Jesus, Our Good Shepherd

When Jesus says He is the Good Shepherd, it is quite likely that some who heard Him chuckled to themselves or even laughed out loud. This might strike us as odd. However, at the time shepherds were regarded as among the lowest of men, not much better than a leper. This was true all through the region. The Romans and Greeks regarded shepherds as among the lowest classes of people. This was even true of the Jews. They regarded shepherds as unworthy of giving testimony in court. Why would this be? It had something to do with the job of shepherding as requiring no particular skill. It was something that even the most mentally ungifted could and would do. It was by its nature a fairly dangerous job. The shepherds were expected to protect the flock from wolves, hyenas, jackals, leopards, and bears. They were more nomadic than what most men were willing to tolerate. It is also likely that the marriage prospects of the typical shepherd were more of less nil. They did not make enough money to start or sustain a family and the nomadic life was probably less than appealing to most women. Tax collectors were on par with the shepherd in terms of popularity among the people. While better regarded than the world’s oldest profession, shepherding might well have been the world’s second oldest profession by analogy.

The low regard for shepherds might be understandable among the pagans, but one might think that the Jews would hold shepherds in higher regard. After all, some very important people in the Old Testament were shepherds. For example, Abel was a shepherd while Cain was a farmer. Abel’s sacrifice was found acceptable by God while Cain’s was not. Yet the Jews of Jesus’ day regarded farming as a respectable profession. The three primary patriarchs – Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – were all shepherds. It does not get more important than these three in Judaism. The promise of a nation first came through Abraham, he is the father of the Chosen People and the sign of the covenant was first entrusted to him. The promise continued through Abraham’s only son Isaac, and it is Isaac that was offered as a sacrifice, a sacrifice that was halted by God, on the same mountain that the Temple would later be erected by Solomon. Jacob, renamed Israel by God, is the father of the twelve patriarchs from which the twelve tribes of Israel sprung. Each of Jacob’s twelves sons, the heads of the tribes of Israel, were also shepherds. Moses, the giver of the Law, was also a shepherd. He would not only give the commandments of God to the tribes of Israel, he liberated them from slavery in Egypt through God’s power. The prophet Amos was a shepherd and it is likely that other prophets and judges were also.

While Abel, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and the others were all shepherds, David is most explicitly associated as a shepherd. As the last-born son of Jesse, it fell to David to tend the flocks. Thus, by David’s day, about a thousand years before Jesus, it might well have been that shepherding was not held in tremendously high esteem. David’s shepherding skills nonetheless led to the victory over Goliath and the Philistines. David had to protect the flock from wild animals with his sling, a far deadlier weapon then any of the professional warriors could imagine. Goliath certainly did not respect David or his sling, something he would soon regret dearly.

David is king, prophet, warrior, victor, bringer of peace, and yet began as a lowly shepherd. Jesus does not hesitate to embrace the role and image of shepherd, a role and image that ought to have been held in higher esteem given the history of the Chosen People and the lives of their patriarchs. But God does not bend to the whims of man. The image of the Good Shepherd was embraced by Jesus and it was neither here nor there what His contemporaries thought of shepherds. Indeed, God tends to utterly discount the mercurial notions and caprices of man. For example, who were the first to hear the “good news of great joy” (Lk 2:10) of Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem? Was it the king? Was it a prince? Was it a rich man well-regarded? Was it a high priest? An ordinary priest? A Levite or a scribe? No, God chose to announce the birth of His only Son to mere shepherds.

So, Jesus choosing to be our Good Shepherd and allowing us to be His sheep tells us that He and His kingdom cater not only to the elite but also to the lowest of the low.

—Fr Booth