“The Good Shepherd”
John 10:1-42
Bob DeGray
March 23, 2003
Key Sentence
No one cares for us like Jesus, and the Father who sent him.
Outline
I. The Shepherd’s Care
a. “He calls his own sheep by name.” (John 10:1-6)
b. “I have come that they may have life.” (John 10:7-10)
c. “I lay down my life for the sheep.” (John 10:11-18)
II. The Shepherd’s Father
a. “My Father, who has given them to me.” (John 10:22-30)
b. “The Father is in me and I in the Father.” (John 10:31-39)
Message
Ahmed Abyyiat, now 64, has been wandering the hills around Bethlehem since the age of seven. His bed is a raised steel platform in an open field. He spends his nights covered in wool blankets, next to the wooden enclosure of his flock. Waking before sunrise, he opens the gate for the sheep and goats and begins searching for grazing areas. This spot, known as the shepherds field has been home for Abyyiat’s family for generations. He has about 100 sheep and some goats. All of them have names and they understand him when he calls out.The people of Israel have been shepherds from the earliest days. Abraham and Isaac and Jacob were shepherds. Moses was a shepherd. King David started out as a shepherd in the hills around Bethlehem and it was there that the birth of Jesus was announced to shepherds. The Judean hills were always dotted with sheepfolds. Shepherds weren’t always respected or admired, but they were always there, providing wool for cloth and animals for sacrifice. Jesus’ hearers, knew well the rhythms and responsibilities of shepherding. So in John 10 Jesus uses the shepherd metaphor as common imagery to make an important point, that no one cares for us like Jesus, and the Father who sent him. Jesus is the Good Shepherd, who cares for his sheep, but he does so in submission to and unity with his Father.
I. The Shepherd’s Care
a. “He calls his own sheep by name.” (John 10:1-6)
In verses 1 to 6 Jesus begins to lay out the metaphors of sheep and shepherding. John 10:1 "I tell you the truth, the man who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. 2The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep. 3The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger's voice." 6Jesus used this figure of speech, but they did not understand what he was telling them.
The metaphor doesn’t begin with sheep and shepherds; it begins with sheep and thieves. If you think about chapter 9, where the Pharisees put the blind man out of the synagogue just because Jesus had healed him, you can see why he begins this way. He’s comparing the leaders of the Jews, not to the shepherds they ought to be but to the criminals they are. He does this by depicting a sheepfold, an enclosure used by several families, with a hired watchman. Those authorized to enter would go through the gate. Those interested in stealing or wounding would avoid the gate and the watchman. The religious leaders of Israel were more like those thieves and robbers who brutalized the sheep than like true shepherds.
The most obvious Old Testament background for this picture is Ezekiel 34. We heard some of it earlier: “Woe to the shepherds of Israel who only take care of themselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock? . . You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally.” Verse 11 “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. . . I will tend them in a good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel will be their grazing land. . . 15I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak. . . . I will place over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he will tend them and be their shepherd.” The leaders of Israel don’t shepherd, so God promises to shepherd his people himself, that is, to send David to shepherd them. Since David had been dead five hundred years when Ezekiel wrote we have to understand this to mean the king like David, the promised Messiah. In other words, Jesus.
The religious leaders who have arrayed themselves against Jesus have been more interested in controlling the sheep than in guiding, nurturing and caring for them. They are not true shepherds. Verses 3 and 4 give us our first glimpse of the care we can expect to receive if Jesus is our shepherd. First we will be called by name and lead out individually. Unlike the modern shepherds of New Zealand who drive their flocks by the thousands from place to place, the Biblical shepherd had a flock that he knew, not just by sight but by name, and he could go to the sheep pen and lead out individual sheep. The loss of one and the rescue of one, the Bible tells us, was of paramount importance to the shepherd. That’s how God behaves toward us - he cares about us by name and calls us to himself one by one. He is not mass producing eternity, but hand crafting you and me to be part of it. So, verse 4 “When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5But they will never follow a stranger.”
