The Good Shepherd - The One Year Christian History
The Good Shepherd
Who are the Good Shepherd’s sheep?
HANUKKAH, sometimes called the Feast of Dedication or the Feast of Lights, is an eight-day celebration to commemorate the rededication of the temple in 164 B.C. after it had been profaned by Antiochus IV Epiphanes three years earlier.
In A.D. 32 Hanukkah began on December 18, and Jesus was in Jerusalem for the celebration. He was in the temple walking through the section known as Solomon’s Colonnade, where following his resurrection believers met to proclaim him as the Messiah (Acts 3:11–4:4; 5:12). There the Jewish leaders surrounded him and asked, “How long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly” (John 10:24). It wasn’t that they wanted to know whether he was the Messiah so that they could follow him; rather, they were trying to get him to make statements that they could use against him.
The reason that Jesus did not publicly claim to be the Messiah was that in first-century Palestine there were many popular political and military misconceptions about the Messiah with which Jesus did not want to identify. The popular conception of the Messiah was that he would be a conquering ruler, not a suffering servant whose kingdom would be neither political not military.
Jesus replied that his words and deeds pointed to him as the Messiah. He said, “The proof is what I do in the name of my Father. But you don’t believe because you are not part of my flock. My sheep recognize my voice; I know them, and they follow me” (vv. 25-27). The implication is that the reverse is also true: those who are not part of his flock don’t recognize his voice; Jesus doesn’t know them, and they do not follow him.
Jesus went on to tell more of what he does for his sheep, saying, “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish” (v. 28). There is therefore a group of individuals, here called “his sheep,” of whom it can be said, “They will never perish.”
However, the focus is not on the power of eternal life but on the power of Jesus. He continues, “No one will snatch them away from me, for my Father has given them to me, and he is more powerful than anyone else. So no one can take them from me” (vv. 28-29). The security of Jesus’ sheep lies with the Good Shepherd. As his sheep, we are not hanging on to him—he is hanging on to us. God the Father is more powerful than anyone in the universe, and so no one can steal his sheep.
Jesus’ next words were blockbusters: “The Father and I are one” (v. 30). The Greek word for “one” used here doesn’t mean that the Father and Son are one person but that they are one in action. Jesus does what the Father does and vice versa.
Hearing this, once again the Jewish leaders picked up stones to kill him. But Jesus asked them a simple question:
“At my Father’s direction I have done many things to help the people. For which one of these good deeds are you killing me?”
They replied, “Not for any good work, but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, have made yourself God.”
Jesus replied, “. . . Why do you call it blasphemy when the Holy One who was sent into the world by the Father says, ‘I am the Son of God’? Don’t believe me unless I carry out my Father’s work. But if I do his work, believe in what I have done, even if you don’t believe me. Then you will realize that the Father is in me, and I am in the Father.”
Once again they tried to arrest him, but he got away and left them. (vv. 32-39)
Why was he able to get away? Because his hour had not yet come.
Reflection
Are you one of the Good Shepherd’s sheep? You can tell by whether or not you recognize his voice and you follow him. If you are one of his sheep, he has given you eternal life, and you will never perish.
The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
John 10:11
