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THE GOOD SHEPHERD

John chapter 9 v. 40 to chapter 10 v. 21

The Pharisees who overheard the words of the Lord to the new convert vaguely suspected that He was referring to them in His last phrase; their question "Are we blind also?" is made in a manner which expects a negative answer. In Galilee He had called the Pharisees blind guides who stumble into a ditch (Matthew 15:14).

He admitted that they were not morally blind - if they were born morally blind, like the mentally impaired, they would be without responsibility for sin. As they arrogantly asserted superior knowledge (refusing to hear Him) however, they were sinning against the Holy Spirit and this has no forgiveness (Mark 3:29; Matthew 12:31). They were witnesses against themselves (Matthew 23:31). Some of the most dogmatic people today are the atheists and the cultists. They say they see, but they are blind. They reject the Lord Jesus Christ, and so their sin remains. Although they are not walking around with a white walking stick, they are blind.

Then the Lord again repeated the words Amen, amen (see chapter 1:51, 8:34, 51, 58), now translated most assuredly: they never introduce a fresh topic, but always emphasise a very important statement. The Pharisees had previously assumed they alone were the authoritative guides of the people (chapter 9:24, 29), so the Lord Jesus had a direct word for them. He began this allegory, or illustration (verse 6) in a characteristic way. It really is an allegory of the Good Shepherd and self-explanatory like that of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:1-32).

He first told it (verses 1-5) and then explained and expanded it (7-18). The fold of the sheep, at that time, was a roofless enclosure in the country where flocks were herded. In the evening all the shepherds who lived in the vicinity would bring their sheep to the fold to be kept there for the night. They would be entrusted to the porter who stayed at the entrance, the door. There was only one door, and the only way to go in without entering through it, was to climb up over the wall. This was how strangers went in to steal and plunder.

The first important statement He made was that there is a legitimate entrance, the door, for access to people's spiritual lives, the fold. Whoever undertook to be a spiritual leader yet did not come through this door, was like a thief and a robber. In the context of those days, the fold would be Israel, and the spiritual leaders would be the Pharisees who were so spiritually blind as to reject the Son of God.

The next morning the shepherds would identify themselves to the porter, and he would let them in to get their sheep. Several flocks might be herded in the same fold overnight, but each shepherd knew his own sheep (verse 27), called their names and led them out. All his sheep were taken out of the fold: none were left behind because they were all his property. The sheep followed readily because they recognised their own shepherd's voice as he called each of their names. They loved and trusted their shepherd, but suspected and were afraid of any other person, maybe a thief and robber, or even a shepherd of another flock.

The Pharisees, in their spiritual blindness, didn't understand what He was saying. Our Lord also said, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear!" (Matthew 13:9). It is possible to have ears and yet not hear. They heard it all right, but they didn't hear it as the Word of God. It was this important difference in hearing to which our Lord referred when He quoted Isaiah: "Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, and seeing you will see and not perceive" (Matthew 13:14).

So the Lord repeated the allegory with more detail and with more directness of application.

He identified Himself with the door (the porter) for the sheep (just as Jesus is not a physical door, his body isn't bread in Mark 14:22). This was the second great truth stated in this chapter. Our Lord would state this same principle later when He said, "I am the true vine. . . you are the branches" (John 15:1, 5).

The vine in the Old Testament is a picture of the nation Israel. Jesus was teaching these Pharisees, who had just cast the formerly blind man out of the synagogue, that it was no longer belonging to the nation Israel but the relationship with Him which would make them (and anybody else, including us) the people of God.

He is the door: whoever enters through Him will be saved, will be freed to enjoy an abundant, eternal life and will receive spiritual sustenance (He had just become the door to the formerly blind man).

As the Son of God sent to earth for our salvation, He is the only way (chapter 5:23 and 14:6). This was unpalatable to the religious dogmatists before him and also is to the liberal dogmatists today. He offers the open door to "any one" who is willing to do God's will (John 7:17). The sheep that comes into the fold through the Lord Jesus as the door will not only be safe from thieves and robbers, but will have free entrance and exit, he will be at home in the daily routine of the sheltered flock, and will be led by the Shepherd to the joy of pasture provided by Him.

The thief has the only purpose of stealing, killing, destroying. They keep on coming, these wolves in sheep's clothing (Matthew 7:15) who grow rich by fooling the credulous sheep. This is a test that can be applied to a church, a religious organisation, a radio or television program. Is it a religious racket? Is somebody getting rich out of it? Compare it to the Good Shepherd who came to save sinners and to give us life, abundant life.

The well-trained sheep simply will not follow such a man or woman, but will stay away. This makes us wonder whether many of our modern "pastors" have their sheep (old and young) so trained in the Word of God that they would run away from, and not run after, the strange voices that call them to false philosophy, psychology, ethics, religion, even life.

The Lord said He was the Gatekeeper (the door) which opens to eternal life, and also the Good Shepherd, which gives His life for the sheep: he was able to lay it down and to take it back, which He did. He has a threefold relationship to this flock, which is His church:

• First of all He is the Good Shepherd (verse 11).

• Then He is the Great Shepherd (Psalm 23, Hebrews 13:20).

• He is also the Chief Shepherd. This speaks of the future, when He shall appear, and we shall receive a crown of glory that does not fade away (1 Peter 5:4).

The hireling is not necessarily a thief and robber but may conceivably be a nominal shepherd (pastor) of the flock who serves only for the money, a sin against which shepherds of the flock are warned against (1 Peter 5:2). Every true shepherd considers the sheep in his care "his own" even if he does not actually own them. The mere hireling isn't so committed: he does not care for the sheep, but only for his own skin, and abandons the flock to the marauders.

The Lord Jesus, as the Good Shepherd, knows his sheep by name and they know his voice: they have experimental knowledge of Him as their own Shepherd. He knows the Father, and the comparison of the mutually reciprocal knowledge between the Father and the Son illustrates what he has just said, though it stands above all else (Matthew 11:27; Luke 10:22; John 17:21-26).

He has other sheep not of this fold, i.e. not of Israel, but of the Gentiles: Jews and Gentiles will form one flock, having one Shepherd, thus heralding the coming into being of his Church.

 

R David Jones

 

 

 

 

Chapter 9

40 Then some of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these words, and said to Him, "Are we blind also?"

41 Jesus said to them, "If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, 'We see.' Therefore your sin remains.

Chapter 10

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 the 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 when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.

5 "Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers."

6 Jesus used this illustration, but they did not understand the things which He spoke to them.

7 Then Jesus said to 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 hear 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 does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

11 "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.

12 "But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them.

13 "The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep.

14 "I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own.

15 "As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.

16 "And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd.

17 "Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again.

18 "No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father."

19 Therefore there was a division again among the Jews because of these sayings.

20 And many of them said, "He has a demon and is mad. Why do you listen to Him?"

21 Others said, "These are not the words of one who has a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?"