"The Good Sheperd"
A. J. Simonis writes: "No Christ's image has been dear to the christians like Jesus Good Sheperd".
In the figure parlance of the ancient East "the Sheperd indicates, in the popular custom, the king and the other leaders of people, considered like saviours and liberators".
In the Bible, in Ezekiel (Ez. 34) and Jeremy
particularly (Ger. 23), there is the following message:
"The bad sheperds, whose flock has been dispersed; Iahvé (God) real
Sheperd of Israel; the Messianic Sheperd sent by God: "I'll give rise a
Sheperd for them that will feed them, David my servant. He will pasture them, he
will be their sheperd; Me, the Lord, I'll be their God and David will be my
servant, prince among them: Me, the Lord, I have spoken.(Ez. 34,23-24).
"Paradoxically in the Ancient Testament God hardly ever shows himself like
the appellative <<Rô ‘eh>> or Sheperd of Israel. Only in these biblical books we read this title (Genesis 48,15
and 49,26; Psalms 22 [23] and 79 [80]). Then the title Sheperd of Israel is
reserved to a person which has to come:
"And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will govern my people Israel"; his origins are since the antiquity, since the more remote days, for this God will put them under another's authority till when the woman has to give birth, she will give birth; and the rest of your brothers will come back to the sons of Israel. He will be there and will pasture them by the power of the Lord, by the grandeur of the Name of Lord his God. They will live sure because He will be great till the last borders of the earth.
Many important persons of the Biblical world have this title of Sheperd: Moses, (Psalm 76 [77 ], Giosuè (Num 27,18-21), David and the successive kings of Israel. But as many kings was not up to govern God's people (This is evidenced by prophets' writings which don't ascribe the title of Sheperd to them), "God will not abandon his flock (Israel) to the total fall; He will take again to guide his people personally and will dispose the sending of an exceptional Sheperd which will love his flock and will take him to the definitive salvation. So, during the Babylonian exile and also after of this one, in fifth and fourth century before Christ, the sheperd's image means the personality will come at the last times. Then will be revealed the heroic fidelity of the transfixed Sheperd for his flock (Zac 12,10) and the fidelity of the purified flock toward his Sheperd. So, it is preparing Jesus' mission: << Jesus, great Sheperd of the flock of sheep>>. He saves his flock <<by his blood of eternal alliance>> (Epistle to Hebrews 13,20) (Cfr. Dalmazio Colombo, Pastore e gregge: da Jahvè a Gesù, in Storia di Gesù Rizzoli, vol 3, p. 978).
Jesus is the good Sheperd lays down his life for the sheep, he saves them and preserves according to God's promises, by means of his death and resurrection.
The same Jesus identifies himself like the good Sheperd:
"I am the good Sheperd. The good sheperd lays down his life for the sheep.…I am the good sheperd, I know my own and my own know me, as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep, that are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will heed my voice. So there shall be one flock, one sheperd."(Jn 10,11.14-16).Jesus is a sheperd will lay his life for his sheep. He say it to his friends, when preannounces his Passion: "All you shall be scandalized, as it is written: I'll strike the sheperd and the sheep will be dispersed. But after my resurrection, I will precede to the Galilee>>(Mk 14,27-28).
In the epistle to the Hebrews, Paul clearly affirmes that the
God of the peace: "He has raised from the dead the great sheperd of the
sheep, by his blood of an eternal alliance, our Lord Jesus"(Heb 13.20). "By
his plagues you have been cured - so Peter writes in his first epistle. - You
was wandering like sheep, but now you have come back to the sheperd and keeper
of your souls"(1 Pt 2,25).
In the early christian art, many times Jesus is represented like a young sheperd with a young sheep on the back. An image which remembers the parable of the lost sheep and found again.
TO THE DISCOVERY OF JESUS OF NAZARETH
