John 10 contextually follows John 9. In 10:21 the crowd is still talking about the FKA blind man. The shift in time comes at 10:22-23 from Fall to Winter. So why talk about a shepherd, sheep and strangers? All of these are in the story of the FKA blind man. Jesus is the shepherd who calls the FKA blind man, who recognizes the voice of the shepherd and follows. The strangers are the Jewish leaders from whom the FKA blind man flees. It helps me to keep a parable or allegory like this in a specific context so I don't let my imagination run wild. John 10 has a cast of characters. There is a doorkeeper who may be the Father. There is a shepherd that Jesus identifies as Himself (10:11). There are sheep found in two folds which seem to be Jewish sheep and Gentile sheep that will eventually become one fold with one shepherd (10:16). There are thieves and robbers or strangers, and possibly a wolf that means to harm the sheep, perhaps a devil-led band if we remember the teachings in in John 8 about the Jewish leaders' father being the devil himself. Then there is a hireling who fails to protect the sheep, perhaps foreshadowing the apostles who ran away when the wolf came after Jesus.
The focus of the story is clearly on the shepherd and His legitimacy. There are several ways this legitimacy is expressed. 1) He enters by the door instead of breaking into the sheep pen. I don't have to break into my own house. I can legitimately walk in the front door because I have a key, a deed, and a mortgage, and I know the security code. I thief is illegitimate because he has none of these. 2) In this case the doorkeeper opens the door for the shepherd. In Haiti when we pull up to the house where we are staying there is a doorkeeper who comes out to the gate and if he recognizes us, he opens the gate and lets us in. The gate is meant to keep the robbers out, not legitimate folks. 3) Jesus is also the door in the story, the means by which the sheep can go out and find pasture. The one who provides access to the sheep for pasture is legitimate. The stranger provides access only to harm the sheep. 4) The shepherd is legitimate because the sheep know his voice. A baby hears mom's voice before they are born and every day afterwards. He knows the voice. He knows he belongs in her arms without anyone telling him. 5) Legitimacy is also determined by who knows certain information, in this case knowing the names of the sheep. When children are picked up at school by someone there usually has to be some way to identify the person who is picking them up. If the person doesn't know the child's name, that might be a dead giveaway that they shouldn't be doing it. In John 8 and 9, the Pharisees did not care anything about the woman caught in the act of adultery or the FKA blind man. Jesus took time to know them and to let them know him. 6) The shepherd is legitimate because He gives life to the sheep. 7) The shepherd also lays down His life for the sheep. A stranger is not going to risk his life for sheep that he steals. Men die for what they value. 8) The shepherd is legitimate because he protects the sheep from what would harm them. 9) The shepherd knows His own and His own know Him. 10) Since the sheep are really the Father's, Jesus proves His legitimacy because He knows the Father and the Father knows Him. A thief can't usually tell you who the stuff belongs to. 11) The shepherd is about uniting the sheep, the two flocks, and not dividing them. 12) The Father confirms the Son's legitimacy by loving His Son. 13) Jesus shows his legitimacy by having authority over His own life, laying it down willingly for the sheep.
Each of these thirteen points in the text point to the credentials of Jesus and His right to be our Shepherd. It is the desire of the Father that there be One Shepherd and One Flock. Anyone or anything that would lead us to any other end is not from the Father and is illegitimate.
No comments:
Post a Comment