One eye-witness account from Palestine tells of a tourist who stood on a ridge, overlooking a long, narrow gorge. Below him, the gorge opened out into rolling, pasture lands. A single trail down the ravine branched into dozens of trails across the valley floor. Several shepherds came down, chatting, followed by a long, winding river of sheep. But at the forks, the shepherds separated, each taking a different path into the grasslands. The mass of sheep divided into smaller flocks, each stringing down the trail behind its own shepherd. After a while each of htem turned to scan behind them for strays. One of the shepherds cupped his hands around his mouth and called in a piercing cry, "Ky_yia_yia_yia." A couple of stray lambs perked up their ears and bounded toward his voice. Then a second shepherd called with a distinctly different sound. A few more strays hurried straight toward him. Another called with a third distinctive sound. Each stray, hearing a familiar voice, knew which shepherd to follow. They didn’t even seem to notice any other voices. This is what Jesus meant when he said, "My sheep hear my voice."
b. “I have come that they may have life.” (John 10:7-10)
John says in verse 6 that familiar as these images were, those listening failed to understand the metaphor or parable or figure of speech. John uses a broad term that can include all these things. I‘d call what Jesus just said and the verses that follow an extended metaphor. In fact it is a metaphor Jesus adapts as he goes along to make various points. First, sheep will follow the voice of one who cares for them, but not that of thieves and robbers. Second, sheep must go in and out through the gate. John 10:7-10 7Therefore Jesus said again, "I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. 8All who ever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. 9I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture. 10The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
No one cares for us like Jesus. That’s evident in these verses, this often overlooked ‘I am’: “I am the gate for the sheep”. In verses 1 to 5 Jesus was the shepherd. Here he’s the gate, just as in John 14:6 he is ‘the way’. In fact it is common for Jesus to be two or more things at once in the world of metaphors. For example, he is both the sacrifice for sin and the high priest that offers the sacrifice. So it’s okay for him to be both the shepherd and the gate for the sheep. In fact a shepherd would often sleep in the gate to protect his flock at night: he would be the gate for the sheep. It is only through the gate that sheep safely gain access to the sheepfold or the pasture.
In verse 8 Jesus again contrasts himself with those who don’t really care for the sheep: “All who ever came before me were thieves and robbers.” Thieves and robbers come with selfish motives and brutal tactics to ravage the flock, but the gate is the source of security and plenty for the sheep. ‘Those who came before’ may include the unfaithful shepherds of Ezekiel 34, that is the Pharisees, but could also include false Messiahs who had come and led people into war, suffering or slavery. The Pharisee Gamaliel gives examples in Acts 5 shortly after Jesus’ resurrection: “Some time ago Theudas appeared, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men rallied to him. He was killed, all his followers were dispersed, and it all came to nothing. After him, Judas the Galilean appeared in the days of the census and led a band of people in revolt. He too was killed, and all his followers were scattered.” These false messiahs came as thieves and robbers and scattered the sheep.
Verses 9 and 10 paint a contrasting picture of the care Jesus gives to his flock: “I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture.” Jesus, the gate, is the sole means by which sheep may enter the safety of the fold or the provision of the pasture. He’s the only way to be saved, which is the same word used for the salvation of our souls, though it can mean physical rescue or healing. Here the physical salvation of the sheep in the metaphor – salvation from danger, starvation and abuse, translates in the real world into the salvation of our souls. Jesus is the gate to eternal life, freedom from sin, cleansing and purity. When we enter the sheepfold, the kingdom, through him we are saved.
