There was a man who was born blind. Day after day, he sat while the world zoomed past him. Then one day, he met a man who changed everything for him. Jesus saw him—a man so many in his village probably walked right past without noticing. But Jesus felt compassion for him. He spit on the dirt to make a little mud, then he rubbed the mixture on the man’s eyes. Jesus told the man to go and wash his face, and Scripture says “the man went and washed, and came home seeing.”

The religious leaders—whose sight was sharp enough for them to have seen what happened to the blind man—saw only what threatened them. They accused Jesus of breaking the law for healing on the Sabbath, entirely missing the point. Then Jesus used their accusations to teach a lesson. He said that since these leaders were trying to steal one of His sheep—the man who had been healed and put on a path to worship—they were thieves and robbers.

During the course of John 10, Jesus tells anyone listening that He’s three things: the Good Shepherd, the Gate to the sheepfold, and the sacrificed lamb. He says that His sheep know His voice, which only makes sense considering how much time sheep and a shepherd spend together. They’ve had long, monotonous afternoons searching for shade, and they’ve spent long, scary nights listening to the howls of wolves prowling nearby. They know Him and He knows them.

A Scottish pastor named Douglas MacMillan wrote a book called The Lord Our Shepherd. In the book he tells a story of riding a train with a friend who was a shepherd. The friend had just sold some of his lambs. As they pulled out of the train station, the friend looked out the window and saw a flock of sheep. “Look! There are four of my lambs!” the friend cried. How could he recognize them and from such a distance? The shepherd knew his sheep. What looked indistinguishable and commonplace to others was unique to him.

Jesus comparing us to sheep is not so much to insult our intelligence (even though we often are pretty dumb), as much as it is to highlight our utter dependence on someone stronger and smarter than us. However self-reliant we think we are, we desperately need a shepherd.

Besides the shepherd, Jesus also said He is the gate. A sheep pen would often be constructed of a rock wall with deterrents like thorny vines (Bible times version of barbed wire) along the top. There would be no gate swinging open and closed. The shepherd himself would be the gate. This way, no one could come in to attack, and no one would leave to get lost.

Then Jesus explains his role as the lamb slain for us. John 10:18 says, “No one can take my life from me. I sacrifice it voluntarily. For I have the authority to lay it down when I want to and also to take it up again.” He knows us to the core, and yet He died for us. No one will ever know us more and love us more than Him. He says “You are my sheep. I claim you as my own. Not to get anything from you…in fact, I will become a lamb myself, a lamb sent to earth to be slaughtered as a sacrifice.”

A thousand years before Jesus healed that blind man, David wrote a psalm thanking the Lord for being our Shepherd. David said that our Heavenly Shepherd gives us what we need. He helps us rest and refreshes us. He guides and comforts us. He takes away our fear. He reminds us that we’re chosen royalty. He makes a home for us forever.