It speaks not simply about the shepherd but also about the gate and the sheepfold, and about the sheep being led in and out of the sheepfold. This is much less easy to understand – not least, his words about people entering the sheepfold by another way than the gate being ‘thieves and robbers’! What do you think that Jesus was talking about? Is there anything that we can draw upon to help us realise what was in Jesus’ mind?
There are two things. The first is the life and practice of shepherds at the time of Jesus, in fact, and even today in the Middle East. This author one day in the Holy Land witnessed a shepherd leading his sheep in a long line down a valley. And then later, about midday, he saw a shepherd sheltering from the heat of the sun under a tree with his sheep in a ring around him. A shepherd in the Middle East has a much more intimate relationship with each of his sheep than we see in Western Countries – knowing them by name would not be unusual.
But this leads to the other aspect of Jesus’ words: in the Old Testament, the shepherd was the classic image of the king of Israel – probably because David had been a shepherd boy. However, as the prophets, especially Ezekiel, make clear, many of Israel’s kings were far from being shepherds to their people. On the contrary, they used the people to satisfy their own personal motives, often greed. In that sense, they robbed the people of what they could rightfully expect and fed off the people rather than leading them to good pasture! In Jesus’ words they were ‘thieves and robbers.’ By implication, Jesus probably also had in mind the current Jewish leaders, including Herod, who had completely failed in their proper role.
But the radical thing is that Jesus was claiming not only to be the true shepherd-king of Israel but also the gateway – the way into God’s kingdom and place of feeding or pasture – as well as the source of life (the fullness of resurrection life) for his people.
