John: the self-sacrificing shepherd and Passover lamb

[glynch]

Between the four gospels, the Book of John provides a complete range of pastoral imagery models. John begins by witnessing the identity of Jesus and fore wording Jesus as the sacrificial lamb. His testimony, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (John 1:1). John the Baptist, a reliable witness, heard God, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29).
Though John seldom refers to the Old Testament directly, he draws most of his shepherding theme from other Old Testament books. The origination of John 10 most likely came from the books of Isaiah 56:6-11, Ezekiel 34, Jeremiah 23:1-8 and Zechariah 9-12). John also sees Jesus as both the fulfilment of God’s promise to shepherd his people and as an appointed Davidic shepherd ruler laying down his life for the sheep (John 10:11).
In the final chapter, the book ends with a pastoral imagery of Jesus while commissioning Peter three times to feed his sheep (John 21:15-17). As we have seen in all the four Gospels, “following Jesus� eventually means “shepherding his sheep�. In the final scene in John 21, Jesus demonstrates the expected outcome of the disciples’ relationship with Him in the emphases of telling Peter three times to “feed/shepherd my sheep�, as well as, follow the model Shepherd in his death. For that reason, the apostles should follow this model in encouraging other leaders in the church to follow and understand suffering and service in terms of the self-sacrificing shepherd in the Gospel of John.