“The good shepherd layeth down his life for the sheep.

“The good shepherd layeth down his life for the sheep.  He that is a hireling, and not a shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, heholdeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth, and the wolf snatcheth them and scattereth them: he fleeth because he is a hireling, and careth not for the sheep.” {28}

26. In the strictest sense, he alone is the shepherd; and yet, as he alone is Christ but nevertheless calls us by the same name—Christians—even so, though he alone is the shepherd, he designates all those who exercise the office of the ministry among Christians by that name also.  In like manner in Matthew 23.9 he forbids us to call any man on earth father, for one is our father, even he who is in heaven, yet Paul calls himself a father of the Corinthians when he says: “I begat you through the Gospel.” 1 Cor. 4.15.  Thus God acts as though he alone would be our father, and yet he attributes the name to men also, so that they are called fathers.  But they have no right to this name in themselves; only in Christ is it theirs: even as we are called Christians though we have nothing of our own, but all we have has been given to us, in him.  Now, “the hireling,” says he, “whose own the sheep are not, beholdeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth,” etc.  That is a hard saying, indeed, that some who truly preach and administer the Gospel and strengthen and heal the sheep, finally allow themselves to be carried away and leave the sheep when they are most in need of help.  As long as no wolf is in sight, they are active and tend the sheep; but when they see the wolf breaking in, they forsake the sheep.  If the sheep have been well kept, till they are strong and healthy and fat, they will then be all the more acceptable to the wolf, for whom they have been kept.

27. How does that happen?  Well, says Christ, in my kingdom, whose whole object is to strengthen the weak, heal the sick, comfort the sorrowing, and so forth, the holy cross [affliction, suffering, and persecution] will not be wanting.  For, if we preach that Christ alone must receive, strengthen, heal, and help us poor sheep, and that we cannot, by our own strength and works, help ourselves, and that, therefore, all works and whatever else the world pretends to offer in its many religious services are of no avail, the world cannot abide such preaching.  Hence, it is but natural that the Gospel should bring with it the holy cross, and that they who confess it before the world should risk their necks in so doing. {29}

28. Because this is so, the good shepherds are thus distinguished from the hirelings.  Whoever is a hireling will preach the Gospel only so long as they say of him that he is a learned, pious, and good man; but when he is attacked, and men begin to denounce him as a heretic and a knave, and challenge him to a dispute, he recants or runs away, and abandons the poor sheep in their distress, and things are in a worse state than they were before.  For what advantage has it been to the poor sheep that they had once been well kept?  Had the shepherds been faithful, they would have sacrificed their bodies and lives for the sake of the sheep, and would have given their necks to the executioner for the Gospel’s sake.  Accordingly, they are never true shepherds who, in preaching, have their own popularity, profit, and advantage in view.  They are surely hirelings; for they seek their own advantage, even when they dispense the true doctrine and Word of God.  Therefore they continue only as long as they are honoured and praised.  Hence they retract, and deny the Word, when the wolf comes, or flee and leave the sheep in the lurch.  The sheep bleat for pasture and for the shepherd to protect them from the wolves, but there is no one to succour them; thus they are deserted when they most need some one to help them.

29. Such will be the result when men once begin to lay hands on and persecute us in earnest.  There will be preachers who will hold their tongues and flee, and the sheep will be pitiably scattered, the one running here and the other there.  God grant that there may be at least some who will stand firm and risk their lives to rescue the sheep.  Thus Christ has here portrayed the hireling.  He then proceeds:

“I am the good shepherd; and I know mine own.”

30. There is a great deal contained in these words, far too much to be exhaustively treated here.  He speaks here of his own peculiar calling.  “I know mine own,” he says, “and mine own know me.”  How is this to be understood?  That he explains further when he says:

“Even as the Father knoweth me, and I know the Father.” {30}