John 10:1-18
“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.” This figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.
So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down this life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for 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. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This the charge I have received from my Father.” (ESV)
Prone to wander, Lord I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love. These words from the familiar hymn, “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing,” deeply resonate with me, no matter how many times they have been sung. The pattern, the tendency of my heart is to wander—to go my own way, to leave the presence of the one I claim to love, to seek flourishing and fulfillment in places it cannot be found. When I sing these words, I am consistently reminded of how desperately I need a shepherd, who in his goodness and grace will seek me out and bring me back.
The pattern of my heart is the pattern of a sheep. Prone to wander away from the shepherd. Prone to go its own way. Prone to seek after fullness and flourishing where it cannot be found. Sheep are needy, dependent, foolish and frail. They are utterly unable to help themselves. Sheep are desperately in need of the shepherd, who will seek them out and bring them back over and over and over again.
This kind of shepherd is who God had long ago promised to be to his people, when their own leaders and shepherds had failed. He promised to his people in exile, who found themselves in days of deep darkness and despair, that he would not leave them alone. He promised that he himself would come after them:
I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord God. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them in justice. (Ezekiel 34:15-16)
In this passage in John 10, Jesus says to a waiting and wandering people, and to us, that God has been faithful. The one who was promised has come—to rescue us, to redeem us, and to lead us to life. I am the Good Shepherd. . .
There is so much in these verses about who the Good Shepherd is for his people, but the thrust of it is deeply intimate and personal. Tim Keller has said that there is a uniqueness to this particular “I Am Statement” because in it Jesus is not only telling us about who he is and what he gives, but how he cares for us. The Good Shepherd knows his sheep and is known by them. The Good Shepherd loves his sheep and lays down his life for them.
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… (v. 14-15).
What an astounding claim! Jesus says that the Shepherd knows and is known by his sheep in the same way that he knows and is known by the Father. Knowledge that is deep and rich and personal, and love that never grows weary or fails. This is what exists within the Trinity, and this is what Jesus says belongs to us as his sheep.
The Shepherd Knows His Sheep
To be fully known and fully loved—this is the essence of true relationship. It can simultaneously be our deepest longing and greatest fear. We long for the freedom that comes when someone truly sees and knows us, but we can also live in the fear that when they truly know us, they will not love us and will not stay.
What we have in the Good Shepherd is a God who says, “I know you. I know the ways you are wandering and weak. I know how you are foolish and frail. I know how you have fallen and how you will fall again. And I promise, that when you cannot help yourself, I will lay down my life to rescue you. I will lay down my life to redeem the ones I love.”
The depth of this love is shown by the lengths the Shepherd will go to redeem his sheep. Isaiah 53:6 says it this way:
We all like sheep have gone astray; we have turned-every one- to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
In order to rescue his wayward and wandering sheep, the Good Shepherd becomes the lamb who was slain. If there is ever any doubt in us whether we are both fully known and fully loved, we can look to the cross where the great shepherd of the sheep hung as the lamb in our place.
The Shepherd is Known by His Sheep
The beauty of the shepherd and sheep relationship that Jesus describes in this passage is that the intimacy goes both ways. We are known fully by him, but we can also know him fully too. The Good Shepherd makes himself known to the sheep. Though wandering and wayward we may be, we can know him. We can know his character, his ways, his voice, and his heart.
And where else does the shepherd most fully reveal himself to us but at the place where he laid down his life? In the cross of Christ, his justice and mercy, his holiness and grace, his hatred of sin and his love of the sinner, his commitment to righteousness and his commitment to redeem—they all come together to reveal the heart of God himself. In the cross of Christ, the shepherd says to the sheep most fully—this is who I am. You can know me. And you can trust me.
In the knowledge of the shepherd there is hope and rest. We can trust that path on which he is leading us is always to life. We can trust that the path on which he is leading us is always out of love. We can trust that on that path we are never alone. We can trust this because the path he took was to lay down this life. The path he took was the path to the cross.
In January of this year, Joe shared a poem with the staff that I have reflected on countless times over these past few months. He could not have anticipated what this year would hold; neither could we. But God knew. The poem was “The Gate of the Year” by Minnie Louise Haskins, and it starts out this way,
And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year:
“Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.” And he replied:
“Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God.
That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way. . . .”
As we walk the paths before us, our greatest need is the presence of the Good Shepherd. To know and be known by him is better and safer than a known way. As we walk the paths before us, may we rest in the knowledge of the Shepherd and the surety of his nearness to us. For he who was willing to lay down his life will never be willing to leave us alone!