Reflection
We cannot look at the good shepherd of John 10 apart from the shepherds of Jesus’ day: the scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees, priests, and kings. The shepherds neglected the sheep. Instead of concerning themselves with the sheep, they were concerned about their precious law. Jots and tittles, letters and strokes, were more important than the law of love. The letter of the law was more important than the spirit of the law. They weighed down the people. They made the service of God a burden instead of a joy, a duty instead of a joy. Jesus’ audience knew what he was saying. In contrast to the bad shepherds of his day, he is the good shepherd. He knows and loves his sheep.
Rev. Adrian Dieleman
Prayer
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
Action
How can I emulate Jesus in caring for those who are my responsibility? How can I make their lives joyful and their burdens light?
Suggested Reading
I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. A hired man, who is not a shepherd and whose sheep are not his own, sees a wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away, and the wolf catches and scatters them. This is because he works for pay and has no concern for the sheep. I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I will lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep 7 that do not belong to this fold. These also I must lead, and they will hear my voice, and there will be one flock, one shepherd.
John 10:11-18
Be shepherds with the smell of sheep.
Pope Francis
The duty of a good shepherd is charity.
Thomas Aquinas
The protective love of the Shepherd gives me courage to face the interior journey.
Paul E. Miller
A true shepherd leads the way. He does not merely point the way.
Leonard Ravenhill
Too many leaders act as if the sheep… their people… are there for the benefit of the shepherd, not that the shepherd has responsibility for the sheep.
Ken Blanchard
There are quite enough sheep already – be a shepherd: be somebody who’s bold and who leads.
Matt Bevin
God is not a celestial prison warden jangling the keys on a bunch of lifers
he’s a shepherd seeking for sheep, a woman searching for coins, a father waiting for his son.
Clarence Jordan
The shepherd always tries to persuade the sheep that their interests and his own are the same.
Stendhal