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When Jesus started talking about being a good shepherd over the sheep, people didn’t know what He was talking about, despite Ezekiel’s prophecies about this very thing:
Ezekiel 34:23-24 And I will set over them one shepherd, my servant David. He will feed them and be a shepherd to them.
So Jesus explained it in more detail, in claiming He was indeed this shepherd. And although he didn’t reference Ezekiel by name, any educated Jew who was listening would have had to have know what He was claiming in this:
John 10:7I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. … Yes, I am the gate. Those who come in through me will be saved. They will come and go freely and will find good pastures. … My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.
In Psalm 23, David made this observation:
Psalm 23:1-3 The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul. He leads me in right paths for his name’s sake.
Jesus had already described this good shepherd as one the people (sheep) would follow because they knew him:
John 10:3-4 He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. After he has gathered his own flock, he walks ahead of them, and they follow him because they know his voice.
And the extent to which the shepherd would guard this flock and gather others who were not currently in the sheepfold (possibly Gentiles as well as Jews), just as Ezekiel had said would happen (even if Ezekiel focused only on Jews):
John 10:14-16 I am the good shepherd; I know my own sheep, and they know me, just as my Father knows me and I know the Father. So I sacrifice my life for the sheep. I have other sheep, too, that are not in this sheepfold. I must bring them also. They will listen to my voice, and there will be one flock with one shepherd.
This all transforms a cute children’s bible story into an extraordinary messianic claim that would have had to enrage the already angry religious leaders even more than they already were.
That Bible blog 