John 10 - Preacher's Commentary

10:1-6

Truth Hidden in a Parable

In this last public discourse Jesus put this whole experience in the imagery of shepherd and sheep, familiar symbols deeply imbedded in Hebrew life and history (Ps. 23; Ps. 78:52–53; Ps. 74:1–2; Is. 40:11; Jer. 23:1–4). This is not only a tender pastoral teaching, but a stinging indictment of those who profess to be shepherds but are actually thieves and robbers, strangers and hirelings.

Those who will not enter the sheepfold by the one door have not come to care for the sheep, but are thieves and robbers coming to divide and destroy. They attempt to bypass the doorkeeper, who would never allow them to enter, by climbing over the fence unnoticed. And there are strangers, masquerading as shepherds, disguising their voices, trying to come between the shepherd and his sheep. But the sheep flee, frightened by the unfamiliar voice.

How different is the shepherd who enters the sheepfold with authority because he is a familiar figure to the doorkeeper. And the sheep are at ease with him because they know his voice when he calls them. There might be several flocks in the same fold, which was a courtyard adjoining the house. But each flock knew the voice of his own shepherd.

In the interweaving of these familiar pastoral symbols Jesus is making vividly clear the contrast between the shepherd and those who came to plunder the sheep, however innocent they might appear: the differing ways by which they entered the sheepfold—the shepherd openly through the door, but the others surreptitiously; the contrast in their voices—the one familiar, and the others strange and unknown; the utterly differing motives with which they came to the fold—the shepherd to care and provide pasture, and the others to plunder and destroy, taking what was not theirs.

This picture Jesus has drawn is not simply a comparison or an allegory. His illustration is a general parable, called a mashal, “a mysterious saying full of compressed thought.”² Those whose eyes have been opened spiritually, such as this new disciple healed of blindness, would see the truth hidden in the figurative language. But the spiritually blind, those who had cast the healed one out, would be baffled and angered. They “did not understand the things which He spoke to them” (v. 6).

10:7-10

The Only Door

Now Jesus becomes very specific and personal in illuminating the meaning of His illustration. There is a singleness, an exclusiveness, about His solemn declaration, “I am the door of the sheep.” One theologian has called this “the offense of the particular.” He is the one entrance by which the sheep can enter the fold and join the flock. There is no other way for them to have access to the full treasure of life.

I vividly recall the brief, intense visit I had backstage with John R. Mott more than thirty years ago. That amazing world Christian, a visionary layman whom God used in the early part of this century to call a whole generation of students to Christ and missionary service, was now well into his eighties. And although he had just finished pouring out his heart to several thousand students in one of his characteristically passionate missionary addresses, he was fresh and eager. His clear, piercing eyes and great mane of white hair reminded me of a shaggy old lion.

When I asked him about his Christian pilgrimage he spoke simply and tenderly of his “capitulation to Christ,” as he called it, as an undergraduate student at Cornell University and of his continuous growth in the Spirit ever since. It had all been a great adventure, he said. Then he concluded, “After being on hundreds of university campuses in more than eighty countries and having seen all the great religions of the world firsthand, I know now more than ever that Christ towers over all the movements of history and religion. Absolutely unique! He stands erect among the fallen, clean among the defiled, Saviour of the world, King of kings and Lord of lords!”

What an eloquent way to put it! Christ is the one door of the sheep!

All who ever come before Jesus claiming to announce life apart from faith in Him cannot make themselves the door of the sheep. Actually they are thieves and robbers—whether they are priestly rulers, religious politicians whose hands have been dirtied ever since the time of the Maccabees, or those eager for power and recognition, claiming to be “the Messiah,” leading the people astray with false promises, selfishly preying on them, dividing and robbing them. But the sheep have not heard these confusing, alien voices.

So when Jesus says, “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy,” He is speaking to those who are standing before Him at this very moment. They have betrayed their calling to be spiritual leaders in the very way they have thrown out this one who has been healed, and in so doing have rejected the One who has healed him. Their motives to steal and destroy have been unmasked.

