"11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13 He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. 17 For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”"
John 10:11-18
Commentators say that in Eastern countries shepherds give their sheep names; they know them as well as that. And just as a sheep will know its own lamb's bleat, in a whole field of animals, so also in this sense Jesus can say that He knows His sheep. He recognises our 'bleat', and is swift to come to our succour. It is significant to discover that frequently in the gospel narratives where Christ saw men as sheep without a shepherd it also speaks of His compassion. This is particularly and essentially His shepherd work, and we see it in such passages as Mark 1:41, 5:19; Matthew 20:34; Luke 7:13. 'He makes the wounded spirit whole, and calms the troubled breast'. Moved with compassion, He healed the sick (Matthew 14:14), fed the multitude (Matthew 15:32) and taught many things (Mark 6:34). In the parables He told, speaking of Himself, it was His compassion that forgave sin (Matthew 18:27), bound up the wounded (Luke 10:33), welcomed the prodigal home (Luke 15:24. And it was when He was moved with compassion (Matthew 9:36) that He sent out His disciples to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Still He is the same today; still He bids us forth with messages of grace and compassion, to tell men of the good Shepherd who gave His life for the sheep. It is interesting to learn that the word translated 'good' in 11 is not the usual Greek word, but one which literally means 'beautiful'. It is the attractiveness of the goodness that is emphasised and particularly in relation to the death that Jesus died. Later, Jesus was to say concerning that death, ‘if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me' (12:32). The word 'good' here therefore expresses this power of attraction. This is why, in a way we can never fully understand, when Christ crucified is proclaimed, men are somehow drawn to Him. The word of the cross is the (drawing) power of God.