☰ John 10
10
Jesus the Shepherd
A true shepherd
1 “Most assuredly I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. 2 But he who enters by the door is a shepherd* of the sheep. 3 To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 And whenever he takes out his own sheep he goes ahead of them,† and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 But they will not follow a stranger; rather they will run away from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers.” 6 Jesus gave them this illustration, but they did not understand what He was telling them.
The Door
7 Then Jesus addressed them again: “Most assuredly I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. 8 All who ever came before me are thieves and robbers,‡ but the sheep did not listen to them.§ 9 I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved,* and will go in and out and find pasture.† 10 The thief comes only in order to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.‡ I have come so that they may have life, and have it abundantly.
The Good Shepherd
11 “I am the good shepherd.§ The good shepherd lays down his life on behalf of the sheep. 12 But the hired man, not being the shepherd and not owning the sheep, sees the wolf coming and abandons the sheep, and runs away; and the wolf snatches the sheep and scatters them. 13 Now the hired man runs away because he is a hired man and it does not matter to him about the sheep.
14 “I am the good shepherd, and I know my own sheep, and I am known by them. 15 Just as the Father knows me, I also know the Father, and I lay down my life on behalf of the sheep. 16 I also have other sheep, that are not of this fold;* I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice; and there will be one flock, one shepherd.
17 “Because of this the Father loves me, in that I lay down my life so that I may take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of myself.† I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This command I have received from my Father.”‡
19 Therefore there was another division among the Jews because of these words. 20 Many of them were saying: “He has a demon and is raving mad. Why do you listen to him?” 21 Others were saying: “These are not the sayings of someone who is demonized. A demon cannot open blind people's eyes, can it?”§
“My sheep hear my voice”
22 Now it was the Feast of Dedication in Jerusalem;* and it was winter. 23 And Jesus was walking about in the temple,† in Solomon's porch. 24 Then the Jews surrounded Him and said to Him: “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” 25 Jesus answered them: “I did tell you, and you do not believe.‡ The works that I do in my Father's name—these testify concerning me. 26 But you do not believe because you are not among my sheep, just like I told you.§ 27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 And I give them eternal life, and they will never ever be wasted; and no one will snatch them out of my hand.* 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all;† and no one is able to snatch out of my Father's hand. 30 I and the Father are one.”
31 Therefore the Jews picked up stones‡ again to stone Him. 32 Jesus answered them: “Many good works I have shown you from my Father. For which one of them are you stoning me?” 33 The Jews answered Him saying, “It is not for a good work that we are stoning you, but for blasphemy; precisely because you, being a man, make yourself God!” 34 Jesus answered them: “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, you are gods’?§ 35 If He called them ‘gods’ to whom the Word of God came—and the Scripture cannot be broken*— 36 do you say ‘You are blaspheming’ to the One the Father sanctified and sent into the world because I said, ‘I am God's Son’? 37 If I am not doing the works of my Father, do not believe me. 38 But if I am doing them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may know and believe that the Father is in me, and I in Him.”†
39 So they tried again to seize Him, but He escaped from their hand.‡
The last three months
40 He went away again across the Jordan, to the place where John was baptizing at first; and He remained there. 41 And many came to Him and said, “Though John did not perform any sign, everything John said about this man was true.” 42 And many of the people there believed into Him.§