Verse 10: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” This is one of the great promises of Scripture. Jesus doesn’t simply say that he comes to give us life, but to give us abundant life. Within the metaphor, life to the full suggests fat, flourishing, contented sheep, not terrorized by thieves or wild animals. Outside the metaphor it suggests ‘eternal life’, the life of the age to come which Jesus has promised, a life which he calls ‘abundant’. Sometimes we have the idea that in becoming Christians we have given up the abundance we might have had in the world for a poverty God wants us to experience. In terms of worldly goods that could be true, but only because the abundance he gives is better than the abundance we gain from the world. If we have the idea that the Christian life involves poverty of spirit and continuous hardship and blessings that are merely trials and discouragements and losses and failures, we’ve forgotten to read this verse. He gives us real abundance. In the words of Psalm 23, it is green pastures, overflowing cups, goodness and mercy.
Thoreau wrote that “the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. A stereotyped but unconscious despair is concealed under what are called the games and amusements of mankind.” He said “Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.” The good news you and I have from Jesus is that we need no longer live in quiet desperation: we can sing the song he created us for. Do we believe that? Do we really think that the abundance he offers our souls is true abundance, more satisfying, more blessed than anything life offers, more significant than anything? I confess that often in the busyness of life and the discouragements of life and the realities of life I lose this promise. But does that make it untrue? No! “The Lord is my Shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul.” Jesus says “I have come that you may have life and have it to the full.”
c. “I lay down my life for the sheep.” (John 10:11-18)
He is the gate of the sheep and offers us abundance because he is also the Good Shepherd who cares for us by laying down his life. Verses 11 to 18: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12The hired hand is not the shepherd who owns the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. 13The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. 14I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me-- 15just as the Father knows me and I know the Father--and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. 17The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life--only to take it up again. 18No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”
Sheep need a shepherd. The pasture and the sheepfold are worthless without a shepherd to guide and guard. Jesus says “I am the good shepherd.” The word translated ‘good’ could also be translated ‘noble’ or ‘worthy’. Thus the worthy shepherd is contrasted with all those who have gone before, all those who are thieves or robbers and the heart of the contrast is that this shepherd lays down his life for his sheep. In the metaphor of shepherding this may mean only that a shepherd is willing to risk his life for the sheep, by beating back a bear or foiling a thief. But shepherds didn’t become shepherds so they could die this way. Jesus is stretching the metaphor to include the reality his sacrifice. He doesn’t merely risk his life, he lays it down, in line with the Father’s will. The preposition, ‘for’ the sheep, has a sacrificial sense each of the seven times it’s used in John. For example, John 6:51, “This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” His death isn’t merely a good example, as if a shepherd were to throw himself off a cliff yelling ‘see how much I love you.” No, the assumption is that the sheep are in mortal danger; in their defense the shepherd voluntarily lays down his life; by his death they are saved.
Such sacrifice is contrasted in verse 12 with those who have no real commitment to the sheep: “The hired hand is not the shepherd who owns the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. 13The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.” Here is a pseudo shepherd committed to his own well being. When there is danger to his own skin, or in the case of religious leaders, to position or prosperity, the sheep are abandoned. Gail saw in a commentary that a hired hand was expected to defend the sheep from one wolf, but could flee if two wolves attacked. But Jesus did not flee though all the wolves gathered against him.
His sacrifice is too great to simply be for the sheep of Israel. Verse 16 “I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.” Praise God that in his perfect plan, salvation was not limited to the Jews. Most of us here are thoroughly Gentile in ethnic background, but the Father loved us so much that he allowed us to hear his Son’s voice. Jesus’ ministry was to the Jews, but his salvation was for all, every tribe and tongue and people. He cares and sacrifices himself for us as sheep who desperately need rescue, and he cares for those around us the same way.
He sacrificed himself for us and rose again. “The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life--only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.” Jesus is not saying that God loves him just because of his sacrifice, but that the Father looks on that sacrifice like any proud parent and is well pleased, overflowing with love because the Son gives his life of his own accord. It is his free choice, the only choice the Father has entirely given to the Son. Every place else this word is used in this Gospel, Jesus denies that he does things at his own initiative. Here alone, in his sacrificial death, is a decision entirely his own.