The church in every age has had to deal with those who try to crawl over the fence to take over the flock, claiming to be the door. In our day of anxiety and confusion, we confront everything from Eastern mysticism and “thought control” to the Unification Church and the Bahais; they are false prophets promising life, but in the end bringing death.

But with Jesus, there is life abundant. Those who enter by Him “will be saved” (v. 9). They are given wholeness as they join the other sheep in the fold. Here they live in liberty, freely going “in and out,” led by the One to whom they belong. They have heard the Shepherd call their names. And they are satisfied, for He provides “pasture.” He shares with them the abundance of His own life.

Is this not what the blind man has been given? The salvation he received is both physical and spiritual. It also gave him freedom from the rigid legalism of the Jews, freedom from the fear of his parents, and the provision of the Shepherd, who has made him one of His flock.

10:11-16

The Good Shepherd

Jesus again openly identifies Himself, “I am the good shepherd.” In so doing He lays hold of the rich meaning of Yahweh as Israel’s shepherd, their Ruler, Protector, Leader, and caring Companion. We have seen His warm, pastoral concern in calling and healing the blind man. So those who hear His voice and come to Him discover He is “good,” the winsome, attractive Shepherd.

Jesus is the good Shepherd because He gives His life for the sheep. This is why He has come. He cares for the sheep daily, watching, feeding, and protecting them. But in the end He must finally deal with their greatest danger, face the mightiest thief, the evil one, who spreads darkness and disorder through his own servants, the false shepherds. So the good Shepherd will give His life at the cross in this last struggle with this enemy and overcome.

Jesus is also the good Shepherd who knows the sheep and they know Him. There is a loving intimacy between Shepherd and sheep. The Shepherd knows the weak and the strong, the stubborn and the submissive ones, the hurts and the needs of every sheep. And the sheep know and trust their Shepherd—every inflection of His voice, the way by which He leads them out to pasture, His courage in the face of danger. He is their Shepherd. This intimate knowing between Shepherd and sheep is rooted in and modeled after the union between Father and Son.

It is in that knowing love for the sheep that the Shepherd lays down His life. The pain and joy and healing of His death is not for a particular flock, but is so universal and far-reaching that other sheep will hear His voice and come. There will be one Shepherd and one flock, not many. As the woman at the well, the impotent man at the pool, and the blind man have heard and come, so finally His voice will be heard throughout the whole Gentile world. Those who are outside will be included.

In these eight years we have served this courageous inner-city congregation we have watched in amazement as the Shepherd has been gathering His flock—many of them, it would seem, sheep not of this fold, but hearing His voice and coming. Out of the wounds of a terrible church split more than twenty years ago, the Lord is creating a new people—a strange, wonderful mixture of the curious, the seekers, and the needy joining with a faithful remnant to go in and out finding pasture.

One of these was Anna—frizzy-haired and anxious, coming forward at the invitation every six or eight weeks in some service of worship to let us know how desperately she wanted to be a part of His flock. Her childhood life had been filled with anger and trouble. Now two of her sons were in the state penitentiary, one for life, and her daughter was in alcoholic treatment. Anna always seemed to call our home during mealtime or late at night, either to vent her hostility, “I’m never coming back to that church again,” or to confess her love for all of us, “I don’t know what I’d ever do without that church.” What joy it was to watch our people, at first cautiously, but then freely, accept her as one of us. Anna has since died, on the operating table, as the surgeon was trying to repair her stomach, badly damaged by a bleeding ulcer. She represents so many needy, dispossessed, neglected people who have come to us in these last years.

When Bob and Pat, who live five miles east of the church, began worshiping with us, I could not resist asking after some weeks, “Why in the world would you attend First Baptist when many of your tennis-playing and social friends belong to a strong, suburban church?” Bob’s answer was classic, “We want to be a part of a church that treats Anna the way First Baptist does.” And so they joined! As Jesus said, “They will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd” (v. 16). His death reaches out and claims us all!

