John 10:1–21

10:1–10 Jesus Is the Shepherd and the Door. There is no indication at the end of chapter 9 or the beginning of chapter 10 that there has been a change of time, setting, or people involved. John seems to present what Jesus says in chapter 10 as following directly from what happened in chapter 9, in which Jesus gave sight to the man born blind. That miracle was an incomparable display of power and goodness that could never be reciprocated, repaid, or replicated by anyone else. Jesus gave sight to a man who had never seen, a superlative gift to one bereft of hope. In response, the Pharisees are angry that Jesus has created seeing eyes for this man on the Sabbath.

At the end of chapter 9, Jesus sees the Pharisees in their blindness. In chapter 10 he sees through their outward show of concern for the law to the heart of their concern to benefit themselves at the expense of others. What Jesus says in verse 1 creates a mental picture of a sheepfold. The flock has been brought into an enclosed space, surrounded by a fence or rock wall. Then an intruder breaches the idyllic scene of safety, climbing in rather than coming through the gate. That person is up to no good. He is a thief and robber, not a shepherd, who can move openly, freely, entering by the door.

Jesus is responding to the Pharisees. By refusing to acknowledge the power and glory of what Jesus did by giving the blind man sight, they show their purblind spiritual deformity. Worse, they show that they are not shepherds but thieves and robbers. They care not for the Lord’s flock, the sheep of his pasture. They care only to indulge their own selfish rapacity, even if it means stealing and killing sheep.

Jesus explains in verse 2 that the shepherd does not need to climb over walls and sneak around using intimidation and attempting to convince others that good things, such as giving sight to a blind man, are actually sinful acts. The shepherd can walk right through the gate. The difference between Jesus and his opponents is well stated by Proverbs 28:1: “The wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are bold as a lion.”

Jesus goes on in John 10:3 to describe how both sheep and gatekeeper accept the shepherd. The gatekeeper opens to him, and the sheep recognize his voice. The shepherd has specific knowledge of which sheep belong to him. He has named them. He calls them by name. They willingly follow him. Imagine several flocks of sheep in a pen, each belonging to different shepherds. When one of the shepherds arrives and summons his flock, calling them by name, all the sheep will hear the voice of the shepherd. Only those who belong to that shepherd, the ones whose names he calls, respond to him. The metaphor continues in verse 4, as Jesus depicts the shepherd bringing out all of his own, going before them, and the sheep following him because they know his voice. The alternative is articulated in verse 5, where Jesus asserts that the sheep will not follow the stranger because “they do not know the voice of strangers.”

Jesus is the Shepherd. The Pharisees and those opposed to Jesus are thieves and robbers. The sheep who hear the voice of Jesus, the ones he calls by name and leads out, are the sheep of his flock. The sheep who do not know his voice do not belong to him. Jesus is explaining why some in the crowd see him heal the blind man and believe that he is the Messiah and say so, even if it gets them tossed out of the synagogue (9:22), while others see him do the same thing and think he is not from God because he does not keep the Sabbath (9:16). The sheep who belong to Jesus know the voice of Jesus, and they will not be misled by the voice of the Pharisees. All of this imagery, moreover, indicates that Jesus is the one who brings to pass the new exodus and return from exile. He will shepherd his flock all the way to the green pasture by still water in the Land of Promise.

When Jesus takes another run at explaining this in 10:7–10, he alters his own position in the metaphor to make himself even more significant than the shepherd. In verses 1–6, Jesus was clearly the shepherd, but in verses 7–10 Jesus names himself as the door, indicating that any true shepherd of God’s people will enter by him.

When Jesus says that all who came before him were thieves and robbers (v. 8), he refers to the abusive leaders of the people in his own day and throughout Israel’s history. Jeremiah castigated false prophets (Jer. 23:9–40), as Ezekiel did wicked shepherds (Ezek. 34:1–24). Obviously, the leaders of God’s people who honored and feared the Lord, men like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and other faithful men in Israel’s history, are not included when Jesus condemns “all who came before me” as “thieves and robbers” (John 10:8).

The sheep, Jesus goes on to assert in verse 8, did not listen to the thieves and robbers. The true people of God will not be misled by charlatans.

