John, in his Gospel, borrows the beautiful image of God that permeates the Scriptures: God is our shepherd. And that image may be the most common symbolic image reproduced through the Christian era. From mosaics in the second-century catacomb resting places of those first Christians in Rome to magnificent stained-glass windows in hundreds of 20th-century church buildings from Europe to Australia, the shepherd shows himself ready to protect and feed.
When Jesus applies that image to himself, in John 10, he pictures the absolute devotion the shepherd maintains in every circumstance. His whole existence is given to keeping the sheep well fed, well watered, and safe from any creature that would prey on them. He would willingly give up his life to keep the sheep alive!
Yet, of all the images imagined and painted of “The Good Shepherd,” not a single artist pictures him hanging on a cross, holding a helpless (and bloodied) lamb, with a flock of faithful sheep grazing on the hillside below, safe within the view of the shepherd.