The Good Shepherd
1 “Very truly I tell you, that anyone who does not come into the sheep pen through the gate but by some other means is a thief and a robber. 2 But the one entering through the gate is the shepherd. 3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for this one and the sheep listen to the shepherd’s voice. 4 Whenever the shepherd leads them out, the sheep follow because they know their own shepherd’s voice. 5 An outsider, on the other hand, they would not follow under any circumstances; they will run away from anyone whose voice they don’t recognize.”
6 Jesus gave them this illustration, yet they didn’t know what he was talking about. 7 So he told them again, “I tell you very truly that I am the gateway for the sheep. 8 All who came before me were thieves and robbers but the sheep did not listen to them. 9 I am the gateway; if anyone enters through me they will be saved, and will come and go freely and find pasture. 10 The thief only comes to steal and execute and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it to the extreme!
11 “I am the good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep. 12 But the hired hand, who isn’t the shepherd and doesn’t own the sheep, abandons them and runs away, leaving the wolf to snatch them up and scatter them. 13 The hired hand runs away because, since it’s only a job, there is no concern for the sheep. 14 But I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and they know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know him. So I lay down my life for the sheep.
16 “Also, I have other sheep that are not of this pen. I must lead them as well, and they will recognize my voice. Then there will be one flock, one shepherd. 17 Therefore the Father loves me because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me; I lay it down of my own accord. I have the right to lay it down and the right to take it back. This is the ruling I got from my Father.”
19 Once again a rift developed among the Judeans because of these sayings. 20 Now many of them said, “He’s possessed and out of his mind! Why do you listen to him?” 21 But others said, “These pronouncements are not what we’d expect from the demon-possessed. No demon can open up the eyes of the blind.”
Jesus is accused of blasphemy
22 Now it was time for the Feast of Dedication in Jerusalem. It was winter, 23 and Jesus walked in Solomon’s Portico inside the temple compound. 24 Then the Judeans surrounded him and said, “How long will you keep us guessing? If you are Christ, say so boldly and publicly!”
25 “I told you but you don’t believe me,” Jesus replied. “The things I do on behalf of my Father serve as my witnesses. 26 But you don’t believe me because you’re not my sheep— just as I told you. 27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them and they follow me. 28 And I give them eternal life, so that in no way will they ever die; no one will be able to snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father who has given them to me is the greatest of all, and no one can snatch them out of his hand. 30 I and the Father are one!”
31 Once again the Judeans picked up stones in order to stone him, 32 but Jesus asked them, “I have shown you many good deeds from my Father. For which one are you stoning me?”
33 “We’re not stoning you for any good deed,” they answered, “but for maligning the name of God, because you, a mere human, equate yourself with God!”
34 Jesus responded, “Isn’t it written in your law, ‘I said you are gods’? 34 35 If he told those to whom the word of God came that they are gods— and the scripture cannot be undone— 36 then how can you say to the one the Father set apart and commissioned, ‘You are maligning the name of God’, just because I said ‘I am the God-Man’? 37 If I am not doing my Father’s actions then don’t believe me. 38 Yet if I am doing them and you still don’t believe me, then at least believe what I do, so that you will know and believe that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.”
39 So again they tried to arrest him but he escaped. 40 Then he went back to the other side of the Jordan, to the place where John had been immersing, and stayed there. 41 Many came to him and said, “John did no miracles, but everything he said about this one has come true.” 42 And many put their trust in him there.
- 34 Jesus cites Ps. 82:6, whose context indicates that “gods” refers to rulers who stand in the place of God over the people. That they are not literal gods is confirmed by the fact that they will die like the mere mortals they are. Jesus’ purpose is to use the legalists’ own tactic against them by taking advantage of a legal loophole to escape their charge.