Portrait Of A Good Shepherd

​Imagine it had been you. Imagine that you had just finished eating breakfast that had been prepared by Jesus Himself. Words couldn’t even describe the extreme range of emotions you had experienced in the weeks prior to this morning. You had experienced the lowest of lows, after having confidently pledged undying faithfulness to your Rabbi and Messiah, you eat your words by denying Him in His period of greatest vulnerability and watch Him die an excruciating death at the hands of people He loved. This unbearable feeling of agony and emptiness is then all but completely overshadowed by the unspeakable elation of not only hearing that your Savior has been seen alive but you then see Him with your own two eyes.

You’re still processing everything that has happened, what it means for you and what it means for the world. But, in this very moment, everything is as close to perfect as you can imagine it. You’re at the Sea of Galilee with your Redeemer and your long-time fishing buddies. Just like old times but even better.

Then He looks at you and a lump forms in your throat as He calls you by name and asks you a question that makes the whole flood of individual emotions sweep over you again all at the same time. “Do you love Me?”

The question itself strikes a chord connected to your own feelings of self-doubt and inadequacy which is heightened by the fact that He asks you three times…once for each time you had denied Him. However, not doubting the feelings you have for Him, you answer in the affirmative each time.

And His respective replies to each of your responses are…

1. Tend My lambs
2. Shepherd My sheep
3. Tend My sheep

It’s as if you were responding to His question with the love you felt for Him but Jesus’ reply is a description of how to actively love Him in a practical way.

It’s as if you were responding to His question in accordance with love that’s a feeling. But Jesus’ request is that you love Him in action…tangibly.

When Jesus had this dialogue with Peter, what was Jesus asking Peter to do? How was Jesus asking Peter to show his love for Him? What does a shepherd of people look like?

To help answer this question, what better place to start than to examine what a real-life shepherd (David) had to say regarding his Shepherd (the Lord).

A Good Shepherd……Is Attentive To The Needs Of The Sheep
“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” Psalm 23:1
Earlier in Jesus’ ministry, when Jesus and His disciples were reuniting with one another after having been disbursed in pairs, they had all just learned of John the Baptist’s beheading. Jesus was attentive to the fact that His men were weary, needed to be with one another, to get some rest and to have a change of scenery, so they all set out on a boat in an effort to find some seclusion.

Upon arriving on the other side of the sea, they encounter a large group of people. Matthew tells us that when Jesus saw the crowd, He felt compassion for them and began healing their sick. Jesus, attentive to the needs of the people, ends up enlisting His men to help feed this large group of followers.

It seems that Jesus felt that what His men needed most in their own time of mourning, was to teach them and model for them the compassion of a shepherd. In doing so, He was pouring out compassion on them and meeting His disciples’ needs just as He was pouring compassion on the large group of people and meeting their needs.

The Good Shepherd was always compassionately attentive to the needs of those around Him.

Matthew 9:36 “Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd.”
Matthew 14:14 “When He went ashore, He saw a large crowd, and felt compassion for them and healed their sick.”
Matthew 15:32 “And Jesus called His disciples to Him, and said, ‘I feel compassion for the people, because they have remained with Me now three days and have nothing to eat; and I do not want to send them away hungry, for they might faint on the way.’”

A Good Shepherd……Provides A Refreshing Safe Haven For The Sheep
“He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters.” Psalm 23:2
Throughout scripture Christ is described as One who provides safety, refuge and restoration to His flock.

Isaiah 40:11 “Like a shepherd He will tend his flock, in His arm He will gather the lambs and carry them in His bosom; He will gently lead the nursing ewes.”
Matthew 11:28-30 “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

In Matthew 23, Jesus likens how He feels about His people to a hen seeking to gather her chicks under her wings. King David spoke of the Lord with similar language, many times speaking of taking refuge in the shadow of His wings (Psalm 17:8; 36:7; 57:1; 63:7).

A Good Shepherd Both Protects and Disciplines His Sheep
“Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.” Psalm 23:4b
A good shepherd uses his rod and staff to fend off predators and also to guide and correct the sheep when it begins to head in the wrong direction. The correction, protection and discipline are all acts of love and are in the best interest of the sheep.

A Good Shepherd Pursues His Missing Sheep
Jesus Himself said…

Matthew 18:12 “What do you think? If any man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go and search for the one that is straying?”

Poimen (4166)(n) – a shepherd, pastor
Poimano (4165)(v) – to tend as a shepherd

(Sidenote: My NASB Bible only has the word “pastor” one time (in Ephesians 4:11) and the greek word there is poimen. Everywhere else in the New Testament, “poimen” is translated as “shepherd”. A pastor is to be a shepherd.)

Distinguishing Between a True Shepherd and a Hired Hand
Throughout the Old Testament, God, through His prophets, sent scathing messages to shepherds who had abandoned their responsibilities and were allowing the sheep to be scattered (Jeremiah 23:1-2; Ezekiel 34:1-10; Zechariah 11).
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In John 10:12-13, Jesus warned about hired hands who are more interested in self-preservation than they are in caring for sheep. The table below gives differences between true shepherds versus hired hands (worthless shepherds).

us saw the religious leaders of his day as worthless shepherds and hired hands. When He relayed the parable of the good Samaritan, he depicted the Jewish priest and Levite as being the ones who left their own countryman bloody and left for dead on the side of the road.

Peter’s Assignment
So…..what was Jesus asking Peter to do? He was asking Peter to emulate Him as best he could and to care for people as good shepherds care for sheep. Jesus was asking Peter to be attentive to the needs of the flock, to watch out for wolves that pose an immediate threat as well as for worthless shepherds who leave their flocks susceptible to wolves. He was asking Peter to feed His lambs as Jesus would. And this role of shepherding was ultimately to be done out of an act of love for the One who enlisted Peter as a shepherd.

Prayer of Thanksgiving to THE Good Shepherd
My Good Shepherd, who am I that you take thought of me and care for me? Just as You saw Nathaniel under the fig tree, You never cease to meet me in my circumstances. You stick closer than a brother. You are intimately acquainted with all my ways. Your ministry of reconciliation towards me is never ceasing, constantly bringing me back into fellowship as I confess my sin. You never abandon me like a hired hand as You are forever my Good Shepherd. I fear no evil for You are with me. When I seek You, You run directly toward me as a Father through the door. You never come at me sideways like a thief or a robber climbing up some other way. When I am beaten and wounded You never turn a blind eye or pass by a different way. You treat my wounds and provide for my needs. May I never fall for impostors or cheap imitations. With Your rod you both defend and discipline me to keep me recognizing Your voice. With Your staff You guide me and retrieve me from harm.
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I praise You, my Rock, my Fortress, and my Deliverer. May we reflect You as we seek to emulate You by shepherding others.