BECAUSE Jesus is the good shepherd (John 10) he knows his sheep, and they know him. But this close friendship and trust is a reflection of a similar friendship that exists between himself and God. May we not carry on the figure to him? If he is "the lamb of God", can we not add to the sacrificial aspect of that phrase this thought also, that God is his shepherd, and the twenty-third Psalm is the Lord's expression as well as David's? His trust in and obedience to God's voice is the example for his sheep to trust and obey him. Springing from that knowledge of the Father is his readiness to lay down his life.

JOHN CARTER, The Gospel of John, page 121