The Shepherd's Voice (John 10:1-10)

From numerous scriptures to countless hymns and sacred songs, “The Good Shepherd” is one of our Faith’s most comforting and enduring images, but did you know that bad shepherds play an important part in our story, too?

When Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd” he wasn’t merely being clever. He was claiming as his own a title of rich historical significance.

Biblical authors often used the image of a good shepherd to make their points.

So, for example, when David wanted to sing of God’s goodness and mercy, he turned to this image.

The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul. (Psalm 23)

Likewise, when the writer of Psalm 78 wanted to recall fond memories of King David’s reign, they, again, turned to this image.

[The LORD] chose his servant David, and took him from the sheepfolds; from tending the nursing ewes he brought him to be the shepherd of his people…With upright heart he tended them, and guided them with skillful hand.

The connection between shepherding and kingship is, in fact, very strong, and it’s not unique to the Bible, either.

Ancient cultures from Mesopotamia to Egypt and beyond used the vocabulary and images of tending livestock to describe how well those in power lead, guided, and protected their people.

And just as there were good shepherds and skilled and benevolent kings, there were also fools who had no business leading a flock of animals, much less a nation.

Bad Shepherds show up all over the Old Testament, particularly in the books of the prophets.

Lamenting how the nation’s leaders had become indifferent to the people’s suffering, the prophet Zechariah remarked, “Their own shepherds have no pity on them.” (Zechariah 11:5)

The prophet Jeremiah expressed similar concerns when he preached, “[The LORD says,] “It is you [shepherds] who have scattered my flock and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. So I will attend to you.” (Jeremiah 23:2)

And then there’s Ezekiel.

Ezekiel’s condemnation of bad shepherds is the most expansive in the Bible, and it’s really quite telling.

His words read like a performance review that’s gone horribly wrong.

To the shepherds—thus says the Lord God: Woe, you shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep? You eat the fat; you clothe yourselves with the wool; you slaughter the fatted calves, but you do not feed the sheep. You have not strengthened the weak; you have not healed the sick; you have not bound up the injured; you have not brought back the strays; you have not sought the lost, but with force and harshness you have ruled them.

“You had one job,” the Lord God seemed to say, “and you failed miserably.”

Ezekiel continues,

So [the sheep] were scattered because there was no shepherd, and scattered they became food for all the wild animals. My sheep were scattered; they wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill; my sheep were scattered over all the face of the earth, with no one to search or seek for them. (Ezekiel 34:1-6)

On a day like this, a day on which we focus on what it means to call Jesus the Good Shepherd, I find Ezekiel’s indictment of poor leadership to be particularly useful.

It’s useful because by so vividly describing what poor leadership looks like, he helps us understand more clearly what the goals of good leadership are in the first place.

To enrich oneself, to satisfy selfish cravings, to regard those being led as rubes to exploit or roadblocks that just get in the way—these are anathema to Spirit-inspired leaders.

Unmoored from God’s love, absent God’s grace, these shepherds lead scattered flocks and build fractured communities.

“If Ezekiel were among us now,” wrote theologian Walter Bruggemann, “he might well conclude that the emergence of the "99%" is a scourge from God that intends to expose and bring down social policies, practices, and institutions that are out of sync with God's will for shalom.” (ON Scripture, 11.16.11)

Less we hear Bruggemann’s words through the lens of toxic partisanship, it’s worth noting that he made that observation during the Occupy Wall Street protests fifteen years ago, a reminder that God’s desire for how we order our lives is so much more than the promises of our political parties and economic theories.

Bruggemann continued,

The promissory nature of Ezekiel's oracles articulates what good leadership looks like...in government, in corporations, all through the private sector. That rule consists in,

Seeking the lost,

Bring back the strayed,

Binding up the injured,

Strengthening the weak,

Feeding the hungry.

In a word, good leadership consists in the restoration of the common good so that all members of the community, strong and weak, rich and poor, may live together in a common shalom of shared resources…What is envisioned (and required) is the formation of a different leadership that has in purview all members of the community. Ezekiel knew that is the only way to have a future that does not replicate the failed past.

Ezekiel’s vision is just as relevant to our understanding of Jesus as the Good Shepherd as the more pastoral images that we find in the Psalms because the One who takes us to green pastures and leads us beside still waters doesn’t take us there alone.

Rather, the prophet knew the truth that Jesus would embody–that we are members of the shepherd’s flock, part of God’s community, and the gracious blessings imparted to each one of us must fundamentally transform how we relate to, look out for, and live with one another.

Sitting this week with how the Bible talks about shepherds, I’m struck that despite the need for good shepherding, the marketplace for bad shepherds continues to be vast and growing.

We give our time and energy to online platforms that have a vested interest in keeping us angry, then wonder why we’re so mad.

We open our minds to unserious and unvetted sources, then suffer the consequences of lacking understanding.

We make peace with violence and accept that scarcity leads to prosperity, then wonder why no one trusts anybody and why people are so lonely.

We surround ourselves with clowns, then act surprised to find ourselves living in a circus.

The voices of bad shepherds are as loud as they’ve ever been.

[But the good shepherd] calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers." (John 10:3-5)

The voices of bad shepherds are as loud as they’ve ever been, but Jesus says we don’t have to listen to them and we certainly don’t have to go where they would lead us.

The Good News is that Jesus is the Good Shepherd of our souls and our lives, and through the lessons and example of his life, death, and resurrection he is teaching us how to tend to one another….

To seek the lost,

Bring back the strayed,

Bind up the injured,

Strengthen the weak,

And feed the hungry.

May we be found attentive to his voice and faithful to our calling.

The One who takes us to green pastures and leads us beside still waters doesn’t take us there alone, but makes us members of the shepherd’s flock, part of God’s community, where we find blessings that transform how we relate to, look out for, and live with one another.

Thanks be to God. Amen.

Image: Latimore, Kelly. Good Shepherd, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. Original source: Kelly Latimore Icons, https://kellylatimoreicons.com/.