11 "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. 13 The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.
14 "I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. 17 The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father."
19 The Jews who heard these words were again divided. 20 Many of them said, "He is demon-possessed and raving mad. Why listen to him?"
21 But others said, "These are not the sayings of someone possessed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?"
Dig Deeper
Quite a few years ago, my wife and I decided to take our two sons to a corn maze during the month of October. For those not familiar, a corn maze is a place where a farmer who owns a huge field will carve out rather complex and intricate mazes in their corn field and then charge admission for people to walk through and try to find their way out to the exit. I’m not quite sure why Americans find this enjoyable, nor why we paid money to get lost in someone’s field, but pay we did and lost we got, nonetheless. After about an hour we were getting rather frustrated because we just could not find our way out. This was after all, just supposed to be a quick scouting mission as we checked the maze out to see if it would be good to hold a pre-teen event there. We certainly weren’t supposed to get lost but we undeniably were, as were many other people in the maze that we passed from time to time. At one point we looked down a path that curved out of sight about seventy feet down from where we were. I told my then eight year-old son to stay with his mom and six-month old brother, who was in the stroller, while I looked to see if this path went anywhere or was a dead-end. I charged him with taking care of his mom and little brother and being their protector. As I disappeared from sight, I waited a few seconds and then came tearing back around the bend with a look of frightened horror on my face. That was more than enough for my little warrior. He took one look at me running in what he thought was panic and fear and quickly abandoned his post of protection. He took off running like a scared rabbit and left his mom and little brother to fend for themselves.
Granted, he was only eight at the time and any eight year-old who thinks that their father is scared of something is sure to become overcome with fear themselves, but the fact remains, he was willing to watch over them while things were good. As soon as things became seemingly dangerous, however, he was out of there without a second thought. There was no time to think about protecting others when he thought his own life might be in danger. He had the mentality that Jesus refers to here as a hired hand rather than that of a good shepherd.
It’s important to note that although Jesus is using familiar imagery, he is also distinguishing himself from even good shepherds of his day. For this reason, he specifically notes that he is the good shepherd not merely a good shepherd. He is in a category by himself. If a Jewish shepherd were to die in protecting his sheep, it would most likely have been accidental, certainly not an intentional act. A shepherd dying would have been a disastrous situation for the herd of sheep who would subsequently be without defense. Even a good shepherd would not intentionally go to his death in defense of the sheep, although he would defend them vigorously. Jesus is the good shepherd, though. The word used here isn’t quite captured with the word "good". The word "kalos" means beautiful, eminent, surpassing, or admirable. Jesus isn’t just a pretty good shepherd, he is the one of the most excellent quality imaginable.
The Old Testament was full of enigmatic prophecies which spoke of both God and His Messiah coming to shepherd God’s people. There were also many passages that spoke of the Messiah in kingly terms, but also spoke of a suffering servant (Isa. 40-55). The idea of the suffering servant who would die for others was so counter to the Jewish concept of Messiah that most Jews did not associate this figure with the Messiah at all. So this is how it would all come together. The good shepherd will lay down his life but this would not be a tragic and quite potentially fatal accident for the flock. Rather, this is how the flock will be taken care of. This is how they will find life.
In Jesus’ day, the hired hand was required to fight off one wolf, but had no such expectation if two or more wolves attacked the flock. In that case he was free and clear. The vocation of the good shepherd, though, is quite different. The way that he will protect his flock is by laying down his life. He will not fight or run. As Jesus declares that is he is the good shepherd, this is the fourth of John’s "I am" sayings in his Gospel.
As we have seen, it was quite common to talk of God and His Messiah coming to shepherd the sheep of Israel. It was also well known that the promises from God to make Abraham a great nation would be for the purpose of blessing all nations. Yet, the function of the Old Testament law kept, and always would keep the Jews separate from all other people around them. Paul, in Galatians 3, described this exact paradox. He says that the promises made to Abraham were made to his seed, a singular function that referred to Christ alone (Gal. 3:16). The law was given as a temporary measure to quarantine Israel until the Messiah had come (Gal. 3:19). Now that the Messiah had come, observing the law was not necessary because that would always encourage a situation of separate sheep pens that consisted of Jewish Christians, Gentile Christians, etc. Through faith in Christ and by being baptized into his life, all people can come together as one people, as "Abraham’s seed" (fulfilling the promise that the seed would be singular because we are all in the life of Christ) and are "heir’s according to the promise."
This is precisely Jesus’ point. He will lay down his life for the sheep, but his sheep are not just confined to the sheep pen of Israel. He has been sent for the benefit of the whole world (cf. 3:16). Jesus looks forward to the time when his death will be proclaimed to all people of the world and they will be brought together with Jewish believers into one pen and be one people. There will be one flock and one shepherd.
The only way to accomplish all of this, though, was the act of laying down his life. This was not something to be avoided, it was his very purpose. This is what Jesus means in verse 17. He isn’t saying that he will lay down his life and then the Father will love him because of that act. His point is that the father loves Him and directs His life through His will according to that love. God’s will and His love are leading Christ to lay down his life because it is the best possible path and outcome. When he does so, it won’t be an accident or evidence of evil run amuck. It will be the moment when Christ is fulfilling the whole of God’s will in his life. This is no doubt instructive for those of us who would like to think that God’s will only leads us to good and pleasant things in our lives. It is also encouraging for those who struggle with thinking that God only loves us when we do things that earn that love. God loves us and because of that love He calls for us to lay down our lives, the best possible thing for us to do. He doesn’t love us because we lay down our lives, He calls us to lay down our lives because He loves us.
His death will result in what God had promised all along, one flock and one shepherd. His death won’t be the end of the story, though. He will lay down his life but the next part of the plan is that he will take it up again. Despite Pilate’s claims to have the power of life and death (19:10), Jesus had the power to fulfill God’s will. It was God’s will that he would die, but it was just as much God’s will that he would be resurrected. You simply can’t separate the two.
As John has pointed out time and again, Jesus’ words, his logos, divided those listening. Some believed him to be demon-possessed and raving mad, while others pointed out that these were not the sorts of things that a demon possessed mad man would say or do. And even if they wanted to, could a demon open the eyes of the blind? A good friend recently asked me how we could know the difference between Jesus’ claims to be the Messiah and some crazy individual who might say the same thing. If we look carefully at Jesus’ life, we see at least four good answers to that question. First, no crazy person can point to over three-hundred separate and very ancient prophecies about their coming that were specifically fulfilled in their life the way that we can with Jesus. Second, is the fact of the signs and wonders that Jesus performed. This is the point of those who believed in him here. Even Jesus’ critics couldn’t deny his miracles, they simply sought to assign the power behind them to something other than God. Third was the incredible teachings of Jesus, which was also cited by his supporters here. Madmen don’t generally offer up some of the most beautiful and incredible teaching that the world has ever known. The final piece of evidence is what Jesus hinted at here in verses 17 and 18. He would lay down his life when he was ready; no one had the power to take it before his time. But he would also rise from the dead. No one else in history could or has even tried to make that claim.
Devotional Thought
Jesus didn’t just prophesy that he would lay down his own life, he called his disciples to lay down theirs as well. There is nothing more challenging in Jesus’ teachings than his comprehensive call for his followers to die to themselves and enter in to his life. When you look at particularly challenging passages like Matthew 6 or John 6 in which Jesus described aspects of that life, what is your response? Do you act more like he is the good shepherd leading you through that valley for your own benefit or do you act more like those teachings come from the mouth of a madman? You might not ever say something like that, but when we read Jesus’ words and don’t obey them, aren’t we acting like he is a madman rather than the good shepherd?
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