning "to the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls." [Ezek. xxxvii.
24. Zech. xiii. 7. 1 Pet. ii. 25.]
"The good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep." In those countries
of the East where our Lord appeared, the office of a shepherd is not only
a lowly and simple office, and an office of trust, as it is with us, but,
moreover, an office of great hardship and of peril. Our flocks are exposed
to no enemies, such as our Lord describes. The Shepherd here has no need
to prove his fidelity to the sheep by encounters with fierce beasts of
prey. The hireling shepherd is not tried. But where our Lord dwelt in the
days of His flesh it was otherwise. There it was true that the good Shepherd
giveth His life for the sheep—"but he that is an hireling, and whose own
the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth,
and the wolf catcheth them and scattereth the sheep. The hireling fleeth,
because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep."
Our Lord found the sheep scattered; or, as He had said shortly before,
"All that ever came before Me are thieves and robbers;" and in consequence
the sheep had no guide. Such were the priests and rulers of the Jews when
Christ came; so that "when He saw the multitudes He was moved with compassion
on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad as sheep having
no shepherd." [Matt. ix. 36.] Such, in like manner, were the rulers and
prophets of Israel in the days of Ahab, when Micaiah, the Lord's Prophet,
"saw all Israel scattered on the hills, as sheep that have not a shepherd,
and the Lord said, These have no Master, let them return every man to his
house in peace." [1 Kings xxii. 17.] Such, too, were the shepherds in the
time of Ezekiel, of whom the Prophet says, "Woe be to the shepherds of
Israel that do feed themselves! should not the shepherd feed the flocks?
... They were scattered, because there is no shepherd: and they became
meat to all the beasts of the field, when they were scattered:" [Ezek.
xxxiv. 2, 5.] and in the time of the Prophet Zechariah, who says, "Woe
to the idle shepherd that leaveth the flock!" [Zech. xi. 17.]
So was it all over the world when Christ came in His infinite mercy
"to gather in one the children of God that were scattered abroad." And
though for a moment, when in the conflict with the enemy the good Shepherd
had to lay down His life for the sheep, they were left without a guide
(according to the prophecy already quoted, "Smite the Shepherd and the
sheep shall he scattered"), yet He soon rose from death to live for ever,
according to that other prophecy which said, "He that scattered Israel
will gather him, as a shepherd doth his flock." [Jer. xxxi. 10.] And as
He says Himself in the parable before us, "He calleth His own sheep by
name and leadeth them out, and goeth before them, and the sheep follow
Him, for they know His voice," so, on His resurrection, while Mary wept,
He did call her by her name [John xx. 16.], and she turned herself and
knew Him by the ear whom she had not known by the eye. So, too, He said,
"Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me?" [John xxi. 15.] And He added, "Follow
Me." And so again He and His Angel told the women, "Behold He goeth before
you into Galilee ... go tell My brethren, that they go into Galilee, and
there shall they see Me."
From that time the good Shepherd who took the place of the sheep, and
died that they might live for ever, has gone before them: and "they follow
the Lamb whithersoever He goeth;" [Rev. xiv. 4.] going their way forth
by the footsteps of the flock, and feeding their kids beside the shepherds'
tents [Cant. i. 8.].
No earthly images can come up to the awful and gracious truth, that
God became the Son of man—that the Word became flesh, and was born of a
woman. This ineffable mystery surpasses human words. No titles of earth
can Christ give to Himself, ever so lowly or mean, which will fitly show
us His condescension. His act and deed is too great even for His own lips
to utter it. Yet He delights in the image contained in the text, as conveying
to us, in such degree as we can receive it, some notion of the degradation,
hardship, and pain, which He underwent for our sake.
Hence it was prophesied under this figure by the Prophet Isaiah, "Behold,
the Lord God will come with strong hand, and His arm shall rule for Him
... He shall feed His flock like a shepherd: He shall gather the lambs
with His arm, and carry them in His bosom, and shall gently lead those
that are with young." [Isa. xi. 10, 11.] And, again, He promises by the
mouth of Ezekiel, "Behold, I, even I, will both search My sheep, and seek
them out. As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among
his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out My sheep, and will deliver
them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and
dark day." [Ezek. xxxiv. 11, 12.] And the Psalmist says of Him, "The Lord
is my Shepherd, therefore can I lack nothing. He shall feed me in a green
pasture, and lead me forth beside the waters of comfort." [Ps. xxiii. 1,
2.] And he addresses Him, "Hear, O thou Shepherd of Israel, Thou that leadest
Joseph like a sheep, show Thyself also, Thou that sittest upon the Cherubims."
