The image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd was the most beloved image of Jesus in the early church. The very earliest depiction's of Jesus that we have from the art of the Christian underground in the catacombs of Rome are of Jesus as the Good Shepherd. The image of Jesus as Good Shepherd is very vivid for me because I know something about real sheep and real shepherds. In the early days of my ordained ministry I supported my work with a rural mission by farming and with my wife we had the largest commercial sheep operation in Northern New England. The image of Jesus as Good Shepherd is an image that is overflowing with the most tender love and compassion and which should touch us to the quick but the depth of the love which is in this saying is often obscured by sentimentalism.
Sentimentalism is to the depths of emotion what cute is to real art.
Then we quickly move on. It does not shake the foundations of our lives. The sentimental does not bring us to that deep self-awareness that the Bible calls repentance. The sentimental does not initiate the stirring of a new life in us. There is nothing lasting or permanent about it.