Christian symbols

The Good Shepherd in Christianity

He lays down his life for the sheep

The Good Shepherd is one of the most tender images of Christ, and among the very oldest in Christian art. I am the good shepherd, Jesus said, the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. He is the one who knows his sheep by name, who leaves the ninety-nine to seek the one that is lost, and who lays down his life to save the flock. Long before the cross was openly shown, the early church painted Christ as a young shepherd with a lamb across his shoulders, carrying home the one he had found.

I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.John 10:11 (KJV)

The shepherd in the words of Jesus

Jesus spoke of himself as a shepherd more than once. In the Gospel of John he said, I am the good shepherd, and marked out what makes him good: he lays down his life for the sheep, unlike the hired hand who flees when the wolf comes. He knows his sheep and is known by them, and he has other sheep to gather, that there may be one flock and one shepherd.

He told a parable of a shepherd who had a hundred sheep and lost one, and who left the ninety-nine to search until he found it, and carried it home rejoicing on his shoulders. It is a picture of the love of God that will not write off the lost but goes after them, one by one, until they are found.

The Lord is my shepherd

Behind the words of Jesus lies the best loved of all the psalms, in which David sings, The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside the still waters, he restores my soul. Even through the valley of the shadow of death the shepherd is present with his rod and staff.

When Jesus called himself the good shepherd, he was taking up this ancient song and applying it to himself. The Lord who shepherds his people in the psalm had come in person. All the comfort of that psalm, the guidance, the provision, the presence in the dark valley, is gathered up in him.

The oldest picture of Christ

The Good Shepherd is among the earliest images of Jesus that survive. In the catacombs of Rome, on the walls of underground burial chambers, believers painted a young man in a simple tunic carrying a lamb across his shoulders. The image was gentle and, in a time of persecution, discreet, for a shepherd carrying a lamb was a common enough scene to draw no suspicion.

Yet every Christian knew what it meant. Here was their Lord, who had found them when they were lost and carried them home. On the tombs of the dead it spoke of a shepherd who leads his own even through the valley of the shadow of death and does not lose them there.

The sheep and the door

Alongside calling himself the good shepherd, Jesus said something curious in the same passage: I am the door of the sheep. In the country he knew, a shepherd would often lie down across the opening of the sheepfold at night, so that his own body became the door, and nothing could come in or go out except past him. To say I am the door was to say that he himself is the way in to safety and the guard against all that would harm the flock.

The image is honest about danger. Jesus spoke of the thief who comes to steal and kill, and of the hired hand who runs away when the wolf appears because he does not care for the sheep. The good shepherd is known precisely by contrast: he does not flee, because the sheep are his own and he loves them. His care is not a job but a bond, and it holds even to the point of laying down his life.

There is comfort here for the weak and the fearful, which is to say for everyone. Sheep are not strong or clever animals; they are prone to wander and defenseless against predators. To be called his sheep is no flattery. But it is the sheep, not the strong, that this Shepherd delights to save, and their safety rests not on their own wisdom but on his watchful care.

And the flock is meant to grow. Jesus said he had other sheep, not of that fold, whom he must also bring, that there might be one flock and one shepherd. His arms are open wider than any single people or place. The shepherd who seeks the one lost sheep is seeking still, across every land, and his voice is calling those who have never yet heard it home.

The shepherd who was also the Lamb

There is a beautiful mystery in calling Christ the Good Shepherd, for the same Scriptures also call him the Lamb. He is at once the one who leads the flock and one of the flock, the Shepherd who became a Lamb to save the sheep. He did not stay safely above the danger but came down into it, laying down his life as the Lamb so that as the Shepherd he might carry his own through death and out the other side.

This double image runs deep in the church's memory. The Book of Revelation says that the Lamb in the midst of the throne shall shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. The Lamb is the Shepherd; the one who was slain is the one who leads his people home. Sacrifice and care are joined in a single Lord.

For the sheep this is everything. Their Shepherd knows the way through the valley of the shadow of death because he has walked it himself. He does not point them toward dangers he has not faced; he has gone ahead through the worst of them and returned alive, so that his voice calling from the far side of death can be trusted.

So the Good Shepherd is not a distant guardian but a Lord who gave himself for his flock and lives to lead them still. He seeks the lost, carries the weak, walks with them through the dark valley, and brings them at last to the still waters and the green pastures of his Father's house. The sheep are safe, not because they are strong, but because their Shepherd laid down his life and took it up again for them.

How the Good Shepherd points to Christ

The Good Shepherd points to Christ by showing the kind of love he has. It is not distant or conditional but seeking, sacrificial, and personal. He knows each sheep by name. He goes after the one that strays. And he does not merely guide the flock from safety; he lays down his own life to save it, which is exactly what he did on the cross.

The image is a great comfort to the weak, the wandering, and the frightened. It says that if you are lost, you are not written off but sought; if you are weary, there are shoulders to carry you; and if you walk through the darkest valley, you do not walk alone. The Good Shepherd has laid down his life for the sheep, and he calls them still, each one, by name.

A note across traditions: these symbols are shared by Christians everywhere as ways to point to Christ, never as objects of worship, for worship belongs to God alone. Where a symbol grew out of a later tradition or legend rather than the Bible, this page says so plainly. In every tradition there is one Lord, Jesus Christ, and every sign the church uses is meant to lead the heart to him.

Related: The lamb · The vine and branches · Who is Jesus? · All Christian symbols