[Ps. lxxx. 1.] And He Himself says in a parable, speaking of Himself; "What
man of you having a hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave
the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost,
until he find it? And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders,
rejoicing." [Luke xv. 4, 5.]
Observe, my brethren, it is here said that Christ, the Lord of Angels,
condescends to lay the lost sheep on His shoulders: in a former passage
of the Prophet Isaiah it was said that He should "gather them with His
arm, and carry them in His bosom." By carrying them in His bosom is meant
the love He bears them, and the fulness of His grace; by carrying them
on His shoulders is signified the security of their dwelling-place; as
of old time it was said of Benjamin, "the beloved of the Lord shall dwell
in safety by Him ... and the Lord shall cover him all the day long, and
he shall dwell between His shoulders;" [Deut. xxxiii. 12.] and again, of
Israel, "As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth
abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings: so the Lord alone
did lead him, and there was no strange god with him." And again, in the
Prophet Isaiah, "Bel boweth down, Nebo stoopeth; their idols were upon
the beasts and upon the cattle ... hearken unto Me, O house of Jacob ...
which are carried by Me from the womb ... Even to your old age I am He,
and even to hoary hairs will I carry you; I have made and I will bear,
even I will carry, and will deliver you." [Deut. xxxii. 11. Isa. xlvi.
1-4.] He alone, who "bowed Himself and came down," He alone could do it;
He alone could bear a whole world's weight, the load of a guilty world,
the burden of man's sin, the accumulated debt, past, present, and to come;
the sufferings which we owed but could not pay, the wrath of God on the
children of Adam; "in His own body on the tree," [1 Pet. ii. 24.] "being
made a curse for us," [Gal. iii. 13.] "the just for the unjust, that He
might bring us unto God," "through the Eternal Spirit offering Himself
without spot to God, and purging our conscience from dead works to serve
the Living God." [1 Pet. iii. 18. Heb. ix. 14.] Such was the deed of Christ,
laying down His life for us: and therefore He is called the Good Shepherd.
And hence, in like manner, from the time of Adam to that of Christ,
a shepherd's work has been marked out with special Divine favour, as being
a shadow of the good Shepherd who was to come. "Righteous Abel" was "a
keeper of sheep," "and in process of time" he "brought of the firstlings
of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel
and to his offering." [Gen. iv. 2, 4.] And who were they to whom the Angels
first brought the news that a Saviour was born? "Shepherds abiding in the
field, keeping watch over their flock by night." [Luke ii. 8.] And what
is the description given of the chosen family when they descended into
Egypt? "Thy servants," they say, "are shepherds, both we and also our fathers;"
[Gen. xlvii. 3.] and what, in consequence, was their repute in Egypt, which
surely is a figure of the world? "Every shepherd is an abomination unto
the Egyptians." [Gen. xlvi. 34.]
But there are three favoured servants of God in particular, special
types of the Saviour to come, men raised from low estate to great honour,
in whom it was His will that His pastoral office should be thus literally
fulfilled. And the first is Jacob, the father of the patriarchs, who appeared
before Pharaoh. He became, as Abraham before him, a father of many nations;
he increased exceedingly, and had much cattle, and maid-servants, and men-servants,
and camels, and asses," [Gen. xxx. 43.] and he was visited by supernatural
favours, and had a new name given him—Israel for Jacob. But at the first
he was, as his descendants solemnly confessed year by year, "a Syrian ready
to perish;" and what was his employment? the care of sheep; and with what
toil and suffering, and for how many years, we learn from his expostulation
with his hard master and relative, Laban—" This twenty years have I been
with thee," he says; "thy ewes and thy she-goats have not cast their young,
and the rams of thy flock have I not eaten. That which was torn of beasts
I brought not unto thee; I bare the loss of it; of my hand didst thou require
it, whether stolen by day, or stolen by night. Thus I was; in the day the
drought consumed me, and the frost by night; and my sleep departed from
mine eyes. Thus have I been twenty years in thy house; ... and thou hast
changed my wages ten times." [Gen. xxxi. 38-41.]