It is a different story with the hirelings. They seem so eager to watch the sheep, but are really more interested in their own gain. They want the catching and caring to be at their own convenience from eight to five and will run at the first sign of danger. These are the careless, indifferent shepherds who betray the sheep because their own selfish interests come first. This is the danger from within, which in many ways is more subtle and disastrous than the thieves and robbers who break in from the outside.

Jesus must have had those scathing words of judgment against false shepherds from Ezekiel’s prophecy in mind when he spoke of hirelings,

“Woe to the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves!… you slaughter the fatlings, but you do not feed the flock… with force and cruelty you have ruled them… . So they were scattered because there was no shepherd; and they became food for all the beasts of the field when they were scattered” (Ezek. 34:2–5)

Later John speaks sadly of Judas, the betrayer, who left the twelve, “he then went out immediately. And it was night” (John 13:30). Then there were those who crept into the believing community creating confusion and spreading doubt by questioning the authority of the historical Jesus and denying the fleshliness of the Incarnate Son of God (1 John 2:18–23; 2 John 7).

When we came home from our midweek service this week the telephone was ringing, which is not an unusual occurrence. After the dear younger couple at the other end of the line had apologized for calling at this hour of the night they poured out their concern. These were thoughtful leaders in their church, not given to gossip. They were angered, puzzled, and hurt because they were convinced their pastor was giving false leadership by his life and words and their concern was not only for themselves but for the whole congregation which seemed to be drifting spiritually more and more. So we talked and prayed. I went to bed after this disturbing conversation with some of their painful words haunting me. “I have lost all respect for this man.” “I just can’t trust this guy any more.” Any pastor can begin with high hopes and possibilities and end up becoming a hireling.

10:17-21

Laying Down His Life

It is the nature of love to reach out, to go the limit. So Jesus comes to lay down His life for the sheep as an amazing expression of the love of the Father and Son for each other. Jesus’ death is not a last-minute strategy, nor is it an act of desperation. He is not being forced into an unexpected death, nor is His life taken from Him. His whole ministry from the very beginning has moved toward this final act of obedience, this offering of Himself for the sake of the sheep.

And as Jesus has the authority or right to lay down His life, so He has the power to take up His life again. The laying down and the taking up, the cross and the resurrection, are two sides of the one redemptive act. This power to lay down and take up is the same in Father and Son. Here is the mystery of the divine nature of Jesus, who is at one with the Father. What has been agreed upon in the Godhead, in the “counsels of eternity,” for the salvation of all men, will be the historical event of both Jesus’ death and Resurrection. In all this He is utterly obedient to the Father.

These strong affirmations bring a division among the Jews. Again, Jesus is accused of having a demon. But others wonder if someone who has a demon can heal anyone! They cannot ignore the fact that this Man they accuse has caused the opening of a blind man’s eyes. The works He does testify to who He is.

10:22-30

The Sheep Hear and Follow

The last scene in Jesus’ public ministry takes place at the Feast of Dedication, sometimes called the Feast of Lights, which came three months after the Feast of Tabernacles. It was a time of great hope, for it marked the last national deliverance. It also celebrated the restoration and purification of the temple, particularly the altar, by Judas Maccabeus three years after its desecration by the Greek general Antiochus Epiphanes in 178 B.C. At this feast people hoped for new beginnings. Expectation filled the air. The people wondered, “Would God’s divine deliverer come at this time to set His people free?”

