The Good Shepherd

Tradition has it that Jesus was a carpenter's son.  Of course, He is best known as Son of God, but carpenter's son was another hat he wore.  As a carpenter's oldest boy, He surely learned His way around the wood shop, pulled a few splinters out of His hands, and stood back with appreciation for a completed wood project.  What is interesting is the lack of references to the carpenter's shop.   As One who was prone to earthy parables, it would seem one or two such stories would have entered into a teaching, or a sermon.   

Instead what we hear in His teachings are illustrations which lift up the things of the creation.  He talked about water and bread, light and darkness, planting and animal husbandry.  He even went so far as to speak of Himself as the Good Shepherd.  Of course, in His hometown there was not the separation of town stuff and country stuff.  His was a world where the two constantly intermingled.  He was not a stranger to wood and He was not a stranger to the world of the rural shepherds.   

No doubt Mary and Joseph told Him about the first men who came from their fields to stand in awe at His birth.  And, no doubt, He grew up knowing shepherds and knowing about their work.  But, it is even more likely that He spoke of Himself as the Good Shepherd because the shepherd image was a part of the religious tradition He learned as a boy from Joseph as well as the synagogue.  We remember that tradition most clearly in the 23rd Psalm which begins with the words, "The Lord is my shepherd."   Jesus grew up with it, too, and used it as a window through which we could look and catch a glimpse of His spirit and the over abiding care of the Father God.