My Friend – If you’ve just arrived, Welcome! You’re jumping into a study in three parts. Click here to read part one. Also, you’ll notice I’ve put Scripture right into the flow of my text—setting it apart using italics and quotation marks for direct speech—without specifically citing the reference (I am using the ESV). My desire is for you to read through the entire article uninterrupted. If the subject matter warrants another reading, and I think it does, then you can easily search, find, and read the texts in context. I hope you do because it is another skill to develop as a sheep-shepherd. ~ James

Jesus the Messiah [Christ] was a keen observer of God at work in Scripture, history, and the divinely designed context into which he was sent (Gal 4:4), Israel during the Second Temple period.

That is the first and foremost Sheep-to-Shepherd (S2S) practice—what I call a “pastoral sensibility”—to cultivate eyes and ears that see and hear what was, is, and can be. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

The Seed of David

The significance of Psalm 2, attributed to David, is evidenced by at least ten references in the New Testament. God quotes it Himself in response to Jesus’ baptism, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.” The Shepherd of Israel is calling to mind a covenant He made with King David: “I will raise up your offspring after you. I will establish his kingdom. I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son.” As we saw in Isaiah 63, when the Holy One remembers, He acts.

Investigating and chronicling the life of the Messiah, Luke records Mary’s memories of the angel Gabriel’s words describing her son’s destiny: “You shall call his name Jesus [Yeshua]. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” No doubt she and her husband Joseph, of the house of David, shared that origin story with their maturing son to help cultivate his spirituality.

Once you see the prominence and power of this promise running through both Testaments, you have gained a critical aspect of the mind of Christ. In the new covenant pastoral work of telling God’s Story, these things continue to play an important part: Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel. Even ascended from earth and enthroned in the heavenlies, the Lord Jesus is still operating as the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, who has conquered. Worthy is the Lamb who was slain!

A Shepherd Who Would Be King

David embodies the S2S principle. The heart that can pen the LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want, is ready for more responsibility. Rather than grow out of that mindset, David would spend his life exploring the implications. The king would always be God’s lamb first, another pastoral sensibility. And a quality that fit him for service to the Shepherd of Israel: My servant David shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd.

Watch the steady progress of the shepherding motif in the prophetic history of God’s people. From Abraham to Moses, from Moses to David, from David to Jesus. Each of these humble servant leaders, and others in between, could have written Psalm 23. As the people of God increased in every generation, so did their need for maturing sheep who could in turn shepherd all aspects of civic and religious life—surrendered to and apprenticed by YHWH.

God, through his prophets, is clear that every one of His lambs tasked as a servant leader within his flock is to think and act like a sheep-shepherd. But humans fail. We fail. They failed. “Prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy, and say to them, even to the shepherds, Thus says the Lord GOD: ‘Ah, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep? My sheep have become a prey, and my sheep have become food for all the wild beasts, since there was no [faithful] shepherd.’”

“I Am the Good Shepherd”

Through the ages, those who understood the heart of the great Shepherd knew He would not allow this sad state of affairs to continue: “Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out.” They listened expectantly to the voice of Micah, quoted 700 years later by Magi in search of the promised child: And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel. Little did these wise men from the east know they were playing a pivotal part in moving God’s pastoring metaphor boldly forward into the New Covenant.

In Jesus, these prophecies were fulfilled and are being filled full.

Just as he was in the Gospels, so he is today. Jesus Christ is Master, model, and mentor to each of his disciples around the world in every generation. His homily on shepherding in John 10 is replete with self-understanding and implications for his people. It warrants a careful, fresh rereading in light of our S2S principle. For now, I want to highlight verses 14 and 15:

Master: I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me.

As a man, Jesus submitted completely to God, the ultimate authority. He remains so, even as the resurrected and enthroned Lord: Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. That trusting and obedient surrender was the secret to his strength: Jesus answered Satan, “It is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.’”

To flourish in the Father’s service, every sheep-shepherd must abandon to God’s Son in ever-increasing ways: “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” Bearing much fruit is an intentional life, full of purpose, leaving the results to a higher power.

Model: The Father knows me and I know the Father.

Place is an essential element of story. On the night he was betrayed, Jesus went out with his disciples across the brook Kidron, where there was a garden northeast of Jerusalem and outside its walls. Those closest to him were sleeping. The father of lies was pressing in as he wrestled with the reality of drinking from the cup God was handing him. And being in agony he prayed more earnestly.

I will never forget standing in the same area and realizing that even as his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground, the Messiah had a ready way of escape. He could have climbed undetected up the Mount of Olives in under an hour and disappeared into the foothills of the Judaean Wilderness. And he had biblical precedent to justify the move. His kinsman David did just that when pursued unjustly by Saul, the mad king. But not the King of kings and Lord of lords. Our good shepherd says what he means and means what he says: “I lay down my life for the sheep.”

Mentor: He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.

We do not meditate enough on what Jesus encountered standing against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Some of these attacks were direct, obvious. But most of them were indirect, covert. The multiple levels of temptations he faced took the form of ridicule and persecution from civic and religious authorities. Adding to the intensity was the indifference, unbelief, ingratitude, and misunderstanding he daily experienced from those he sought to save.

Why did Jesus see it through?

“I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father.” He was not in it for what he could or would get out of it. He was loving the Lord his God with all his heart, with all his soul, with all his mind, and with all his strength. And he is faithful to teach his sheep-shepherds how to do the same.

Jesus concludes his shepherding reflections with this enigmatic comment, “I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also.” He is the Jewish Messiah and humanity’s Savior. This life-altering text is about us before we first heard the shepherd’s voice. Once we do, it is for others by way of our good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

“They will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.”