The earlier conversations and questions continue here. The lapse of some months is not as important in the sequence as is the theme of the dialogue. It is now winter and the writer notes that Jesus moved to the east side of the temple, to Solomon’s porch, to find shelter from the chilling winds. He “walked,” that moving way of teaching. Now the Jews press in, surround Him, not so much in hostility, it seems, as to ask Jesus the central, burning question of their existence, “If You are the Christ, tell us plainly” (v. 24). These men pondered and discussed continually the manner and time of the Messiah’s coming. And in this celebration of restoration and hope, facing this strange Man, whom they could neither disregard nor explain, they must settle the question of His identity once and for all. For if what He was doing and saying was true, then there would emerge a new people which would mean the destruction of Judaism. And this was their whole life. So they were really asking, “How long will You continue to take away our life?”

But Jesus can only be known as the Messiah by spiritual insight, by hearing and seeing as the blind man had, not by verbal or human proofs. He cannot answer their question in the way these religious leaders want it answered. Over and over again He has urged these people to let His works, which have been done in His Father’s name, bear witness to who He is. But they will not submit to that kind of evidence and so it is impossible for them to hear His voice and follow Him. They are not His sheep.

Jesus’ sheep hear His voice and follow Him. He shared His abundant and eternal life with them so they will never perish. And no enemy, however strong he may seem, can snatch any of the sheep from Jesus’ hand, because His Father, who has given them to the Good Shepherd, is greater than all enemies. The mighty sign of that holding power will be Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. To be kept in Jesus’ hand is to be held by the Father’s hand, for they are One.

10:31-39

Sanctified for the World

The Jews are greatly incensed by Jesus’ declaration that He is one with the Father. Once again they take up stones. But Jesus knew that according to the law they had no right to stone Him unless there was a specific charge! So He wisely and quietly asks them, “For which of those works do you stone Me?” (v. 32). And He has done many. They can only answer that it is not for any works, but for blasphemy because He makes Himself God. This is the first time in this Gospel the Jews have officially accused Jesus of blasphemy. But Jesus never “makes Himself anything. Everything that He is stems from the Father. He is the Word of God who has become man.”³

Jesus answers them by quoting from Psalm 82:6 in which unrighteous judges who had given the people the Word of God were called “gods.” If unholy men who held high office were referred to as “gods” because they were vehicles for God’s message, then was it blasphemy for the One whom God had “sanctified and sent into the world” to speak of Himself as the Son of God?

As Moses and Jeremiah and all men whom God set apart for His unique work had been consecrated, so Jesus, in a more vast, eternal sense, has been “sanctified” by the Father for His awesome mission in the world. Jesus had come and “pitched His tent” among men to minister and give His life for the sheep in obedience to His Father. His risen body was to become the eternal locus of worship, the place of gathering for His people, in the new age of grace and truth. Surely Jesus’ words about His own consecration spoken in this earthly temple which had been reconsecrated have a rich meaning for us. So often He uses a significant physical celebration or event to illuminate a much greater, spiritual truth.

If these Jews cannot believe in Jesus, then they should at least test the credibility of His works, accept them for what they are, and through that insight, come to know that the Father has sent Him, for the Father is standing behind His works. Therefore He is acting as God’s “deputy,” as His saliah,⁴ which in Jewish thought meant that He had the authority of His Sender. Then they might come to know that the Father and the Son dwell in each other. Jesus is carefully making His last open plea to these unbelieving listeners, only asking for an honest investigation of His ministry.

Again they seek to seize Him, but He escapes out of their “hand” (v. 39). Surely no human authority, however powerful, can finally take Him. That will be only as the Father allows it. Likewise, no enemy can snatch anyone whom the Son has given eternal life out of the Father’s “hand.”

10:40-42

A Harvest in John’s Country

Jesus retreats, leaves this land of unbelief where His own have not received Him, moving to the place beyond the Jordan where John had first baptized. What memories and longings and gratitude must have stirred in Jesus as He returned to the setting where His public ministry had begun. We sense again His deep ties with the Baptizer, who by his faithful witness had prepared for a rich harvest which Jesus now reaps. Everything John had said about Jesus people now know is true—“the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,” “the Son of God,” “One who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.” And many believe. It is a rich time of fulfillment for Jesus before His final struggle.