Who is more favoured than Jacob, who was exalted to be a Prince with
God, and to prevail by intercession? Yet, you see, he is a shepherd, to
image to us that mystical and true Shepherd and Bishop of souls who was
to come. Yet there is a second and a third as highly favoured in various
ways. The second is Moses, who drove away the rival shepherds and helped
the daughters of the Priest of Midian to water their flock; and who, while
he was keeping the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, saw the Angel of
the Lord in a flame of fire in a bush. And the third is David, the man
after God's own heart. He was "the man who was raised on high, the anointed
of the God of Jacob, and the sweet Psalmist of Israel;" [2 Sam. xxiii.
1.] but he was found among the sheep. "He took him away from the sheep-folds;
as he was following the ewes great with young ones, He took him; that he
might feed Jacob His people, and Israel His inheritance. So he fed them
with a faithful and true heart, and ruled them prudently with all his power."
[Ps. lxxviii. 71-73.] Samuel came to Jesse, and looked through his seven
sons, one by one, but found not him whom God had chosen: "And Samuel said
unto Jesse, Are here all thy children? And he Said, There remaineth yet
the youngest, and, behold, he keepeth the sheep." And when he came "he
was ruddy, and withal of a beautiful countenance, and goodly to look to;
and the Lord said, Arise, anoint him, for this is he." 1 Sam. xvi. 11,
12.] And again, after he had been in Saul's court, he "went and returned
from Saul, to feed his father's sheep at Bethlehem;" [1 Sam. xvii. 13,
28, 35-37.] and when he came to the army his brother reproached him for
"leaving those his few sheep in the wilderness;" and when he was brought
before Saul, he gave an account how a lion and a bear "took a lamb out
of the flock," and he went after them, and slew them both, and delivered
it. Such were the shepherds of old times, men at once of peace and of war;
men of simplicity, indeed, "plain men living in tents," "the meekest of
men," yet not easy, indolent men, sitting in green meadows, and by cool
streams, but men of rough duties, who were under the necessity to suffer,
while they had the opportunity to do exploits.
And if such were the figures, how much more was the Truth itself; the
good Shepherd, when He came, both guileless and heroic? If shepherds are
men of simple lives and obscure fortunes, uncorrupted and unknown in kings'
courts and marts of commerce, how much more He who was "the carpenter's
Son," who was "meek and lowly of heart," who "did not strive nor cry,"
who "went about doing good," who "when He was reviled, reviled not again,"
and who was "despised and rejected of men"? If, on the other hand, they
are men of suffering and trial, how much more so He who was "a man of sorrows,"
and who "laid down His life for the sheep"?
"That which was torn of beasts I brought not unto thee," says Jacob;
"I bare the loss of it; of my hand didst thou require it." And has not
Christ undertaken the charge of our souls? Has He not made Himself answerable
for us whom the devil had rent? Like the good Samaritan, "Take care of
him," He says, "and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again I
will repay thee." [Luke x. 35.] Or, as in another parable, under another
image: "Lord, let it alone this year also ... and if it bear fruit, well;
and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down." [Luke xiii. 8, 9.]
"In the day the drought consumed me," says Jacob; and who was He who at
midday sat down at that very Jacob's well, tired with His journey, and
needing some of that water to quench His thirst, whereof "Jacob drank himself,
and his children and his cattle"? Yet whereas He had a living water to
impart, which the world knew not of, He preferred, as became the good Shepherd,
to offer it to one of those lost sheep whom He came to seek and to save,
rather than to take at her hand the water from the well, or to accept the
offer of His disciples, when they came with meat from the city, and said,
"Master, eat." "The frost" consumed me "by night," says Jacob, "and my
sleep departed from mine eyes;" and read we not of One whose wont it was
to rise a long while before day, and continue in prayer to God? who passed
nights in the mountain, or on the sea? who dwelt forty days in the wilderness?
who, in the evening and night of His passion, was forlorn in the bleak
garden, or stripped and bleeding in the cold judgment hall?
