The offices of Christ

Christ Our Shepherd

Jesus Christ is our Shepherd because he leads, feeds, protects, and lays down his life for his people. A shepherd cares for the sheep who cannot care for themselves. Jesus called himself the good shepherd, who knows his sheep by name, gives his life for them, and holds them so securely that none can pluck them out of his hand. He is the fulfillment of every promise that God himself would come to shepherd his flock.

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

What it means to call Christ our Shepherd

A shepherd in Scripture is the tender image of a ruler who cares. Sheep are helpless creatures, prone to wander, defenseless against predators, unable to find their own pasture or water. They need a shepherd to lead them, feed them, guard them, and go after them when they stray. To call Jesus our Shepherd is to admit that this is exactly what we are like, and to rejoice that he is exactly the shepherd we need.

This title unfolds the kingly office in its gentlest form. In the ancient world kings were called shepherds of their people, and God rebuked the false shepherds of Israel who fed themselves and not the flock. So when Jesus names himself the good shepherd, he is claiming to be the true King who rules not for himself but for the good of the sheep. His rule is not harsh but caring, not distant but personal.

Jesus said, I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. This is the mark of the true shepherd, that he does not flee when the wolf comes but stands between the danger and the flock, even to the point of death. And he added, I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. His care is not for a nameless crowd but for each one, known and loved personally.

The Old Testament promise of a coming Shepherd

The picture of God as the Shepherd of his people runs all through the Old Testament. David, himself a shepherd before he was a king, sang the best-loved words in all of Scripture: The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. To know God as shepherd was to trust him for provision, guidance, and comfort even through the valley of the shadow of death.

But Israel's human shepherds, its kings and priests and leaders, so often failed the flock. Through Ezekiel God pronounced woe on the shepherds who fed themselves while the sheep were scattered, wounded, and lost. And then he made a stunning promise: he would do the shepherding himself. Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out, he said. I will feed them, and I will bind up that which was broken. He promised to gather the scattered flock and to set over them one shepherd, his servant David, the Messiah to come.

So the hope grew that God would visit his people as their Shepherd, in the person of the coming Son of David. The prophets saw him feeding his flock like a shepherd, gathering the lambs in his arms, and carrying them in his bosom. When Jesus looked on the crowds and was moved with compassion because they were as sheep having no shepherd, everyone who knew the Scriptures could feel the promise beginning to come true.

How Jesus is the good Shepherd in full

Jesus is the Shepherd God promised to be, come in person to seek and save the flock. He said the good shepherd goes after the one lost sheep until he finds it, and lays it on his shoulders rejoicing, and that is the very reason he came, to seek and to save that which was lost. He gathers those who were scattered, calls his own sheep by name, and leads them out, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.

Above all he proved himself the good Shepherd by dying for the sheep. What Ezekiel foresaw and David sang, Jesus fulfilled at the cross, laying down his life to save his flock from the wolf of sin and death. No hireling would do this; only the true Shepherd, whose own the sheep are. And he took his life again, rising as the great Shepherd of the sheep, so that his care did not end at the grave but goes on forever.

Now, risen and reigning, he keeps his flock with a grip that cannot be broken. My sheep hear my voice, he said, and I know them, and they follow me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. He leads them still through the Scriptures and by his Spirit, feeds them at his table, and will bring them at last to the living fountains of waters, where God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.

His shepherding gathers what human shepherds could never gather. He said he had other sheep not of the fold of Israel, and that them also he must bring, so that there would be one flock and one shepherd. Across every nation and age he calls his own by name, and they come, drawn by a voice they somehow know, until the one great flock is complete. No lamb he seeks is ever finally lost, and no wolf can scatter what he gathers. The Shepherd who died for the sheep now lives to lead them, and he will not rest until every one of them is safely home.

What Christ our Shepherd means for us

Because Jesus is our Shepherd, we are known and never alone. He does not lose track of us in the crowd; he knows each of us by name, knows our weakness and our wandering, and cares for us one by one. In a world where we can feel like a number, it is everything to belong to a Shepherd who calls us his own and lays down his life for us.

Because he is our Shepherd, we are provided for and led. We may not always see the path, but the sheep are not asked to find the way, only to follow the shepherd, and he leads in green pastures and beside still waters, and even through the dark valley he is with us. When we stray, he comes after us; when we are broken, he binds us up; when we are weary, he carries us. We shall not want.

And because he is our Shepherd, we are safe forever. He has given us eternal life, and no power can pluck us from his hand. Our security does not rest on the strength of our grip on him but on the strength of his grip on us, and his hand does not fail. To hear his voice and follow is to be kept by the good Shepherd all the way home, to the fold where none is ever lost again.

There is comfort here for the darkest days. The psalm does not say the sheep will avoid the valley of the shadow of death, but that even there they need fear no evil, for the Shepherd is with them. He does not lead us around every sorrow, but he goes through each one at our side, his rod and staff a comfort in the dark. And at the end of the valley he is still there, having walked us through death itself to the green pastures beyond. To follow this Shepherd is to be able to say, whatever comes, I shall not want, and goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.

A note for all traditions: the threefold office of Christ, Prophet, Priest, and King, is a historic and non-denominational way of understanding Jesus, shared across the Christian church. Every verse above is quoted from the King James Version and can be read in its own context. In every tradition there is one Lord, Jesus Christ, and the invitation of this page is simply to know him.

Related: Christ Our King · Christ Our Savior · The offices of Christ · The offices of Christ