The Good Shepherd
In John 10:11, Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.” There are seven ‘I Am’s’ in the book of John and this is one of them. In the Greek, the word ‘good’ means ‘noble, wholesome, good, and beautiful.’ It stands in stark contrast to that which is evil and sinful and malicious. This goodness is not seen on the outside, in the actions, but the fountain of this goodness is on the inside. It describes the character of an individual. Jesus is making a point that He is inherently good and righteous and pure. There is no evil in Him; there is no sinfulness in Him; there is no maliciousness in Him. Consequently, all that He does from this inward character of goodness is for the good of those to whom He does it.
In the context of this verse, Jesus is actually comparing Himself to the religious leaders of His day. They, in all of their regalia, and there sophistication and there put-on piety, really only did it for the good of themselves and had no true desire to help others. In fact, they excluded those who really needed the most help, claiming they were doing it to stay pure. If it boiled down to whom they would protect, it would be themselves over anybody else.
Jesus is saying He is different than that, to the core. He is good! He is the true Shepherd! He cares about the sheep, who would be humanity, you and me, everyone. He loved the sheep of humanity so much that He was willing to give His life for them! That is exactly what He did!
In the Old Testament we find that God is often referred to as the Shepherd. So, those religious leaders and people were aware of this and when Jesus mentioned that He was the Good Shepherd, they knew what He was talking about. It made the leaders mad because Jesus was claiming to be God with that statement, basically, but that didn’t stop Jesus from saying it. He wanted all to know that He was the good Shepherd; He was the One who would lay down His life for all; He was the One who would protect and love and watch over those who belonged to Him! Thank Him today! Thank Him for being our Good Shepherd!