Why Jesus Calls His Disciples Sheep

We're talking about reaching out with the Gospel, especially to the current young adult generation that is marked by skepticism and doubts about the validity of the Christian faith. Many such young adults were brought up in the fellowship of the Christian church. Many of us who parented that generation struggle with our own doubts about what we failed to do to support faith in Christ. The Lord Jesus spoke to the skeptics of his day with these words: 

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one." - Jhn 10:27-30 ESV

Let's look carefully at what he says as a commentary upon his mashal or parable of the Good Shepherd (John 10:1-6).

Is there anyone among us with personal experience with sheep? Although I grew up on a farm in southern Minnesota I have zip experience with that particular mammal. So I wonder why Jesus purposely calls his followers sheep. In his Head Heart Hand blog David Murray, who seems to have had at least some such experience, characterizes sheep in this way.

1. Sheep are foolish - they only know how to do one thing well—eat grass. 
2. Sheep are slow to learn - they'll even try to get through a barbed wire fence. 
3. Sheep are unattractive - awkward, dirty, smelly and ugly
4. Sheep are demanding - insatiably demanding food, day and night
5. Sheep are stubborn - don't even think of maneuvering them into a fold
6. Sheep are strong - a running sheep will flatten you
7. Sheep are straying - over cliffs, into bogs, out in the middle of nowhere
8. Sheep are unpredictable - they'll dive right in front of a car
9. Sheep are copycats - if one starts running, well, the rest follow without thinking
10. Sheep are restless - they'll be eating grass at 3 a.m. 
11. Sheep are dependent - they can't live without their shepherd
12. Sheep are the same everywhere - in Asia as in Africa as in America

Wow! As I read that description I began to realize why Jesus called his disciples sheep. Nothing more need be said. 

BUT he also said, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me." 

The voice of God is, was or will be spoken

• by John the Baptist as he declared himself the one sent to prepare the hearts of God's people by calling them to "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matt. 3:2-3). 
• by the heavenly Father on the Mountain of Transfiguration, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased" (Matt. 3:17). 
• by Jesus upon the cross as he said, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!" 
• by the spiritually reborn who hear the sound of the Holy Spirit (John 3:8). 
• by the dead who will hear the voice of the Son of God and live (John 5:28). 

We pastors, teachers, parents and all who guide must ask ourselves day by day these question: Do I speak for Jesus? Do my hearers hear me speaking the voice of God? When I speak do they hear Jesus speaking through me, calling them to renew their thinking, to see the wonder of Jesus, Son of God and the Savior upon the cross? Do they hear God's voice through me to comfort and to guide? Or do they hear another voice, beating, berating and babbling nonsense? Such a voice they surely will not follow.

As foolish, slow, demanding and stubborn as Jesus' sheep are, they do recognize the voice of the Good Shepherd when he speaks—even through under-shepherds such as we may be. 

". . . and they follow me." We sheep who are by nature restless, demanding, dependent and slow to learn, we will follow someone. That should be obvious when we consider all the stupid things we humans do. This is why we must do whatever it takes to teach and proclaim the Word of God.