The picture in verse 9 communicates the safety of the sheepfold. In order to be protected from wolves and thieves for a night of rest in the sheepfold, the sheep must enter through the door, Jesus. The sheep in the fold will be saved from danger. Similarly, to leave the fold and find pasture, nourishment, water, and exercise, the sheep must exit through the door, Jesus. In verse 10 Jesus again contrasts himself with the thieves, who only steal, kill, and ruin, while Jesus came to give life.

10:11–18 Jesus Lays Down His Life for the Sheep. In verse 11 Jesus states both that he is the “good shepherd” and what the good shepherd does: he gives his life for the sheep. The good shepherd does not steal, slaughter, or ruin the sheep for his own ends. Instead, the good shepherd sacrifices himself to protect and provide for the sheep. Jesus helps us understand the shepherd’s risk and resolve by showing how the hired hand flees danger (v. 12), leaving the sheep for the wolf to ravage. The hired hand cares for himself more than for the sheep (v. 13), unlike the good shepherd, who cares for the sheep more than for himself.

Having spoken of how the good shepherd sacrifices himself for the sheep, Jesus speaks of the bond between the sheep and the shepherd in verses 14–16. Jesus characterizes the relationship between himself and his sheep in the most intimate and fulsome way possible, comparing it to a relationship closer even than that between man and wife. He had spoken of the sheep’s knowing the shepherd’s voice in verse 4, and now in verse 14 he asserts that as the good shepherd, he knows his own and they know him. The comparison Jesus uses in verse 15 beggars description and outstrips the possible: Jesus asserts that he knows his own and his own know him “just as the Father knows me and I know the Father.”

The relationship between the omniscient Father and the omniscient Son is the ultimate example of shared personal knowledge between two parties. No shared history goes further back or contains more shared joy and grief than that between the eternal Son and his eternal Father. No emotions could be more sincerely felt or expressed than what the Almighty Father and Son feel for each other and communicate to each other. This is a relationship whose depths are unsearched by the most sublime expressions of art, music, or poetry. And this same depth of intimacy, Jesus declares, may be found in the relationship Jesus shares with his sheep, his people.

Jesus asserts in verse 16 that he has other sheep that are not of this fold, likely a reference to the Gentiles he will call to himself in addition to the Jews he drew to himself during his earthly ministry. There will be one flock under him, and one shepherd, sharing a unity that goes beyond racial distinction, cultural background, or societal preference.

In verse 17, Jesus explains why the Father loves him: because he dies on behalf of the sheep and will rise from the dead. When we see someone make sacrifices for another, our respect and appreciation and esteem grows for the one making the sacrifices. Jesus seems to be saying that the Father loves him because of the self-giving love Jesus will demonstrate for the sheep on the cross. When Jesus says that he lays down his life “that [he] may take it up again,” he speaks of his death and resurrection. Jesus will die, giving everything he has to give in his earthly life so that he can rise from the dead to a glorified and indestructible life. The Father’s love for Jesus multiplies from the Son’s delight in and agreement with this plan of salvation that he is willing to give everything to accomplish.

In verse 18 Jesus makes it clear that this is not a mop-up job. That is, this explanation of his death and resurrection is not damage control. It is not that something has gone wrong and Jesus is attempting to make defeat look like victory. No, Jesus willingly gives his life. No one is taking from him something he is attempting to keep. The statement at the end of verse 18, “This charge I have received from my Father,” applies to the two things Jesus says he has authority to do: lay down his life and take it up again.

The Father authorized the Son to go and die for the sheep. The Father authorized the Son to rise from the dead. The Father loves and admires the self-giving love of the Son.

10:19–21 The Sheep Know His Voice. John depicts another division among the Jews in these verses (cf. 7:43; 9:16). This division is caused by the reaction in 10:20 of those sheep who do not belong to the Good Shepherd, who have not recognized his voice, who have not heard him call them by name, lead them out, or give his life for them. Those who do not belong to Jesus not only do not recognize him; they even think he is evil, attributing his power to demonic influence (v. 20; cf. 7:20; 8:48, 52).

Meanwhile, in 10:21 we see the reaction of those the Shepherd calls to himself. They recognize that no demon would seek the good of a blind man (cf. 9:16). Demons want to steal, kill, and destroy, not give sight. Jesus does not speak like one under demonic influence, and his actions do not match what a demon would have him do. People who understand this are experiencing Jesus’ calling them to himself.