It's no wonder that the image of the shepherd was so frequently on the lips of our Savior. It's no surprise he used that illustration so often. For the image of a shepherd and the sheep was very much a part of Jesus' heritage and culture. Abraham, the father of the Jewish people, was the keeper of great flocks of sheep. Moses was called by God to be God's deliverer of the ancient Jewish people while living as a shepherd and tending the flocks of his father-in-law. And David, the greatest king of the Jewish nation, was a shepherd boy called from the fields when God selected him for service.

The imagery of the shepherd is deeply rooted in the history and tradition of the Jewish people and imprinted in the literature of the Israelites that Jesus studied. As a good Jewish boy, Jesus would hav…