Jesus’ audience in John 10 would have been very familiar with the Hebrew Scriptures (the Talmud). Education of Jewish children began at age five or six, with girls’ education usually concluding at age twelve, while the boys continued their studies, becoming a religious adult at age thirteen, a tradition continuing today with the bar mitzvah and bat mitzvah celebrations. The best students continued to age fifteen, studying the Talmud half the day while apprenticing in a trade the other half. The best of the best would then be invited by a rabbi to be discipled, with a view to becoming just like the rabbi. The most successful would then become rabbis themselves generally around age thirty.

Jesus’ reference to the “good shepherd” would have brought several passages to mind for his hearers, the most obvious being Psalm 23. Even today, Psalm 23 is one of the most popular and most quoted of all Scripture. “A Psalm of David. The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
(Psalm 23, ESV)

The contrast of bad and good shepherd, likewise, would be familiar from Ezekiel 34:10-16 in which the Lord contrasts himself with the Israelite leaders, prophesying of His rescue of the sheep. “Thus says the Lord God, Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will require my sheep at their hand and put a stop to their feeding the sheep. No longer shall the shepherds feed themselves. I will rescue my sheep from their mouths, that they may not be food for them. “For thus says the Lord God: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land. And I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the ravines, and in all the inhabited places of the country. I will feed them with good pasture, and on the mountain heights of Israel shall be their grazing land. There they shall lie down in good grazing land, and on rich pasture they shall feed on the mountains of Israel. I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord God. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them in justice.“ (Ezekiel 34:10–16, ESV)

The Aim of the Good Shepherd
While the “bad shepherds” were all about using and abusing the sheep for their own gain, Jesus declared that He was different. He was the “good shepherd” portrayed in Ezekiel 34 and Psalm 23. He would seek the lost, reunite the strayed sheep, heal the injured, and strengthen the weak. Previously in Nazareth, he had read Isaiah 61:1-2 in the synagogue: “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn;“ and then claimed that He was the fulfillment of the prophecy (Luke 4:.16-21)

Here in John 10, Jesus presents His aim as the good shepherd to provide the sheep, not just life which the bad shepherds sought to take or failed to provided, but abundant life. The Greek word for ‘abundantly‘ (περισσός perissós; – Strong’s #4096) means ‘to have beyond measure’. Jesus not only gives us life in restoring us to a relationship with Himself, but that life that is better than anything we can imagine or anything we can find elsewhere. Jesus provides a life that is rich in purpose (Ephesians 2:10), promises peace beyond measure (John 14:27; Phil 4:8-9) and healing of our afflictions (Matthew 4:23; 9:35, always spiritual but sometimes physical, emotional, mental, and behavioral to those who will submit themselves to Him (John 15:5).

In our evangelical circles, we tend to preach a Gospel that focuses on Jesus as the way to eternal life. We ask people, “Do you want to go to heaven?” or “If you were to die tonight, are you sure you would end up in Heaven?” But while the Gospel (which literally means “good news”) of Jesus Christ does include the promise of assured eternal life, it includes incredible blessing in this life . . . an abundant life lived in a vibrant relationship with the very Creator of everything! The focus of the Gospel is not forgiveness of our sins thru God’s gracious provision of His Son. The focus of the Gospel is entering into and enjoying a relationship with God. The atonement of Jesus Christ is merely the only means by which that relationship is re-established. He came to bring us abundant life and the abundant life is only in relationship with Him. Eternal life means the scope of the abundant life is everlasting! So why do most Christians not experience this abundant life. The problem is that we settle for the idea that things will be better when we get to heaven, rather than pursuing the abundant life here and now. In short, we neglect the relationship that meets all our needs, because we are so focused on meeting all our needs.