NOTES for Joh 10:11
Since antiquity the Israelis were engaged in animal husbandry, raising in particular sheep in the first place. That's probably why it is so much spoken about shepherds and sheep in the Bible, and God often uses the realities of the pastoral way of life as images indicating the relation between Him and people. Jesus acts the same way in His sermon. These images are maybe not so clear to us today, as they were to people, who listened to Jesus 20 centuries ago: most of us know sheep only because they give wool and meat, and generally - white, downy and harmless. Thereafter, the fact that the shepherd takes care of them seems something not special for us: firstly, they are so nice, and secondly, he needs them indeed for his own purpose!
It is not actually like that. People knowing the reality will say that sheep are dirty, stupid and nasty animals, and to love them is natural in no way. And the attempt to explain that the good shepherd takes care of the sheep by interest, looking forward to the future dividends (the wool and the meat), comes to nothing with his self-sacrifice: if he gives his life for the sheep, then he already can receive nothing from them! Thus, there is here another motivation for the shepherd – unselfish love towards the sheep and the fulfillment of the will of the owner of the sheep. So this image used by Jesus adds certain new paints, allowing to see the relation of Christ towards us and His service to us in a new light.