But even this unrepeatable decision is not the last word. A merely dead shepherd would do us no good: Jesus lays down his life to take it up again. Without the resurrection Jesus couldn’t care for his sheep, but being raised from the dead he can be the Good Shepherd and keep the promises he made to those who believe. He has the authority both to give his life and to rise again, because in this his Father’s plan is fulfilled.
II. The Shepherd’s Father
a. “My Father, who has given them to me.” (John 10:22-30)
We’ve seen how the shepherd cares for his sheep, and we’ve begun to see that his care is intimately tied to his relationship to his Father. In the last half of the chapter, which we’ll have to breeze through, we learn more about that relationship. John 10:19-31: At these words the Jews were again divided. 20Many of them said, "He is demon-possessed and raving mad. Why listen to him?" 21But others said, "These are not the sayings of a man possessed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?" 22Then came the Feast of Dedication at Jerusalem. It was winter, 23and Jesus was in the temple area walking in Solomon's Colonnade. 24The Jews gathered around him, saying, "How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly." 25Jesus answered, "I did tell you, but you do not believe. The miracles I do in my Father's name speak for me, 26but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. 27My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. 29My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand. 30I and the Father are one."
Switching to the shepherd metaphor doesn’t solve Jesus’ public relations problem. Some say that in claiming to be sent by his Father, to lay down his life, Jesus has lost it, and is either raving mad, demon possessed, or both. So the stalemate between those who believe and those who intend to kill him continues in full voice right up to the winter feast of Dedication. This feast, also called Hanukkah grows out of God’s provision for the Jews when they rebelled against the Greeks in 167 BC, especially his provision of oil for the temple lights. It is a celebration of light and joy. Because it was winter, Jesus chose to teach in the shelter of Solomon’s colonnades.
There the Jews pressure him to say plainly whether he is the Christ, the Messiah. He has not said this in public, though he did admit it, for example, to the woman at the well. Nonetheless, the weight of his words and acts were a clear claim, which is why he can say “I did tell you.” But the leaders of the Jews simply don’t believe. Why? Jesus already said that his sheep hear his voice and follow him, but those who are not his sheep neither hear nor follow nor believe. So they miss what those who follow gain, eternal life and eternal security. Verse 28: “they shall never perish and no one can snatch them out of my hand.” Jesus cares for his own, but he does it in dependence on the Father. No one can snatch his sheep from his hands, but he’s not the only one holding to them: “My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand.” This is how he cares for us: no sheep could ask for greater security. We are safe in his hands.
The identification of Jesus with the Father, however, goes much deeper than mere unity of purpose and action. Jesus gets himself into trouble one more time by explaining the underlying unity: “I and the Father are one.” By ‘one’ he means something more than unity of purpose, like a military unit should have going into combat. Neither is he claiming complete and total identity with God, which is what the Jews think. He and the Father are not one person, with no separate identity, but they are one in essence and one in eternity, as shown in John 1, ‘the word was with God and the word was God’, and as shown in John 8, ‘before Abraham was I am.’
b. “The Father is in me and I in the Father.” (John 10:31-39)
There must have been a lot of stones in Jerusalem. The Jews again find a ready supply to respond to what they think is Jesus’ latest blasphemy. Verses 31 to 42: Again the Jews picked up stones to stone him, 32but Jesus said, "I have shown you many great miracles from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?" 33"We are not stoning you for any of these," replied the Jews, "but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God." 34Jesus answered them, "Is it not written in your Law, 'I have said you are gods'? 35If he called them 'gods,' to whom the word of God came--and the Scripture cannot be broken-- 36what about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, 'I am God's Son'? 37Do not believe me unless I do what my Father does. 38But if I do it, even though you do not believe me, believe the miracles, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father." 39Again they tried to seize him, but he escaped their grasp. 40Then Jesus went back across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing in the early days. Here he stayed 41and many people came to him. They said, "Though John never performed a miraculous sign, all that John said about this man was true." 42And in that place many believed in Jesus.
