by Don Williams

Introduction

It has been pointed out, by whom I’m not sure, perhaps Jaraslov Pelekin, that the calling and role of pastor is unique to the Christian faith. All the world religions have their teachers. Many have prophets, sages and wise men. The disciple/discipled relationship is not unique to Christianity, but the pastor is. How can we understand this?

Background

A pastor is a shepherd. This basic role appears across the Ancient Near East after the domestication of sheep. Unlike cattle, they must be tended and protected on a daily basis. They are valuable for meat and wool, but vulnerable to wild animals, poachers, and straying. Once they were domesticated and herded into flocks, the shepherd’s role became necessary.

The picture of a shepherd with his sheep was easily adopted by rulers. They were looked upon as the shepherds of their people. They were responsible to feed them, bind their wounds, protect them and thus benefit from them. Psalm 23 gives us a picture of the ideal shepherd. His sheep do not “want.” They “fear no evil.” They have a good shepherd who rests, refreshes and restores them. He protects them from their enemies with his rod and from themselves with his staff.

In Ezekiel 34 God speaks judgments against the evil shepherds, the leaders of his people. Why? They have shurked their responsibilities. They are to take care of the flock, but they only take care of themselves (v.2). The Lord says, “You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost.” Unlike good shepherds, “You have ruled them harshly and brutally” (v.4) The result is that the sheep have been scattered [exile] “because there was no shepherd.” They were scattered over the whole earth, “and no one searched or looked for them.” (v.6) As a result, God judges the shepherds, the rulers of Israel. He holds them accountable for the flock (v.10).

Yahweh now becomes the true shepherd: “I myself will search for my sheep and look after them.” “I will rescue them.” “I will bring them out from the nations…into their own land.” (v.13) “I will pasture them.” (v.13) “I will tend them.” (v.14) They will eat and rest. (v.14) Yahweh will do directly what the leaders of Israel have failed to do: “I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak…” (v.16)

Next, Yahweh judges between the fat and the lean sheep. Now it is not just the shepherds who are faithless, it is the fat sheep who oppress the weak. (v.20-21) Here is probably a reference to the landed aristocracy. Now the whole passage becomes eschatological: “I will place over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he will tend them; he will tend them and be their shepherd.” (v.23) Yahweh will be God and David will be “prince among them.” (v.24)

Not only will the evil rulers be destroyed and the exiles returned, with David shepherding his people, God will also restore the land, driving away the wild animals and making the soil fruitful again, sending the rains (v.25-29).

Since Yahweh is King over Israel, he is the ultimate Shepherd: “You are my sheep, the sheep of my pasture, are people, and I am your God, declares the Sovereign Lord.” (v.31) this sets us up for the New Testament where Jesus is the Good Shepherd (John 10), the ideal Davidic king. But beyond being King, he is the good shepherd because he lays down his life for the sheep. This is his ultimate means of caring for them with forgiveness and restoration. Hebrews speaks of God who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, “that great Shepherd of the sheep.” (Hebrews 13:20). No wonder the shepherd with his sheep was painted on the walls of the catacombs, one of the earliest symbols for Jesus in the emerging church.

In sum, from the Old Testament, based upon the ancient economy of shepherding, emerges another image for God and the ideal king or Messiah. It is no surprise that David was a shepherd and is the shepherd king. It is also no surprise that Psalm 23 paints God as the shepherd of David and of his people Israel.

One footnote. While shepherding was a despised occupation in the first century, New Testament thought moves not from this cultural fact, but from the Royal ideology, the King is the shepherd to his people. Good earthly shepherds reflect this as they care for God’s sheep.