Throughout chapter 10, John’s gospel uses shepherding imagery to describe Jesus’ relationship with those who believe in him. It’s an intimate, divisive, elaborate metaphor. Intimacy grows out of shepherds and sheep sharing life together.
In the first ten verses Jesus explains he is the gate of the sheepfold, literally its door. Shepherds sleep in the doorway of the sheepfold and literally become its gate. Sheep recognize the voice of their shepherd and survive by following where the shepherd leads — to fresh pasture, to water, into a pen for the night. The sheep have faith in the shepherd who comes to give them abundant life.
In the next eight verses (11-18), Jesus identifies himself as the good shepherd who lays down his life for this sheep. He contrasts himself with hired hands who run when wolves threaten the flock. Jesus’ relationship with believers is intimate. “I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father” (14-15). Belonging of this kind happens in families.
Jesus is talking in this chapter to the same group of Pharisees who in chapter 9 interrogate the man born blind and put him out of the synagogue for believing in Jesus. Jesus’ claim that believers share the same intimate belonging he shares with his Father divides this community. Some think he is possessed; others that he is out of his mind (10.19-21)
Sunday’s short gospel passage comes next. Set apart from the fuller context of the chapter, these words speak promise and comfort. Jesus know us, his followers; we know him. We believers will never perish. No one can snatch us from Jesus’ hand or his Father’s hand. These consoling promises make a comforting funeral gospel; our relationship with Jesus and his father is intimate and eternal.
- What divides people today in our churches?
- Where do you experience belonging?
- What relationships do you celebrate on Mother’s Day?
In verse 22, the scene shifts to Solomon’s Portico at the temple. There “Jews” (this term in John means those who follow Moses) ask Jesus to stop keeping them in suspense and answer plainly if he is the messiah. This is the point at which Sunday’s gospel begins. Jesus’ words are plain but theologically loaded.
“My sheep hear my voice,” Jesus says. Hearing is believing. Those who believe recognize that Jesus reveals God. They accept his teaching. “I know them, and they follow me,” Jesus adds. To know refers to deeply personal belonging. To follow expresses wholehearted allegiance.
Then Jesus makes two parallel promises. First he promises believers eternal life. No one will snatch them from his hand. Then he underscores his promise with the Father’s guarantee. No one will snatch believers from the Father’s hand either. These promises lead to the chapter climax in which Jesus speaks in simple words the inflammatory claim: The Father and I are one.
Jesus’ hearers reach for rocks to stone him for blasphemy, for making himself one with and equal to God. Jesus asks them to consider his works. “If I do the works of God, put faith in them” (10.38). They try to arrest him but he escapes.
- What does Jesus’ claim that “the Father and I are one” mean to you?
- What insights into our relationship with God do you find in the imagery of the good shepherd?
In the daily work of a shepherd John’s gospel sees the redeeming work of the preexistent Word, who became flesh to dwell among us. In John’s gospel the opening verses proclaim Jesus is the pre-existent Word from above. “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God” (1.1). John identifies Jesus with the Word who was with God from the beginning and became flesh to dwell among us and reveal God. He is God.
Theologians use the term Christology to name reflection about who Jesus is. Theologian Karl Rahner identifies two main kinds of Christology — high and low. A low Christology starts from below, from the events of Jesus’ life that unfold and reveal who he is. Jesus is from Nazareth, teaches and heals in Galilee, confronts religious officials in Jerusalem who find him guilty of blasphemy. He is put to death and rises on the third day. His resurrection reveals he is messiah and God. This is Jesus’ story as the three synoptic gospels tell it — a low Christology.
The community out of which John’s gospel emerges has a high Christology; Jesus is from above. He preexists with the Father. All things come into being through him (John 1.3). No one has seen God but the only Son reveals God (John 1.18). Faith in Jesus and his works is faith in God.
The high Christology of John’s community creates hostility with other Jews. In fact, Jesus’ claims in Sunday’s gospel are fighting words to many listeners — blasphemous, stoning words.
- Who is Jesus to you? Does his identity flow more from his life and ministry or more from being the Word who was with God from the beginning?
The Acts of the Apostles and Luke’s gospel form a closely parallel, two-volume work. Luke sees the activity of the Spirit evident in Jesus’ life and mission continuing in the life and mission of the Church.
The gospel begins with Jesus receiving the Spirit at his baptism. Filled with the Spirit, Jesus goes to his hometown synagogue, reads from the scroll of Isaiah, and announces that he fulfills this prophecy. He has come, as the scriptures say, to bring good news to the poor, sight to the blind, liberty to captives (4.18-19). The hometown folks reject him and seek to stone him.
In Acts, Luke constructs the same order. The Spirit comes upon Jesus’ disciples on Pentecost; Peter and the others begin preaching how Jesus’ resurrection from the dead fulfills prophecy. Some believe and are baptized; others reject the message. Jesus’ disciples work miracles. Officials arrest them. Opponents stone the deacon Stephen to death in Acts 7.