John Chapter Ten: The Good Shepherd
By: Deji Yesufu
Towards the end of his life, the Apostle Peter wrote: “… For this reason, I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things, though you know and are established in the present truth…” (2Peter 1:12). There is a sense that religious instructions can be summarised mainly into two things: repetition and reminding. Before proselytes to religion are made, the evangelist repeats some basic truths to his hearers. After a while, it pleases God to open the hearer’s mind to hear what is being said and to submit to the truths being taught. In the same guise, when proselytes are made, they are mainly reminded of truths they had been initially taught. These truths apply to Christianity as much as they apply to all other religions. The difference with Christianity, however, is that the Person doing the teaching is the Spirit of Jesus Christ. What happens after this is that the Spirit takes basic truths of scriptures and impresses them on the hearts of sinners, bringing the elect to save faith. The Spirit also takes these truths and presses them on the hearts of God’s people, leading them to all truth. In John chapter ten, Jesus takes a doctrine he has been teaching from the start of his ministry and uses a parable to explain. This is how we came to have the parable of the good shepherd.
To appreciate this parable, we want to begin by looking at what had happened in the previous chapter. In John chapter nine, Jesus carries out his sixth miracle in the book of John – the miracle of the healing of a blind man. This miracle was a judgement of some sort on the unbelieving Jews. Before this event, they had debated Jesus on numerous points of doctrine: particularly the idea of his deity and his being the Jewish messiah. Christ, however, manifested his works in the life of a physically poor man: he had no sight. While his disciples wondered why he was born blind, Jesus pointed out that this man’s blindness was meant for a higher purpose – that the works of God may be made manifest through him. Eventually, Jesus heals this man, and the drama begins.
The Jews want to know how the man regained his sight. The man explains what he knows: “… he put clay on my face, I washed and now I see” (verse 15). Then they ask him: what do you think this man is? He replies to the Jews: he is a prophet. Subsequently, after he was rejected by the Jews, Jesus finds him and asks him: “Do you believe in the Son of God?” (verse 35). The man did not ask to know the “biblical position on such an assertion”; he did not have the time for debate. If this man can open my eyes, whatever else he asks me to do or believe – I will, he seemed to say. He turns to Jesus and says: Who is this Son of God that I might believe in him? Christ points to himself. Immediately, the man worshipped Jesus – declaring him as God. In one event, Christ gets a man to understand the gospel and receive its implications through a miracle. Yet, he has for many years been doing the same miracles with the Jews but they had not been able to comprehend him as a prophet nor as the Son of God. This is what leads us to Jesus pointing at three important persons in the parable of the good shepherd – a shepherd, a thief, and the sheep.
The sheep in this context is the blind man and others like him to whom God gives the ability to hear the shepherd. They will not follow the thief. The thieves in this context are the Jews, their leaders and every kind of false religion in our world today. The sheep possesses the ability to hear the shepherd. The goats, those who reject the shepherd’s words, cannot hear the shepherd because God has not given them the ability to hear. The parable, on one hand, describes the blessing of God bringing his elect into eternal life; on another hand, it describes the judgement of God on sinful and rebellious sinners. It goes further to explain a few more characteristics of the sheep and the shepherd. Jesus explains that he is the door to the sheep. This is best explained by looking at the Middle Eastern culture of the shepherd living with the sheep. In those places, the sheep pen is not built with a door. The shepherd sleeps by the entrance – he becomes a door to the sheep. That way he can keep the sheep from straying out, and he is also able to guard against a wolf coming into the sheep’s pen. Jesus does this for God’s people when he guides and protects us. He guides us through life, leading us into all truths. He also protects us from physical and spiritual harm. Our Lord is the door to our lives.
In the same manner, Jesus is the Shepherd of the sheep. He is a good shepherd. He leads the sheep to green pastures. He protects the sheep from wolves. He is not a hireling. A hireling does the work of shepherding for filthy lucre’s sake. A shepherd will do the work of shepherding whether or not he receives a dime in the process. A shepherd lays down his life for the sheep, while the hireling flees when he sees the wolf coming. The life of David the shepherd boy exemplifies this. David spoke of attacking the lion and the bear that attacked the sheep. A shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The contrast between the shepherd and the hireling is not limited to the New Testament story of Jesus alone. All through Church history, the story of Christianity has been the story of wars between shepherds and hirelings. Every time true religion flourishes anywhere, you find the work of the good shepherd there. Any time false religion abounds anywhere, you find the work of hirelings. It is not difficult to discern a hireling from a shepherd. A hireling works for money; a shepherd will work for free. A hireling will flee when the wolf comes; the good shepherd will fight the wolf. Jesus is the good shepherd; the Pharisees represent all kinds of hireling religions that pervade most of our days including Christendom.
Despite all his efforts at teaching the Jews the doctrine of his deity, they would continually reject it. In this chapter, the Jews pick up stones to stone Jesus. He asks why. They explain that despite being a man, he calls himself God (verse 33). Jesus then refers them to their scriptures, the Psalms, and reminds them that even those scriptures have called certain persons among them, the judges, gods (Psalm 82). Why would they find it difficult that a man, himself, will regard himself as a deity? Jesus employed a lower argument to make a higher point. While it is true no man could be called God, they should also not consider it impossible that God could put on flesh. While this was a doctrine difficult for them to comprehend, his sheep, like the blind man, understood it; believed it; and worshipped him as God. It is safe to say that everything the Jews needed to receive their Messiah was clearly shown to them. They rejected Jesus not because they were unable to comprehend the doctrinal basis for his coming from the Old Testament; they rejected Jesus mainly out of envy. We must not underestimate the sinfulness of our hearts. We have the story of the Pharisees in the Bible to remind us that all of us can very be pharisaical in our worldview. We must continually plead with God to deliver us from our remaining corruption, cleanse our hearts of hidden sin, give us ears to hear what his Spirit is saying and help as good sheep that we are to hear the shepherd and to follow him into all truths.
The war between the shepherd and the hireling will not end until the end of time. False religion will continue to thrive in every space – every church, denomination, and sect. It is God’s people, the sheep, that must possess the ability to hear the shepherd. A church will remain as true to Jesus only as much as they lead the sheep to follow the good Shepherd. The words of the Good Shepherd are etched inside the scriptures. They are also written all over Providence. May God grant that we are the sheep of his sheepfold who possess the ability to hear the Shepherd, and to be led by him in all issues of our lives.
Amen.
Deji Yesufu is the Pastor of Providence Reformed Baptist Church Ibadan. He is the author of HUMANITY.
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