Up to this point Jesus hasn’t stayed around when threatened, but this time he deflects the crowd by asking ‘for which of my works are you stoning me?’ The crowd takes the bait: “We don’t stone for good works, we’re stoning you because of blasphemy.” So Jesus responds to the charge of blasphemy. He quotes from Psalm 82: "Is it not written in your Law, 'I have said you are gods'? 35If he called them 'gods,' to whom the word of God came--and the Scripture cannot be broken-- 36what about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, 'I am God's Son'?”
On first hearing this sounds like Jesus is playing with Scripture, taking advantage of an incidental or symbolic occurrence of the word ‘gods’ to sidestep a more serious claim of his own. But if you look at the Psalm he’s quoting, you find it is itself an indictment of the religious leaders or judges of Israel. They represent God in judging and leading the nation, so they function as God, just as the Scripture says Moses was ‘as God’ to Aaron and to Pharaoh. It is in this context that God calls them gods, elohim, which is usually translated ‘gods’ but occasionally ‘rulers’.
So Jesus is pointing this indictment at his judges, saying ‘if God calls you gods, who misuse the bit of authority he’s given you, surely there’s no problem calling me the son of God, since I’m the one he’s set apart and sent into the world.’ He’s arguing from the lesser to the greater. He goes on to say ‘test me’; “Do not believe me unless I do what my Father does”; ‘If you can’t believe my words, at least believe the miracles, as long as you see that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.’
They don’t see it. That last phrase sets them off again: they try to seize him, but he escapes their grasp. This time things have gone far enough that he leaves Jerusalem. It’s not yet time to die, so he crosses the Jordan and goes to a place where John had baptized. There he has a very fruitful ministry. People who followed John recognize that though John never did miracles, he was prophetic in what he said about Jesus - every bit of it was true. Unlike the Jews of Jerusalem, they believe and are saved.
What have we seen? In the last half of the chapter we’ve seen that even as shepherd, Jesus is only doing his Father’s will, choosing whom his Father chooses, because he and the Father are one. No one can snatch the sheep they care for from their hands. Earlier we saw the contrast between the Good Shepherd and the shepherds who were in authority in Israel, thieves and hired hands who didn’t show a shepherd’s care. I read about a tour guide in Israel who was reeling off this spiel about good shepherds, who don't drive the sheep, they lead them, etc., when he realized he’d lost his audience. They were pointing out the bus window at a man chasing a herd of sheep, siccing the dog on them, throwing rocks at them. "The sheep_driving man in the field," lamented Ahim, "torpedoed my whole fascinating story, metaphor and all." At that point Ahim jumped off the bus and accosted the man. "Do you understand what you have done? I was spinning this charming story about the gentle ways of shepherds and here you are hazing and assaulting these sheep! What is going on?" The man looked bewildered, but then the light dawned: "You've got me all wrong,” he said, “I'm not the shepherd. I'm the butcher!” Shepherds care for the flock. Butchers consume it. We need to be shepherds like the Good Shepherd.
In fact the main thing to get this morning is the truth about the Good Shepherd, that no one cares for us like Jesus. The shepherd image is just a metaphor. It’s a rich Biblical metaphor, but the reality is even better. The shepherd calls his sheep by name; Jesus loves you and knows you by name, he leads you individually. The shepherd is the gate for the sheep; Jesus is the gate to salvation and our only way to eternal life. The shepherd provides abundance for his flock; Jesus provides us abundance, an overflow of nourishment, rest and care for our souls. The shepherd is willing to die for his sheep; Jesus lays down his life for us. His death on the cross is no metaphor but a stark reality, the awful payment for our sins. And it doesn’t end with sacrifice. He also takes up his life again in resurrection, that he might be the good shepherd to the sheep of many folds. His resurrection is no metaphor. He’s alive. He cares for you like no one else. You can live abundantly under his care.
You pray for me, that I’ll live in that abundance. And I’ll pray it for you. Let’s close by reciting together in faith the 23rd Psalm. Stand and read with me:
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul.
He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil, for you are with me;
your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.