JESUS THE GOOD SHEPHERD
11I am the good
shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
12He who is a hired
hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and
leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.
13He flees because he
is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.
14I am the good
shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15just as the Father knows me and I
know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.
16And I have other
sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen
to my voice. So, there will be one flock, one shepherd.
17For this reason the
Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. 18No
one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.
I have authority to
lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have
received from my Father.”
JOHN 10:11-18
COMMENTARY
This speech was
motivated for the discussion between Jews, of under whose authority did our
Lord Jesus healed the man born blind in John 9. Some of the Pharisees attributed
the healing power of Jesus to demons, while others saw that demons cannot do
good to any one, so supported the divine origin of this miracle, and therefore,
of the ministry of Jesus (John 9:31-34; 10:19-21).
To this dispute,
Jesus lifts the veil of election and predestination.
He openly said, that
He is the Good Shepherd, and that unlike the paid, hired shepherds, referring
to the pharisees and the temple priests; He will not abandon his sheep, because
He is the owner of them, implicitly, revealing his divinity, since only God is
the owner of humans
(John 10:12-13).
Jesus presents
Himself as holding God’s concern for the salvation of humankind, and not just a
prophet or elder from God, who would be after all, a minister, an appointed man
to take care of God’s flock. Jesus set Himself as the owner of humanity, but
also his love for all of us, by giving his life in our defense.
But He also added, that
only those who are ‘his’, know his voice (John 10:3, 5) and follow Him; but not
the voice of strangers (John 10:5). This refers to the elect; those elected for
God to salvation before the creation of the world (Romans 8:29-30), and how
they ‘know his voice’ and follow Him.
How can a man know the voice of someone he has never met before? Of
course, unless this voice has been programmed in the spirit of each chosen and
at the right time, it awakes when the real Shepherd calls them out by name
(John 10:3) because they know each other. That is why, some people listen and
believe in Jesus at different times, and do not follow the calls of other
religious leaders who are not from God. Others, like the people who attributed the
Lord’s power to demons, are not of his flock, they are not of the elect, and
they never come to Christ, and their condemnation is certain.
But Jesus does not
stop there.
He also said that He
had other sheep who were not of ‘this’ fold (In Jerusalem), in reference to all
Jews who were in the diaspora, away in other nations, and non-Jews (John
11:51-52), all united into one flock, in their acceptance of Jesus as the
Messiah, Son of God, and Lord (Romans 11:25; Ephesians 2:13; 1Peter 2:25).
In the last two
verses (v.17-18), Jesus speaks that it is under the Father’s command that He is
ready to give his life as an atonement for the forgiveness of sins of all those
who claim forgiveness, in the Holy Name of Jesus, to God the Father (Romans
5:8; Colossians 2:14; 1Peter 2:24). But
He also tells us that nobody takes away his life, but it is Him who gives it
away (John 10: 18); meaning not only that He does not deserve to die on the
Cross, or that God allowed Him to be captured; but that nobody could kill Him.
Being Jesus the New
Adam, He was conceived sinless, and in an Edenic state, unable to get old, or
sick, or die.
Jesus was immortal,
meaning, like Adam before the fall, under normal circumstances, his body will
not decay or stop existing.
When Jesus was nailed
to the Cross, He resisted torture and mistreatment that could have caused as
heart failure to anyone, and the sweating of blood in Gethsemane testifies of
it. However, neither the wounds, or the blood loss, or the stress caused Him to
die.
God could not let the
salvation of humanity, his own purpose and decision, be submitted to human physical
failure. What could have happened is Jesus died before He was nailed to the
Cross?
Jesus did not die a
casual death.
Jesus died to pay for
ALL the sins of humanity. There was obviously a length and a process to be
fulfilled before that was all completed. That is why once He had paid for all
sins, in intensity of suffering as well as length of agony, He yelled: “IT IS
FINISHED” (John 19:30), and willingly, He decided how and when, to exhale, and
only then, He decided to die, and so, He did.
Because that was the
command of Lord YHWH.
Omar Flores.
Comments
Post a Comment