The Imagery of a Good Shepherd

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The Imagery of a Good Shepherd

Herb Montgomery | April 24, 2026

If you’d like to listen to this week’s article in podcast version click on the image below:

Our reading this week is from the gospel of John:

“Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.” Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.

So again Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. (John 10:1-10)

Our reading this week contains some of the most well-known imagery for Jesus in the gospels. The image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd is also one of the most powerful metaphors in the Christian tradition, especially when read through the lens of social justice. 

Here in the gospel of John, Jesus Christ describes the good shepherd as one who knows the sheep, calls them by name, leads them to safety, and lays down his life for them. This is not a distant or abstract leadership model. It is relational, protective, and deeply invested in the well-being of the most vulnerable.

In contrast to exploitative systems that prioritize profit, control, or power, the Good Shepherd stands as a critique of unjust leadership. Jesus explicitly contrasts the good shepherd with “hired hands” who abandon the sheep when danger comes. This imagery exposes systems and leaders who neglect marginalized communities when they are most at risk, whether through economic inequality, racial injustice, gender favoritism, LGBTQ exclusion, or environmental destruction. The Good Shepherd does not flee in the face of wolves; instead, he confronts the threat and remains in solidarity with the flock.

This metaphor also emphasizes dignity and recognition. The shepherd “calls his own sheep by name,” suggesting that every individual is known and valued. Movements to make our world a more compassionate just home for everyone also echo this insistence on visibility and humanity, resisting systems that reduce people to statistics, labels, or disposable labor. To follow the Good Shepherd is to affirm that no one is invisible, and no one is beyond care or belonging.

Moreover, the Good Shepherd leads the sheep into abundant life. This abundance is not merely spiritual. It has material implications too. Access to food, safety, healthcare, and community are all part of what it means for people to truly live. In this way, the shepherd’s role aligns with justice work that seeks to create conditions where all can thrive, not just survive.

Also, the Good Shepherd imagery in the gospels forms a community that transcends boundaries: “I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold.” This challenges exclusionary systems and calls for a radical inclusivity that crosses lines we create from our human differences. We are invited to participate in this vision, gathering diverse communities into shared care and mutual responsibility. To embrace Jesus as the Good Shepherd is to reject apathy and complicity in injustice. It is to embody a form of solidarity and community rooted in courage, compassion, and a relentless commitment to the well-being of all.

In our reading this week, though, Jesus is more than the good shepherd. He also declares, “I am the gate,” an image that is both pastoral and political. In the ancient world, a shepherd sometimes lay across the entrance of the sheepfold at night, becoming a living gate and both protector and point of entry. This metaphor speaks not only to spiritual care most often associated with this imagery in a religious context, but also to questions of belonging, access, and safety, concerns that are central to justice in any kind of community.

To say that Jesus is the gate is to say that access to the abundant life John’s Jesus preached flows through a posture of protection, solidarity, and care for the vulnerable. Jesus as gate is not a barrier designed to exclude the marginalized; rather, it is a safeguard against forces that exploit, harm, and dehumanize them. Jesus contrasts himself with thieves and bandits. These are those who “climb in by another way” (John 10:1). These figures can be understood as systems (religious, political, social, economic) and individuals in positions of power that prey on the weak, hoard resources, and deny others humanity. They can also represent unjust structures that maintain inequality while claiming legitimacy.

By identifying himself as the gate, Jesus centers the well-being of the sheep. For the Johannine community out of which this gospel emerged, this metaphor is about the well-being of the community over gatekeeping for the purpose of protecting and preserving of power. The gate exists so that the sheep “may come in and go out and find pasture,” a phrase that evokes freedom, sustenance, and flourishing. This is not mere survival; it is the Gospel of John’s “abundant life.” 

This applies to justice movements today. We can echo this vision as we seek not only to alleviate suffering but to create conditions where all people can thrive, not just a privileged few, and where we work together to create a world that is a compassionate, just, safe home for all.

This image of a gate also brings to mind the subject of access and how it is controlled. Who gets to enter? Who is kept out? Jesus redefines these boundaries by aligning himself with those on the margins. The gate does not serve the powerful; it protects the vulnerable from them. In this way, Jesus subverts systems that use “gates” to exclude, again, whether religious, political, economic, or social.

Moreover, the gate is relational, not institutional. It is not a rigid structure but a living person. This suggests that justice is not achieved merely through policies or systems, but through embodied solidarity. It’s accomplished through people who, like the shepherd, place themselves at the threshold to ensure others are safe and free.

In a world marked by exclusion, injustice and inequity, the image of Jesus as the gate invites communities to reimagine access, protection, and belonging. It calls for the dismantling of harmful barriers and the creation of spaces where all can enter Jesus’ vision for human community, move freely there, and experience the fullness of life.

In the earliest centuries of Christianity, the dominant image of Jesus was not the crucified victim but the Good Shepherd. (For a detailed history of this see Parker and Brock’s Saving Paradise: How Christianity Traded Love of This World for Crucifixion and Empire.) Originally drawn from gospel passages such as our reading this week, early Christian artists echoed this image of shepherd. The shepherd carried a sheep on his shoulders, which symbolized care, protection, and intimate solidarity with the vulnerable. This image reflected a marginal movement shaped by communities living under the shadow of imperial power, where survival depended on mutual care and resistance to systems of domination.

