Abundant Life in Jesus' Flock

I studied this passage in a Bible study in college, and we performed an interesting activity. We made a list of the “characters” in this story:

• The hired hand

• The good shepherd

• The sheep under the hired hand

• The sheep scattered by wolves

• The sheep protected by the good shepherd

• The sheep in other flocks, separated from the good shepherd’s flock

• The lost sheep

We spent the evening talking about which of those groups we belonged to. Some were fortunate to be the safe sheep protected by the good shepherd, but others found themselves in different groups. Some had been burnt out from bad church experiences, resembling the sheep under the hired hand or scattered by wolves. Some felt excluded from mainstream groups like faithful sheep waiting outside the flock for the good shepherd to bring them into the fold. As the small group leader, I confessed that some nights I was the good shepherd and others I was the hired hand. One girl opened up and told us that she was one of the lost sheep—she had a falling out with her religious family and was keeping her distance from the church.

We all got closer that evening because the story made us think about and discuss where we were in relation to the good shepherd. Our role in that story can change from year to year or even week to week. It was eye-opening to learn that, while we all looked more or less the same walking into the study that night, we were in vastly different places, some of us fighting silent battles and struggling.

The point of the exercise, though, wasn’t to examine our differences; it was to talk about how we all needed the good shepherd to draw us into his flock and protect us. The sheep safely in the shepherd’s flock, even the ones who had been there their entire lives, needed the good shepherd just as much as the lost sheep who had been struggling in isolation for years. We also needed to recognize that the safety and familiarity some of us felt with religious communities wasn’t shared by all, and we needed to provide a safe environment for new sheep to enter our community.

Just like the many characters in this passage, we’re all in different walks of life and have different needs for safety. Some of us may feel very safe, having been in the good shepherd’s flock for years. Some may feel lost, having wandered or even been cast out of religious communities years ago. Some may have been burned by other authority figures who abused their power and hurt those under their care. The good news is that the good shepherd cares for us all and wants us all to be safe. Safety and freedom are not reserved for those with the privilege of being born into the right flock. If you’re feeling unsafe right now, I hope that God can help alleviate some of that. If you’re feeling safe and content right now, realize that there may be people who aren’t and who don’t know who they can trust. We’re all in different places, but the goal is for us to be one flock, under a good shepherd who wants the best for us.