John 10:11-12 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd who owns the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away.”

A good shortstop knows where to position himself on the baseball field. He has quick reflexes and can get to a line-drive or a short hopper between second and third base quickly. A good soul, a good person, lives a kind and caring life. They practice self-control. They watch what they say and help people in need.

Do you see the difference? The shortstop is good because he does what he is supposed to do. He practices the skills that get the job done right. The person is good because he is moral. His heart is not dominated by sin and selfishness. In the first case, “good” refers to skill and function. In the second place it is measure of godliness.

Jesus was certainly good in the second sense. But when he calls himself the “Good Shepherd,” he actually has something more like the shortstop in mind. When he is feeding and protecting his people, he does the job the way it is supposed to be done. This makes him different from so many other people involved in taking care of human souls.

In his own time, there were two flavors of religious leaders among the Jews, the Pharisees and the Sadducees. The Pharisees were more conservative and moral, the Sadducees more liberal and free. The Pharisees had more respect with the people, but the Sadducees had more positions of power and influence.

What they shared was little respect or care for the common people. A little earlier they had criticized the everyday Jewish believer this way: “This mob that knows nothing of the law–there is a curse on them.” Later they revealed that they feared Jesus because too many people were believing in him, “and then the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.” The people, the sheep, were useful so long as it meant respect, prestige, and income for them. But they weren’t going to sacrifice anything for the good of their souls.

Among the shepherds of Christian persuasion today, even our own, there are hired hands who have no sense of responsibility. “So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away.” The “wolf” can take different forms. It might be the peer pressure of a society that has abandoned godly morals and persecutes Christians for clinging to Bible teaching. It might be the rising Christian star whose books and lectures or music are peppered with Biblical terms, but lead people away from the gospel. It might be the so-called scholars who take potshots at Bible teaching and try to make Christians look foolish for believing it. These all have the effect of scattering the flock. They separate the sheep from their faith and from each other.

The hired hand has learned to keep his mouth shut. He doesn’t want to stick his neck out. Confronting the wolf isn’t comfortable. It may cost him respect in his community, popularity among his own people. So he bites his lip and lets the wolf do his thing.

Sometimes the sheep want it this way. They don’t want a shepherd telling them, “This is right, and this is wrong.” They don’t want someone warning them, “Embracing that teaching, or that lifestyle, could cost you your soul.” To them, a “good shepherd” is one who doesn’t demand very much and lets them do their own thing, even if it might kill them.

That’s not Jesus’ style. He is the “Good Shepherd” precisely because he lays his life down for the sheep. But for all his reputation as Love incarnate, just about every time he turns around in the gospels, he is involved in a religious argument. And he was an equal-opportunity offender. He confronted the Pharisees and Sadducees for the aberrations in their teachings.  He called out the worldliness and materialism of the crowds. “Feed our faces, Jesus. Give us free healthcare. Just don’t ask us for any kind of commitment to you.” No. “Get your priorities straight,” he says. On many occasions he confronted his own disciples because they lusted for power, or they didn’t want to forgive.                                           

All this confrontation built ill-will against Jesus until they killed him for it. But that is not what he means by laying down his life for the sheep, or at least not that alone. Jesus isn’t merely saying he would risk death to help his people, like a soldier or a firefighter. He is saying his death is a fact, a necessity. This is what the Good Shepherd does. He dies for the sheep. He dies in their place. He dies so that they won’t have to. He dies to forgive the very sins he confronts. That is what makes him different, and “good.”