When I was in seminary, I had the chance to go to the Middle East. While riding in our chartered bus through the West Bank, I looked down in a valley and saw a young boy - he looked to be 9 or 10 - walking along a path with a little group of sheep following him, single-file, down the path. I've learned that this is the typical pattern of Middle Eastern shepherding. The herds tend to be quite small, and the shepherds don't drive the sheep; they call them and the sheep follow after them. Jesus as the Good Shepherd adopts a rather gentle metaphor for leading his people. He calls and walks ahead.
Contemporary Americans often expect more of their leaders. We want forceful leaders, people who take the bull by the horns. And I think that I sometimes let such images shape the way I think Jesus/God should be: powerful, assertive, commanding, etc. But a shepherd simply calls, and his own who hear, follow along behind.
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