11-13 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.

14-15 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. 16 And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. 17-18 For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.” John 10:11-18 (English Standard Version)

In vs 1-10 Jesus had likened Himself to being the doorway through which a legitimate shepherd would enter a sheep pen to call out his sheep, and through which the sheep needed to pass in order to follow the shepherd and find pasture. In today's verses Jesus twice refers to Himself as not only the door for the sheep, but as the shepherd himself. In many places of the Old Testament the word shepherd was used as a picture of leaders. So what sort of shepherd did Jesus say He would be?

He speaks of Himself as 'the good’ shepherd. Over 500 years earlier, when the Israelites were in exile in Babylon, God made a devastating charge against their leaders. He said: “Woe to you shepherds of Israel who only take care of yourselves! Shouldn't shepherds take care of the flock? You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you don't take care of the flock. You've not strengthened the weak, or healed the sick, or bound up the injured. You've not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally. So they were scattered because there was no shepherd. And when they were scattered they became food for all the wild animals. My sheep wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. They were scattered over the whole earth, and no one searched or looked for them.” (Ezekiel 34:2-6)

Those words give us a deep insight into what shepherds of God's flock are meant to do. They are called to strengthen sheep that are weak, attend to the sick and injured, and to go out and search for those that had wandered away. They were to seek and save those that were lost. The shepherds of Ezekiel's generation – the civil and spiritual leaders – had not done that, but had only looked after themselves. Like a hired hand they had fled when trouble came, and the people had been scattered like sheep. But Jesus is the truly good shepherd, one who was prepared to lay down his life for the sheep.

Jesus is the shepherd whom the Father sent! And we can understand why the Father loves His Son so much in that Jesus had obeyed the Father's charge, and was going to willingly lay down His life to bring the sheep back to God. Christians can truly say that ‘the Lord’ is my shepherd. But what is so wonderful about this for people like us today? (vs 16)

Jesus spoke of ‘other sheep’ which He had would seek and save as well. This is surely best understood as referring to the fact that His message of salvation wasn't only for the Jewish people He was speaking to that day, but would reach out over the succeeding years to the Gentiles as well. People like you and me, and others from all over the world. So the apostle Paul was able to say to gentiles in Ephesus who'd become Christians: “You were once without hope and without God in the world - but now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one.” (Ephesians 2:12-14) Praise be to God for this good shepherd of our souls who brought us into God’s fold.