The Good Shepherd/Sheep Motif in Scripture with an Excursis on Metaphor: Baaaa

Introduction
One of my favorite Scriptural motifs -- okay, who am I kidding, I love all the motifs because motifs are awesome -- but one of the most beloved and well-known Scriptural motifs is that of Jesus as the Good Shepherd and we as his sheep. My four year old son, Thomas, and children everywhere, I think, particularly love this motif. It's accessible at a young age and grows in depth of meaning as we age and understand more and more about everything this motif entails. What's important to note, as with almost any Scriptural motif, image, or metaphor, is that we should focus most on what it says about Jesus, what it says about Jesus in relation to us, and very little on what it says about us apart from Jesus.There is so much that this motif does and says, but it can't all be covered here (that would take a dissertation), so I'll just be focusing on its function as a source of comfort for us.


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A Brief Excursis on Metaphor
I was an English major, so I have to do this.  :-) It can't be helped. Metaphor conveys meaning by comparing two ideas, objects, images, etc. Metaphor is never exhaustive. In other words the item for which the metaphor stands does not usually have ALL of the characteristics of the metaphor. For example, let's say you're using this phrase to describe your boss:

"She's a bear of a woman."
Context will help so let's say this is the metaphor in context:

"My boss looked down on me from her lofty height, drew in a deep breath which heaved her wide rib cage up and smiled menacingly. She's a bear of a woman, which became all too clear as she raised her gravelly, growly voice and yelled..."

From the context, you'll probably deduce that when I describe my boss as a bear, I'm thinking of a few specific traits: her height, her demeanor (yelling, growling) and her, ahem, size. I probably DO NOT mean that she is hairy, that she has a snout and razor sharp teeth, or that she mauls people, climbs trees, and eats honey. Keep this example of how metaphor is used in mind as we discuss the motif and metaphor of Jesus as the Good Shepherd and we as the sheep.

Old Testament Passages

Moses is a keeper of his father-in-law's flock in Midian (Exodus 3:1). He carries a staff as he leads the people out of Israel, and it is through this staff that YHWH often works miracles. In a sense, Moses "shepherds" YHWH's people out of slavery and into the Promised Land. Moses is a type of Christ, so Moses' shepherding of the flock of the Israelites is a type of Christ's shepherding of us out of slavery to sin, death, and the devil, and into YHWH's forgiveness, life, and salvation. In other words, Moses prefigures Christ in this way, as well as in many others. What Moses does incompletely, Jesus fulfills completely.

Additionally, King David is first a shepherd to his father's flocks (1 Samuel 16:11). David is also a type of Christ, and he shepherds YHWH's people as their King, appointed by God Himself, though of course, he is a flawed King. Still, the idea remains that God cares for his people through a "shepherd." What David does incompletely, Jesus fulfills completely.


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Then, of course, you have Psalm 23, where David speaks of the Lord as his shepherd. David offers us some very specific details about which attributes of a shepherd we are to understand YHWH has: like a shepherd, he leads David to green pastures (leads, guides, feeds), like a shepherd he leads David to still waters (nourishes). As one even greater than a shepherd, though, YHWH does much more than a shepherd: he restores the soul, and leads David in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. In other words, not only does YHWH as shepherd lead David to physical nourishment, he also nourishes the soul and spirit. Obviously, a regular shepherd does not deal with spiritual things, but David is extending the metaphor. Jesus is the fulfillment of this Psalm, as well, as he is the one who shepherds YHWH's people of all times and all ages into life and out of death.
Bottom line: A shepherd, a good one, leads the sheep to sustenance (pasture and water), finds those that wander and carries them home, and fights off predators.

The New Testament

The motif of the good shepherd recurs throughout the New Testatement in parables such as the lost sheep. One of the most powerful and instructive for our purposes, though, is Jesus I AM statement in John Chapter 10. Throughout John, Jesus uses the "I AM" statement to show that he is YHWH himself, in the flesh, the true Son of God. In John 10, Jesus uses the idea of the shepherd to focus on what he as the shepherd does for his sheep. Jesus enters the sheep pen through the gate, unlike the robber or the thief, because his is the legitimate shepherd for the sheep. The sheep know their shepherd by his voice and he calls them by name. They follow him because they know his voice. Jesus is saying that the sheep belong to him and that he knows them by name. He is not using the metaphor of the sheep to compare his followers to balls of wool running around on all fours, but as a source of comfort. The metaphor focuses on how Jesus corresponds to a shepherd by leading his people, protecting them, and sustaining him. The metaphor of the sheep is only to say that we as Christians know the voice of our Savior, which now speaks through the apostolic ministry, because he has called us by name (where? in the waters of Holy Baptism). The metaphor is not there to tell us how to behave as sheep to to say that we are these stupid creatures that run around bleating and knocking into stuff. Rather, it is there for comfort.

When the people do not understand what Jesus is trying to tell them with this metaphor, he becomes more emphatic and this is where the I AM statement comes in. The fact that Jesus is the Good Shepherd points to his divinity! "I AM the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 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. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I AM the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep" (John 10:11-16, ESV). The focus here is on who Jesus is as the Good Shepherd: He is YHWH himself, come to save his people by laying his life down on their behalf, just as a shepherd would do for his flock. Only Jesus the Good Shepherd's death does even more for the sheep than the regular shepherd who lays down his life for the flock. Jesus the Good Shepherd saves the sheep body, soul, and spirit. Jesus the Good Shepherd takes his life up again. This idea of Jesus as the Good Shepherd, then, focuses on what Jesus does for the sheep. The metaphor for us as the sheep extends only this far: We know the voice of our Shepherd and our Shepherd knows us by name, just as regular sheep know their shepherd by his voice and follow him.

This emphasis is reinforced by some other key reappearances of this theme in the Gospel of John. First, after the resurrection, though Jesus speaks with her and she looks right at him, Mary does not know Jesus until he speaks her name (John 20:11-18)! It is in his calling of her by name that Mary knows her Good Shepherd. The focus here, again, is not on Mary as the sheep, but on Jesus as the Good Shepherd who laid down his life for her, and who calls her by name. Again, the motif recurs when Jesus reinstates Peter. Here, is appointing Peter to a position as an undershepherd. Again, the focus is on what Jesus does to care for his sheep in and through Peter, rather than on what the sheep are supposed to do or look like. Jesus urges Peter to feed his lambs, tend his sheep, and feed his sheep (three times to reinstate Peter for the three denials) (John 21:15-19). So again, the metaphor is not a one to one correspondence. We are not meant to envision ourselves as stupid, wooly, bleating sheep, but as sheep in that we are cared for, nurtured, protected, and saved by THE Good Shepherd, who lays down his life for us and calls us by name. The metaphor is about Jesus and what he does for us; it's not about us. That's why this one never gets old:

"I am Jesus' little lamb, Ever glad at heart I am; For my Shepherd gently guides me, knows my needs and well provides me, Loves me ev'ry day the same, Even calls me by my name" (LSB 740:1, "I Am Jesus' Little Lamb).

Bottom line: Our Good Shepherd, Jesus, provides daily sustenance for us, leads us to nourishment (the Lord's Supper), and overcomes our old foes: sin, death, and the devil. Take heart, little sheep, your Good Shepherd lives, and he calls you by name!