* 10:2 “A shepherd”—the fold was communal, so the sheep belonged to a variety of shepherds. That is why each one had to call his own sheep by name (verse 3). The doorkeeper would know all the shepherds. † 10:4 He ‘leads’, not ‘drives’. Going out they need to be led; only the shepherd knows where they are going. ‡ 10:8 Although some 50% of the Greek manuscripts (also the three ancient versions) omit “before me”, we are virtually obliged to understand this, in any case, since presumably Jesus means pretending to be the Messiah. Gamaliel refers to two possible candidates in Acts 5:36-37. § 10:8 Any true servants of God, such as Simeon and Anna (Luke 2:25-38), would not be taken in by an imposter. * 10:9 Jesus is the doorway, the only means of access into eternal life, a truth He will emphasize again in John 14:6. † 10:9 What does a sheep want? Protection and pasture. These Jesus offers, but since people are more complex than sheep, He offers abundant life. ‡ 10:10 The original thief is Satan. “The thief comes” VS “I have come”—since Jesus contrasts “the thief” with Himself, that thief is presumably Satan. Jesus calls him a murderer and a liar in John 8:44. A thief is usually a liar as well, and vice versa. § 10:11 Here Jesus changes the figure—as the good shepherd He really cares about the sheep, to the point of dying for them. * 10:16 “This fold” presumably refers to Israel, so the “other sheep” would be Gentiles. Paul develops this theme in Ephesians 2:11-22. † 10:18 This is important! The cross did not kill Jesus; He dismissed His spirit—see John 19:30 and Matthew 27:50. In Mark 15:39 the loud shout followed immediately by death convinced the centurion. He had seen many crucifixions and was doubtless hardened to it. He knew that a person on a cross dies from asphyxiation. The weight of the body pushes the diaphragm against the lungs and you cannot breathe. Nailing the feet was a sadistic procedure that prolonged the agony—rather than die they would push against the nail to get a breath. Finally, when too weak to do that they would die for lack of air. (That is why they broke the legs of the two thieves; they then died within a few minutes.) Obviously, if you are dying without air you cannot shout! The centurion knew that the cross had not killed Jesus. But what mere human can just tell his spirit to leave? 2 + 2 = 4. Jesus had to be the Son of God. ‡ 10:18 The whole procedure was part of the Plan. An ordinary human being can kill himself, all right, but cannot change his mind later and come back. To Jesus the Father gave the ability to reunite spirit and body—presumably a unique occurrence. § 10:21 So they thought, but on the basis of what happens in Spiritist and Satanist circles, it appears that if a demon causes blindness (which they can), the same or a stronger one can remove it. * 10:22 Chapter 8 happened on Oct. 18, 29 (I think). Chapter 9 and 10:1-21 presumably happened shortly after. Here in 10:22 it is Dec. 17, 29—two months later. I suppose that Luke 10:1-14:24 occurred during those two months; which means that the seventy were sent out during the last six months of the Lord's earthly ministry. Their target was interior Judea, in contrast to the twelve, whose target was Galilee. † 10:23 It was probably cold and He was walking to stay warm. ‡ 10:25 Quite right. Their ‘suspense’ was pretended; they simply did not want to acknowledge Him. So they twist and squirm. § 10:26 When was that? Probably two months before, as recorded earlier in this chapter. * 10:28 Being snatched is one thing; jumping out is another. You can't ‘snatch’ yourself, it must be done by an outside force, and no such force is greater than God. But, if you don't want to go to Heaven, you won't. Jesus puts it very plainly in John 15:6, “If anyone does not abide in me, he is cast out as a branch…” ‘Abiding’ is up to us; we are not forced to do it. If we choose not to, we are out. † 10:29 About 0.5% of the Greek manuscripts (with variations), of objectively inferior quality, read “What my Father has given me is greater than all” (as in TEV, etc.). ‡ 10:31 The temple courts were paved and presumably swept with some regularity. So how come there were stones lying around? I imagine there were piles of stones, of the right size and strategically placed, precisely for moments like this one. (If stoning serious offenders is an obligation, you need to be prepared.) § 10:34 The reference is to Psalm 82:6, where the speaker is God (verse 1). Jesus calls the Psalms ‘law’. * 10:35 The Lord inserts this as an aside, but it is an important statement in itself—Scripture cannot be broken. If we build our lives on God's Word we have a secure foundation, one that cannot be shaken. (Your faith in that Word may be shaken, but not the Word itself.) † 10:38 The Lord is still appealing to them to repent, to change direction. ‡ 10:39 See John 8:59 and Luke 4:30, where Jesus used supernatural means to avoid a premature death. Presumably this is a third instance. § 10:42 We are back in Bithabara (see John 1:28). Although people came to John from all over, presumably the local residents, because of the convenience, would have made up a large percentage of the crowd. They heard John say, “Behold the Lamb of God!” This may be the first time that Jesus came back to this spot, and He may have stayed there for a bit. So they got their chance.
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