Thus says the Lord GOD: I swear I am coming against these shepherds. The prophet Ezekiel refers to the Kings of Israel as shepherds. However, since many of them left a lot to be desired as shepherds, Yahweh God decided to shepherd his people himself: So was Moses, King David and other relevant figures in the Old Testament. Therefore, I think that we are in urgent need of rediscovering the significance and importance of shepherd and sheep in the spirit of God’s Word, the Bible.Ībraham, Isaac and Jacob were all nomads and shepherds. Sheep are domesticated animals that have the innate tendency to follow the sheep ahead of them in the same flock.Ĭalling someone a sheep is rarely considered a compliment! Sheep are people with little or no self-confidence, easily influenced, lacking in personality and character. Most likely we go through our entire life without having ever seen a real shepherd and very few of us have ever seen sheep up close. It is hard for us to benefit from the messages that the Book of Revelation (7:9, 14-17) and the Gospel of John (10:27-30) offer to our consideration when the only images we have of shepherds, sheep and lambs are from holy cards and from the Bible. However, even in our familiarity with that Psalm we are in no way hardwired to appreciate the role of Christ as our Shepherd and, even less, to accept our role as his sheep. Perhaps the Psalm most familiar and dearest to us is Psalm 23: “ the Lord is my Shepherd there is nothing I shall want.” Jesus introduces himself as our Shepherd. Today’s Gospel passage for the Fourth Sunday of Easter is rather short and, thus, it needs some supporting information to make it adequately relevant to our spiritual life.

Jesus the shepherd