Again: Moses, amid his sheep, saw the vision of God and was told of
God's adorable Name; and Christ, the true Shepherd, lived a life of contemplation
in the midst of His laborious ministry; He was transfigured on the mountain,
and no man knew the Son but the Father, nor the Father but the Son.
Jacob endured, Moses meditated—and David wrought. Jacob endured the
frost, and heat, and sleepless nights, and paid the price of the lost sheep;
Moses was taken up into the mount for forty days; David fought with the
foe, and recovered the prey—he rescued it from the mouth of the lion, and
the paw of the bear, and killed the ravenous beasts. Christ, too, not only
suffered with Jacob, and was in contemplation with Moses, but fought and
conquered with David. David defended his father's sheep at Bethlehem; Christ,
born and heralded to the shepherds at Bethlehem, suffered on the Cross
in order to conquer. He came "from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah;"
[Isa. lxiii. 1-3.] but He was "glorious in His apparel," for He trod the
people "in His anger, and trampled them in His fury, and their blood was
sprinkled upon His garments, and He stained all His raiment." Jacob was
not as David, nor David as Jacob, nor either of them as Moses; but Christ
was all three, as fulfilling all types, the lowly Jacob, the wise Moses,
the heroic David, all in one—Priest, Prophet, and King.
My brethren, we say daily, "We are His people, and the sheep of His
pasture." Again, we say, "We have erred and strayed from Thy ways, like
lost sheep:" let us never forget these truths; let us never forget, on
the one hand, that we are sinners; let us never forget, on the other hand,
that Christ is our Guide and Guardian. He is "the Way, the Truth, and the
Life." [John xiv. 6.] He is a light unto our ways, and a lanthorn unto
our paths. He is our Shepherd, and the sheep know His voice. If we are
His sheep, we shall hear it, recognize it, and obey it. Let us beware of
not following when He goes before: "He goes before, and His sheep follow
Him, for they know His voice." Let us beware of receiving His grace in
vain. When God called Samuel, he answered, "Speak, Lord, for Thy servant
heareth." When Christ called St. Paul, he "was not disobedient to the heavenly
vision." Let us desire to know His voice; let us pray for the gift of watchful
ears and a willing heart. He does not call all men in one way; He calls
us each in His own way. To St. Peter He said, "Follow thou Me;" of St.
John, "If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?" Nor
is it always easy to know His voice. St. John knew it, and said, "It is
the Lord," before St. Peter. Samuel did not know it till Eli told him.
St. Paul asked, "Who art Thou, Lord?" We are bid, "try the spirits, whether
they be of God." But whatever difficulty there be in knowing when Christ
calls, and whither, yet at least let us look out for His call. Let us not
be content with ourselves; let us not make our own hearts our home, or
this world our home, or our friends our home; let us look out for a better
country, that is, a heavenly. Let us look out for Him who alone can guide
us to that better country; let us call heaven our home, and this life a
pilgrimage; let us view ourselves, as sheep in the trackless desert, who,
unless they follow the shepherd, will be sure to lose themselves, sure
to fall in with the wolf. We are safe while we keep close to Him, and under
His eye; but if we suffer Satan to gain an advantage over us, woe to us!
Blessed are they who give the flower of their days, and their strength
of soul and body to Him; blessed are they who in their youth turn to Him
who gave His life for them, and would fain give it to them and implant
it in them, that they may live for ever. Blessed are they who resolve—come
good, come evil, come sunshine, come tempest, come honour, come dishonour—that
He shall be their Lord and Master, their King and God! They will come to
a perfect end, and to peace at the last. They will, with Jacob, confess
Him, ere they die, as "the God that fed them all their life long unto that
day, the Angel which redeemed them from all evil;" [Gen. xlviii. 15, 16.]
with Moses, that "as is their day, so shall their strength be;" and with
David, that in "the valley of the shadow of death, they fear no evil, for
He is with them, and that His rod and His staff comfort them;" for "when
they pass through the waters He will be with them, and through the rivers,
they shall not overflow them; when they walk through the fire, they shall
not be burnt, neither shall the flame kindle upon them, for He is the Lord
their God, the Holy One of Israel, their Saviour."
