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We Follow and Rejoice Text:
John 10:1-10 The image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd has been a favorite of Christians through the ages. It has been the subject of many beautiful paintings and statues. Psalm 23, the Good Shepherd psalm, likewise is such a favorite that many if not most Christians have learned it by heart, and there are so many hymns and choral selections based on it, the danger for planners of worship is that one can hear Psalm 23 five or more times in one service on Good Shepherd Sunday.
Verily, the image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd should be a favorite and of great comfort. Amid all the comforting, cuddly and serene feelings this image invokes, however, is the depth of what Jesus is saying in the words of today's text, “he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep,” he lays down his life for the sheep and “I am the door of the sheep.” He says his sheep follow him, for they know his voice. Indeed the sheep, his Christians, are catechized and learn to know, to recognize his voice in the hopes that when other voices shriek for our attention with all manner of false or at least confused doctrine we will know enough to not follow them. We know his voice and so we follow and rejoice.
An interesting question of both Psalm 23 and of John 10 is, where is this shepherd leading his sheep?
Psalm 23 speaks of the Lord [Yahweh] as a shepherd leading his sheep, his people, out into the open green pastures, beside quiet waters on paths of righteousness. Part of the journey involves a short walk down hill through the valley of the shadow of death, but the sheep fear no evil because the shepherd is there, his rod shooing away threatening wolves and his staff there to drag us back from the precipice of any danger. Then there is the strange yet beautiful image of the Lord himself preparing a feast out there in the wilderness. After all of this, however, the destination of the flock is found when the shepherd leads them back to the temple; “and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” Psalm 23 is about God's care and protection and provision for his people, and how their true home is where He is and promises to be, namely, in the Jerusalem temple.
How different, now, when the True and Good Shepherd, the True King, the Messiah comes along. Oh, the comforting promises of his care, protection and provision are still there. But notice where the Good Shepherd leads us!
Jesus, the Good Shepherd, “enters the sheepfold by the door,” the door of the Word of God, that is, all the Messianic promises of Moses, the prophets and the psalms. He and he alone is the one promised of old. He warns against other false prophets or christs who “climb in by another way,” as if there were another way. He calls such a one a thief and a robber. Who is noted in John's Gospel as a thief or a robber? John singles out, more than the other Gospels, the person of Judas as “a thief, and having charge of the moneybag he used to help himself to what was put into it” [John 12:6 (ESV)]. At his trial before Pilate, when the Governor thought his troubles would be solved in that the crowds would certainly prefer to have Jesus released over against Barabbas, nevertheless, surprisingly the crowd demanded Barabbas! Then John writes, “Now Barabbas was a robber” [John 18:40 (ESV)] as if to intensify the irony.
So now the True shepherd who enters by the door calls his sheep, they hear is voice and he leads them out. This shepherd doesn't just whistle or crack his whip. “He calls his own sheep by name.” Jesus did not and does not initially come to a person in judgment, “I did not come to judge the world but to save the world” [John 12:47 (ESV)]. The judgment results from a person's response to Jesus—whether he or she receives him, that is, bows in repentance and hopes in faith, or their rejection of neglect him.
The Good Shepherd came—and comes—to lead his sheep out. His calling them by name is significant. To those who reject him he will say on the last day, “I never knew you.” Mary Magdalene didn't know who she was talking to in the garden on that first Easter morning—thinking it was a mere employee of the cemetery—until Jesus said her name. “Mary!” He knew her name! And she knew his voice! The same promise is to you and to all who come near, the promise through the prophet Isaiah: "Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.” [Isaiah 43:1 (ESV)].
When John writes that the Good Shepherd brings out all his own and he goes before them, the word translated “brings out” implies that he “drives them out.” Here is the significant difference from Psalm 23. Whereas in the Old Covenant God the Lord separates his people from the Gentiles and leads them through the wilderness to his promised place of blessing, the temple, the Messiah now separates his people from the world—that is, Satan, sin and death—and leads them out, but no longer to return to the old Temple which will be destroyed forever in 70 a.d.
Jesus actually changes images here, changes the subject. He who said he entered by the door of the Word of God, says He IS the door—“I am the door of the sheep”—which is nothing other than to say, “I am the Word of God.” Remember how John began his Gospel: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…. He was in the world…yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become the children of God” [John 1:1, 10-12 (ESV)]. Jesus enters by the door that he might become the Door. Jesus walks in the way that he might become the Way. Jesus becomes the Good Shepherd that he might become the one, perfect sacrificial Lamb of God. And now he calls his sheep, his followers, to enter through this Door, to walk in this Way, and to rely on and become participants in his sacrifice.
His sacrifice! His sacrifice is no ordinary sacrifice. It is the total and supreme sacrifice “for the sin of the world.” “The Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” You and I would never, ever consider doing that for the sake of mere sheep. But, you see, this is a larger issue, far more important than the uncomfortable deadline in the United States of April 15 when you must either submit you tax return or ask for an extension. The issue is life and death, your life now and your eternal destiny after death. And it is because of the reality of each and every person's eternal destiny that Christ was sent, came and did what he did for the life of the world.
Where is this Shepherd leading us? The Old Testament Shepherd-Kings led God's people into sustenance and deliverance always back to where God promised to be, in his Temple. But now this Shepherd, the Messiah, The Shepherd, leads his people out of the Old Covenant, the Temple being abolished and fulfilled. He destroys the temple and raises it in three days—meaning that the old, Jerusalem temple foreshadowed and pointed to the Messiah-in-the-flesh, and in his flesh he would die and rise again on the third day. The Good Shepherd leads his people out of the old Temple, never to return!
In saying he, now, is the door of the sheep, he means that his sheep, now, will also enter by Him and, likewise, will be the dying and rising ones. The “green pasture,” the “quiet waters,” the “table set before me” is now that of the paradise of heaven for which we hope. Until then the baptized daily die and rise again and follow by faith.
When you see that the destiny of the Christian is of ultimate importance, you will hear your Shepherd's voice and follow him, even knowing that the Way in which he leads involves the cross of suffering, rejection and seeming defeat. Humble reception of the Way the Truth and the Life of the Good Shepherd results in confidence, faith, love and eternal blessing. Rejection of this Way, this Truth, this Life results in judgment. Hear his voice. Learn to know his voice. Trust his voice.
As when a shepherd calls his sheep, They know and heed his voice; So when You call Your fam'ly, Lord, We follow and rejoice. [HS98 855:1]
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