Jesus The Shepherd
John 10: 1-21
Jesus has been described as our food and as our light. Now Jesus presents himself as our shepherd. Sheep don’t see very well. They live mainly by hearing, and they depend on their shepherd to keep them from going astray.
In the land where Jesus lived shepherds called their sheep by name. And the sheep knew the shepherd’s voice. If you mixed two flocks of sheep, and each shepherd called his sheep, each flock would go to its shepherd. Jesus, our shepherd, knows his people by name. He calls each of us to come to him. It is comforting to know that Jesus is looking out for us. He always calls us when we stray. Listen for the Shepherd’s voice.
A Shephard’s Story
Jesus said: “I am telling you the truth: the man who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate but climbs in some other way, is a thief and a robber. The man who goes in through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him; the sheep hear his voice as he calls his sheep by name, and he leads them out. When he has brought them out, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. They will not follow someone else; instead, they will run away from such a person, because they do not know his voice.”
Jesus told them this parable, but they did not understand what he meant. So Jesus said again, “I am telling you the truth: I am the gate for the sheep. All others who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Those who come in by me will be saved; they will come in and go out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy. I have come so that you might have life—life in all its fullness. “I am the good shepherd, who is willing to die for the sheep. When the hired man, who is not a shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees a wolf coming, he leaves the sheep and runs away; so the wolf snatches the sheep and scatters them. The hired man runs away because he is only a hired man and does not care about the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and my own know me, just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. There are other sheep which belong to me that are not in this sheep pen. I must bring them, too; they will listen to my voice, and they will become one flock with one shepherd.
“The Father loves me because I am willing to give up my life, so that I may receive it back again. No one takes my life away from me. I give it up of my own free will. I have the right to give it up, and I have the right to take it back. That is what my Father has commanded me to do.” Again there was a division among the people because of these words. Many of them were saying, “He has a demon! He is crazy! Why do you listen to him?” But others were saying, “A man with a demon could not talk like this! How could a demon give sight to blind people?”