However, as Christianity moved from the margins to the center of power, particularly after Constantine the Great legalized it in the fourth century and it align with the Roman Empire, the dominant imagery of Jesus began to shift. The cross, once a symbol of state terror and execution, became the central emblem of the faith and replaced the image of the Good Shepherd. What had been a sign of imperial violence against dissidents became, paradoxically, a symbol that often supported those imperial structures.

This symbolic shift was not merely artistic but also theological and political. The shepherd image emphasizes care, guidance, and the flourishing of the community, particularly the most vulnerable. It invites us to imitate acts of compassion and justice. By contrast, an overemphasis on the cross, especially when interpreted through frameworks that prioritize passive suffering or divine sanction of violence, becomes  religious imagery that accomplishes its original purpose (terror) with a religious twist. It becomes a subtle communication that this is what the Divine is really like. He may have done this to his son instead of you, but don’t cross him! Or he may cross you, too!  With this change, the cross becomes an instrument of empire used to suppress resistance once again. Now, though, it suppresses resistance using fear of the Divine (often disguised in the language of Divine love) and human institutions define compliance or “obedience.”

As Christianity became intertwined with imperial power, the cross was often reframed to emphasize obedience, sacrifice, and submission. Those in power, both within ecclesiastical and imperial systems, used this interpretation to justify hierarchical systems, discourage dissent, and sanctify suffering rather than challenge its causes. The crucified Jesus, once a victim of injustice, was presented in ways that muted the political reality of his execution and the critique it implied of imperial violence.

Meanwhile, the Good Shepherd image, with its implications of mutual care and its challenge to“the hired hand” who abandons the sheep, receded in prominence. It was less easily co-opted by systems that benefited from inequality and control. A shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep in opposition to predators invites resistance to injustice, not accommodation to it.

In our context today, recovering the image of Jesus as shepherd is a way of reclaiming a vision of faith rooted in solidarity, protection, and the flourishing of all people. It reminds us that the earliest Christian imagination centered not on glorifying suffering but on resisting the forces that cause it and nurturing communities where abundant life, where justice and compassion, are possible. 

Discussion Group Questions

1. Share something that spoke to you from this week’s podcast episode with your discussion group.

2. How does the imagery of Jesus as the Good Shepherd inform your justice work today? Share and discuss with your group.

3. What can you do this week, big or small, to continue setting in motion the work of shaping our world into a safe, compassionate, just home for everyone? 

Thanks for checking in with us, today.

I want to say a special thank you to all of our supporters out there. And if you would like to join them in supporting Renewed Heart Ministries’ work you can do so by going to renewedheartministries.com and clicking donate. 

My latest book Finding Jesus: A Fundamentalist Preacher Discovers the Socio-Political and Economic Teachings of the Gospels is available now on Amazon in paperback, Kindle and also on Audible in audio book format.

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If you’d like to reach us here at Renewed Heart Ministries through email, you can reach us at info@renewedheartministries.com.

Right where you are, keep living in love, choosing compassion, taking action, and working toward justice.

I love each of you dearly,

I’ll see you next week.

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New Episode of The Social Jesus Podcast

A podcast where we talk about the intersection of faith and social justice and what a first century, prophet of the poor from Galilee might have to offer us today in our work of love, compassion and justice. 

This week:

Season 3 Episode 18: The Imagery of a Good Shepherd

John 10:1-10

As Christianity moved from the margins to the center of power, particularly after Constantine the Great legalized it in the fourth century and it align with the Roman Empire, the dominant imagery of Jesus began to shift. The cross, once a symbol of state terror and execution, became the central emblem of the faith and replaced the image of the Good Shepherd. What had been a sign of imperial violence against dissidents became, paradoxically, a symbol that often supported those imperial structures. This symbolic shift was not merely artistic but also theological and political. The shepherd image emphasizes care, guidance, and the flourishing of the community, particularly the most vulnerable. It invites us to imitate acts of compassion and justice. By contrast, an overemphasis on the cross, especially when interpreted through frameworks that prioritize passive suffering or divine sanction of violence, becomes  religious imagery that accomplishes its original purpose (terror) with a religious twist. Recovering the image of Jesus as shepherd is a way of reclaiming a vision of faith rooted in solidarity, protection, and the flourishing of all, espeically those marginalized.

Available on all major podcast carriers and at:

https://the-social-jesus-podcast.simplecast.com/episodes/the-imagery-of-a-good-shepherd

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Finding Jesus: A Fundamentalist Preacher Discovers the Socio-Political & Economic Teachings of the Gospels.

 

by Herb Montgomery

Available now on Amazon!

In Finding Jesus, author Herb Montgomery delves into the profound and often overlooked political dimensions of the gospels. Through meticulous analysis of biblical texts, historical context, and social discourse, this thought-provoking book unveils the gospels’ socio-political, economic teachings as rooted in a profound concern for justice, compassion, and the well-being of the marginalized. The book navigates the intersections between faith and societal justice, presenting a compelling argument for a more socially engaged and transformative Christianity.

Finding Jesus is not just a scholarly exploration; it is a call to action. It challenges readers to reevaluate their understanding of Christianity’s role in public life and to consider how the radical teachings of the gospels can inspire a renewed commitment to justice, equality, and compassion. This book is a must-read for those seeking a deeper understanding of the social implications of Christian faith and a blueprint for building a more just and inclusive society.

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