Who's the Good Shepherd?

On Sunday our readings included the 23rd Psalm and John 10 - I am the Good Shepherd. I had some other things I was preaching but this image of Jesus as Good Shepherd is one that is particularly powerful when we consider the kind of claims He made for Himself.

In Ezekiel 34 God says:
"For thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. ¹²As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. ¹³And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land. And I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the ravines, and in all the inhabited places of the country. ¹⁴ I will feed them with good pasture, and on the mountain heights of Israel shall be their grazing land. There they shall lie down in good grazing land, and on rich pasture they shall feed on the mountains of Israel. ¹⁵ I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord GOD. ¹⁶ I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them in justice.

Does all that sound familiar? These are the kinds of things Jesus says about his ministry. Do you think maybe when He said these things the people who heard them knew how radical His claims were to equality with God? These are incredibly clear comparisons. Ezekiel uses many of the same images here that David used in the Psalm and Jesus then picked them up and said He was here to do those things. Let's be clear, He knew what He was saying, there was only one Good Shepherd and it was Yahweh.