“Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.” Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.
So again Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved and will come in and go out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. (John 10:1-10)
Throughout the Gospels, Jesus is revealed as a very powerful person. He performs miracles, he calms storms, he casts out demons. But in this passage, Jesus’ power is mediated through service, the service of a shepherd.
There are four things we see here about Jesus’ role as our spiritual shepherd. First, Jesus has power to know his sheep. In verse 3 we read that Jesus, as the Good Shepherd, calls his own sheep by name. If Jesus calls his own sheep by name that implies that he knows them.
Shepherds in the Middle East often gave names to their sheep because they spent such a long time with them. Unlike sheep elsewhere in the world that might be raised primarily for their meat, sheep in Palestine were raised primarily for their wool. Meat was seldom part of the daily meal of Ancient Israelites but was reserved for special occasions. So, the shepherd in Palestine could spend years with each particular sheep and grow to know them well.
Jesus knows us. He knows us better than we know ourselves. He knows the number of hairs on our heads. (Matthew 10:30) He also knows our weaknesses and failures and sins, yet he loves us anyway. As Paul says in Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrates his love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Bishop Brooke Foss Westcott once wrote,
As it is, nothing in his flock is hidden from him: their weaknesses, their failures, their temptations, their sins, the good which they have neglected when it was within reach, the evil which they have pursued when it lay afar. All is open before his eyes. He knows them… and he loves them still.
The second thing we see in this passage is that Jesus has power to call his sheep. “He calls his own sheep by name.”
The kind of sheepfold pictured here is the kind that was found in towns and villages in Jesus’ day. This kind of sheepfold consisted of a room or enclosure with a regular gate or door. Into this kind of sheepfold many shepherds would drive their flocks when they returned to the village at night. During the night the sheep would be in the care of a porter. In the morning, each shepherd would come to the fold and call his sheep by name. Each sheep would recognize the distinctive voice of their own shepherd.
We see a number of places in the Gospel of John where Jesus calls his own sheep by name and the sheep respond to his voice. Think about when Jesus first called Simon to follow him in John 1. Jesus gave Simon a nickname, Peter, which means “rock”.
The next day, Jesus called Philip to follow him, and he did. Philip found Nathanael and introduced him to Jesus. When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said of him, “Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!”
Nathanael asked him, “Where did you get to know me?”
Jesus answered, “I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.”
Jesus knows his sheep!
And then there was Lazarus. Jesus called his friend by name to come out of the tomb. Jesus called him from death to life. And Lazarus came out.
Finally, there is the story of Mary Magdalene visiting Jesus’ grave early on Sunday morning. She finds the stone rolled away from the tomb and the body of her Lord gone. She stands there weeping. Suddenly Jesus is standing next to her, but she doesn’t realize it is Jesus. She thinks he is the gardener. But when Jesus says her name, she recognizes the voice of her shepherd.
Jesus is also calling your name. He wants you to follow him… out of insecurity, out of boredom, out of grief, out of death, to a place of abundant life.
During the terrible days of the Blitz when Germany was mercilessly bombing London during the Second World War, a father, holding his small son by the hand, ran from a building that had been struck by a bomb. In the front yard was a shell hole. Seeking shelter, the father jumped into the hole and held up his arms, calling for his son to follow.
Terrified, the boy said: “I can’t see you Daddy!”
The father, looking up against the sky tinted red by the burning buildings, called to the silhouette of his son, “But I can see you, son. Jump!”
The boy jumped because he trusted his father.
Jesus enables us to face life and death, not because we can see him, but because he sees us. It doesn’t matter that we don’t know all the answers. Jesus knows us and calls us to leap into his arms.
A third thing we can see in this passage is that Jesus has power to lead out his sheep. “He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.”
To what does Jesus lead his sheep? He leads us to his own great flock, the church, the “called out ones”. He leads us into green pastures.
From what does he lead us? He leads us away from anything that would keep us from the best pastures he has planned for us.
Jesus healed the man born blind and led him out of spiritual blindness into a relationship with God.
Jesus wants to lead us out of lesser allegiances into a relationship with himself as our highest allegiance.
I wonder: what confining sheepfold are each of us trapped in? Jesus knows us. He knows the battles we are fighting. He is calling us. He wants us to respond so he can lead us out of emptiness into his fullness, into a life of human flourishing beyond anything we can imagine.
That leads to a fourth thing I see in this passage. That is that Jesus has power to save, make safe, and satisfy his sheep. Jesus says,
I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved and will come in and go out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
In this part of the passage, Jesus is drawing an analogy from a different type of sheepfold. The type of sheepfold he is referring to here was found in the countryside. It was nothing more than a circle of rocks into which the sheep would be driven. There was no door to this sheepfold, just an opening across which the shepherd himself would lay at night to protect his sheep from getting out, and to keep any predators from getting in.
Jesus says that anyone who enters through him will be saved. What are we saved from?
Well, when a sheep entered the sheepfold, that sheep was saved from all harm, and perhaps from death. Jesus saves us from death in the sense of separation from God. We find our eternal home in him.
Jesus also says that anyone who enters through him will not only be saved, but also safe. The person who enters through him will be able to go in and out safely. This phrase refers to security. In Jesus’ time, when a person could go in or out without fear it meant that their country was at peace. Jesus gives us peace in his kingdom.
Thirdly, Jesus promises that the one who enters through him will be satisfied. He will find pasture and life to the fullest extent.
Palestine is a barren land for the most part. Good, green pastureland is not easy to find. So, to find good pasture meant to find prosperity and contentment, health and happiness. This is what David is talking about in Psalm 23:2-3,
He makes me lie down in green pastures;
he leads me beside still waters;
he leads me beside still waters;
he restores my soul.
In his book, A Shepherd Looks at Psalm Twenty-Three, Philip Keller tells about his experience as a shepherd in East Africa. The land adjacent to his was rented out to a tenant shepherd who didn’t take very good care of his sheep: his land was overgrazed, eaten down to the ground; the sheep were thin, afflicted with parasites, attacked by wild animals. Keller especially remembers how the neighbor’s sheep would line up at the fence and blankly stare in the direction of his green grass and his healthy sheep, almost as if they yearned to be delivered from their neglectful shepherd. They longed to come to the other side of the fence and belong to a good shepherd.
The identity of your shepherd means everything. If your shepherd is the Lord Jesus Christ, then you can be sure that he is going to give you life in all of its fullness.
The story is told of a priest who was celebrating his 50th anniversary of ordination. For this occasion, the priest had invited his personal friend, an actor, to come and recite Psalm 23. The actor agreed to do this on the condition that the priest would also recite it after him.
At the appointed time, the actor stood and proclaimed the popular psalm with such oratorical skill that the congregation applauded thunderously. Then the humble pastor stood up and began to recite, from memory, his favorite Psalm. When he finished, there was an awed silence. Many in the congregation were moved to tears.
At the appointed time, the actor stood and proclaimed the popular psalm with such oratorical skill that the congregation applauded thunderously. Then the humble pastor stood up and began to recite, from memory, his favorite Psalm. When he finished, there was an awed silence. Many in the congregation were moved to tears.
In the quiet, the actor’s friend sitting next to him leaned over and whispered, “I don’t get it. What was the difference between your recitation and that of the old pastor?”
And the actor replied, “I know the Psalm; he knows the Shepherd.”
I hope you know the Shepherd today. But even if you don’t… he knows you. He’s calling you. He wants to lead you out of your emptiness into his fullness. He promises to save you, keep you safe, and satisfy you for all eternity…
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