Each of Christ’s ‘I am’ sayings shows an element of His saving work. ‘I am the Good Shepherd’ points to the love and mercy of Christ as He reaches out to and calls individuals. Here are the feelings and actions of the ‘lover of souls’.
When we first hear it, the analogy of humanity as a flock of sheep shocks us, and we recoil from it. But here are the unmistakeable similarities, and how Christ the Lord operates as a shepherd to gather and restore individuals to spiritual life.
Our pride instinctively recoils from being depicted in the Bible as sheep, but it is a profound and challenging depiction that enables us to see the depth of our spiritual need, and the costly and glorious work of Christ, the shepherd of lost souls.
