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• People of Israel were shepherds –semi-nomads
• Abraham – man of faith
• David – model leader
• Amos – prophet
• Jesus birth was first announced to the shepherd
• They imagined God and king to be shepherds (gen 49:24, Psa 23, 78:52; 1kg 22:17, Jer 10:21, 23: 1-2)
• He is the gate of the sheepfold
• He is ready sacrifice his life
• Old leaders Ez 34
• New leaders Jesus was born in the manger
• They know the people
• They know the route
• They come forward to protect
• Jesus gives the characteristic marks of the hired man and the good shepherd.
• They are the identity marks in fact they are the differentiating marks of these two.
• Hired man works for money and has no concern for the sheep.
• Hired man runs away when he sees problem for the sheep.
• In short, hired man is selfish and self centred.
• Jesus affirms himself to be the good shepherd.
• The adjective good brings with it all the qualities that one should want to find in a shepherd.
• He is totally concerned about the sheep.
• This is not mere external concern but this concern extends to the knowledge of the sheep and its name (Jn 10:3 – knowing the name is making the sheep a person with due respect and reverence).
• His concern is visible in his readiness to lay down his life for the sheep.
• All this concern and knowledge is similar to that of the father.
• The shepherd also knows the sheep individually.
• Because he calls them by name: their specific identity. More than the shepherd recognizing the sheep, the sheep recognize the shepherd and that is the reason they follow him.
• There is familiarity, acceptance, understanding, recognition, and following. Anyone else is a stranger and he is a thief. He comes only to disturb and destroy.
• Jesus here uses another identity mark for himself: I am the gate. He talked about himself as the shepherd and the gatekeeper etc and now he calls himself as the gate.
• This to say that, he is the entry point for the sheep that belong to the fold. There is no other way to enter into the fold and even to care for the sheep. Neither the sheep not the keeper who does not enter through Jesus will not have access.
